The Race Team Alliance doubled its membership Wednesday to 18 full-time Sprint Cup teams, completing its primary objective of becoming almost fully inclusive.
The RTA, whose formation was announced July 7, represents 37 full-time entries in NASCAR’s premier series. The nine original members — Hendrick Motorsports, Roush Fenway Racing, Joe Gibbs Racing, Richard Childress Racing, Richard Petty Motorsports, Michael Waltrip Racing, Team Penske, Stewart-Haas Racing and Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates – were joined by BK Racing, Circle Sport, Front Row Motorsports, Germain Racing, Go Green/FAS Lane, HScott Motorsports, JTG Daugherty Racing, Phil Parsons Racing and Tommy Baldwin Racing.
“It’s good for our one-month birthday,” RTA chairman Rob Kauffman told USA TODAY Sports. “People asked about our early goals, and this was one of them. This should allay the concerns that it’s only the big teams. This is virtually all the full-time teams.”
Furniture Row Racing, which fields the No. 78 of Martin Truex Jr., is the only notable full-time Sprint Cup team that hasn’t joined the RTA, which is comprised of teams from North and South Carolina. FRR is based in Denver and also is unique in being sponsored by its owner, Furniture Row founder Barney Visser.
“We spoke to Barney, and he had the information,” Kauffman said. “He thought it didn’t make sense at this time. It’s a free world, and I respect that. I think that’s his prerogative, so it’s completely fine.”
Kauffman said the RTA was looking at associate memberships for part-time teams that have expressed interest, such as Wood Brothers Racing. The venerable team, which is slated to announce its 2015 plans Thursday, runs a limited schedule while hunting for sponsorship.
The RTA membership is open to teams that have attempted to qualify for at least 95% of Cup races for the past two seasons. Kauffman said he was pleased by how smoothly it went in adding the nine new members, which generally aren’t as well funded and successful as the original nine teams.
“There’s some give and take and working out how things would work mechanically,” he said. “The one thing that I thought was very encouraging and positive was a unanimity among everyone. The common thread was everyone wanted the maximum number of teams involved and wanted to get this done. Now everyone is looking forward to the work to do.”
The RTA is a nonprofit league formed “to explore areas of common interest and to work collaboratively on initiatives to help preserve, promote, and grow the sport of stock car racing,” according to its release.
In addition to adding a few full-time staff members, Kauffman said the next plan of attack is to form task forces to analyze the teams’ budgets and costs. By pooling resources, the RTA wants to save money via economy of scale-type efficiencies relatable to travel and insurance costs. Kauffman has estimated that Cup teams’ combined annual travel costs are at least $50 million and possibly as much as $100 million.
Kauffman said if the RTA were to come up with a solution to save money on fueling the haulers that crisscross the country for races, he believes it also might make sense for NASCAR (which has its own fleet of 18-wheelers) to get involved.
Though NASCAR chairman Brian France told Sirius XM’s NASCAR channel last month that dealing with the RTA as a single entity “would probably be the worst thing that we could ever do is to listen to one voice, even if it were a consensus voice,” Kauffman said France had called him recently and they had a good conversation.
NASCAR declined comment for this story.
NASCAR and International Speedway Corp. had said last month that its communication with the RTA would be handled through attorneys, but Kauffman painted the relationship between teams and NASCAR as “constructive and pragmatic.
“It’s been an ongoing dialogue between teams and tracks and the sanctioning body,” Kauffman said. “I think everyone is on the same page: How do we keep communication good and improve the overall situation? There is no animosity is the operative thing.
“As we start to get traction and initiative, the NASCAR folks might want to be part of it and would be welcome. I’m cautiously optimistic that things will continue to improve.”
