Racing economics, an oxymoron if there ever was one! Back in the days of 'The King' Richard Petty always maintained that it cost two dollars for ever one dollar that he won, and that his mom 'Miss Elizabeth' (in addition to swinging a loaded pocketbook, right 'fair') could track a dollar bill all the way through an entire racing season. How did it all 'work' back then? What's more, the earning/expense ratio probably is not that good today! How in the world is it 'working' now? Or, IS it working?Dangerous tid-bit about auto racing, in addition to the wrecks and OBVIOUS stuff, is the money trail. It has NEVER added up. Astute businessemen/racers from Raymond Parks to Jack Roush, have all discovered the same thing.....it just won't add up. Don't matter what the purse is. The expenses always are bigger. So, WE'LL USE SOMEBODY ELSE's MONEY! THEN, it'll add up!............Right!The United States economy was super primed for anything and everything after World War II. The country was starved, in more ways than one, by the effects of the Great Depression of the 1930's and the WAR of the 40's. When the post-war years unfolded, it ushered in a era of properity, that had never been experienced before. Why? We, the United States, had blown up every industrialized nation on Earth! Europe and Japan were both in smoldering ruins. And, as such, the U.S. was the EXCLUSIVE supplier to the WORLD. THIS is the phenomena that has driven the great age of wealth and prosperity and pleasure and the pursuit of such follies as stock car racing. This is the age and the engine that BUILT Bill France, Sr. and NASCAR, Walt Disney, and McDonalds..........and all the rest. America was wealthy and could 'afford' LEISURE time, and trivial 'corinthian' pursuits. IT WAS NOT OUR SUPERIOR INTELLECT.Stock car racing did not HAVE to make financial sense. There was plenty of money and plenty of folks just waiting-in-line (almost) to throw it at racers. BUT that was then, and this is now. That curious economic fact that Richard Petty learned so long ago, has remained coiled, like a rattlesnake, under the table of stock car racing.........just waiting to strike. The bottle rocket that WAS the American post-war economy has finally fizzled out, and is now headed back to earth. Actually, it had fizzled BEFORE last month and Henry Paulson and Lehman Bros. and AIG, and all these names we've come to know. The Ivy-League taught MBA's and the politicians had concocted (literally) a house of cards, that kept every single indicator (pleasantly) white-hot.Of course they broke every natural ecoomic law and every common-sense law, known to man, but they kept it humming, and NASCAR was right there, riding the train too......There's an old red-neck sayin'........."the chickens have come home to roost" and it's now in effect. Lot of stuff is going to have to start making sense. Just might include racin', the party's over.