by Lee Spencer

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But the mood hardly seems festive. Everyone knows someone from one of the many teams in who has been laid off in the last week. And we're not talking about guys making seven-figure salaries who might have to cut back on their Botox injections and deep-tissue massages.

We're talking about Joe the crew guy, who was barely paying his mortgage before he joined the rest of the Joes on the unemployment line. The Joe who might have a wife who needs regular medical attention or a child who just started college.

Forgive me if I feel a little like George Bailey coming home from the Building & Loan on Christmas Eve to find his own house falling apart. Oh, it's been a wonderful life for many in NASCAR for a long, long time.

But this isn't Bedford Falls, and it's unlikely that even Clarence the angel could concoct a miracle to clean up this mess.

When the season started, NASCAR chairman Brian France promised a back-to-basics platform. Thirty-six races later, I'm still not feeling the nostalgia or seeing any results. The closest thing to back-to-basics racing was bringing in Cale Yarborough on a teleconference to compare and contrast his winning three consecutive championships in the 1970s to Jimmie Johnson's recent feat.

Other than that, did the concept of back-to-basics racing ever trickle down to racing's bread and butter — the competitors? Not until the final weekend of the year when NASCAR announced a moratorium on testing in 2009. By then, it was too late for a lot of teams.

The first stark indicator of the tough times that lay ahead for NASCAR came when the sanctioning body couldn't find a sponsor for its truck tour, which has the most competitive racing of the top three series. It wasn't until fall that a replacement was found for Craftsman tools, and the new deal came at the expense of Kevin Harvick.

Camping World agreed to sponsor the truck series, which meant ending its sponsorship of Harvick's truck and Nationwide Series operations. So a competitor who has reinvested the money he earns at the Cup level back into the sport is now forced to pound the pavement to keep his programs running. It feels a little dirty just writing about it.

Harvick isn't the only driver who has lost a sponsor to NASCAR. Let's talk about Coors, which used to sponsor the No. 40 Dodge at Chip Ganassi Racing. You remember the No. 40 car, right? It was the first full-time Cup team that was parked this year when Ganassi couldn't replace the sponsor. And Ganassi has since joined forces with Dale Earnhardt Inc. in an attempt to survive.

What happened to Coors? It now sponsors the NASCAR pole award. How does that benefit the fans? Winning a pole no longer gets you into the season-opening Bud Shootout exhibition race. Past Shootout winners won't get in, either. The field will consist of the top six teams from each manufacturer. Three-time winner Tony Stewart won't even be on the roster. What genius devised this format?

The first step NASCAR must take in turning the sport around is to put the teams' needs first. That doesn't mean putting the power in the owners' hands, which ultimately led to the demise of CART in open-wheel racing, but offering the teams more of a voice in the decision-making process.

Without sponsors, teams cannot exist. Not every sponsor that approaches the sport is a good fit for a team, but where there might be a match, NASCAR must do what it can to facilitate a fit. Different organizations have different levels of marketing skills, but NASCAR has the tools and ability to help teams promote themselves and their sponsors. The stronger the teams, the stronger the sport.

NASCAR has long suffered from NFL envy. An idea the sanctioning body should borrow from football and other team sports is franchising.

Franchising, a model popular in other North American sports, is a practice where teams would pay for the rights to own a team but are guaranteed starting positions in every race.

The venture capitalists and investors who have bought into teams of late are not here because they enjoy the barbecue. Like sponsors, they're looking for a return on their investment. A lot of owners have come and gone in the last decade — including several popular drivers such as Darrell Waltrip, Bill Elliott and Ricky Rudd — who have nothing to show for their effort. That needs to change.

The Pettys and the Wood Brothers, the only two organizations still around from the sport's earliest roots, both experienced extensive layoffs this week. Neither has full sponsorship. My idea of back-to-basics racing would involve NASCAR embracing these families the way Major League Baseball reveres the Chicago Cubs and the Boston Red Sox.

On the competition side, NASCAR took a huge step with its testing ban last week but more needs to be done to cut costs for the teams. Payroll is the greatest expense. It is unlikely we will ever see salary caps in racing but the compensation for drivers is out of control. Let's do some quick math: A team needs $20 million to compete but the driver makes $7 million plus half the purse — let's say another $3 million. If drivers raced for just the purse, can you imagine how the complexion of racing would change?

NASCAR must absorb more of the research and development costs, particularly with this new car. It was not the teams' decision to introduce this car, particularly since it made existing inventory obsolete. It also forced teams to spend tremendous amounts on engineering and travel.

Speaking of travel, shortening the schedule and devising a two-day format could trim travel budgets considerably. The LPGA announced this week it was cutting events from the 2009 schedule. The tour simply doesn't have sponsorship for all of its tournaments. Neither does NASCAR, but that's the tracks' responsibility. NASCAR thinks bigger is better, but that is not always the case. There's a lot to be said for exclusivity. Not only does the calendar need to be tightened, the races need to start at a reasonable hour and the length of each event could be trimmed as well.

While it will take more than a guardian angel to correct the current ills that are ailing NASCAR, with strong leadership, hard work and cooperation it can be a wonderful life again.