Well, no matter on what the final version of the bill goes to President Bush now or President-Elect Obama in the future to sign, there will be some changes for NASCAR to deal with in 2010 or maybe sooner. Current thoughts by economists and politicians are that $34 billion in American taxpayer support won't be enough to help the situation without significant cuts by Ford, GM and Chrysler in both personnel and other expenses. It also calls for the research and development portions of the companies to focus on more efficient products. Even with those cuts and refocusing or more direct focusing on more efficient vehicles will most likely cut support dollars for NASCAR related development.

Have any of the three manufacturers said they are leaving NASCAR yet, well, no. But Chapter 11 restructuring, which seems to be what most think will soon be their next step in streamlining their businesses, will require DIP (debtor in possession) financing and that won't include NASCAR support.

Currently, as Chip Ganassi and Dale Earnhardt Inc. are merging and going to be using Chevrolets in 2009, and Petty Holdings is in talks to merge the famous 43 with Gillett Evernham Motorsports it leaves just GEM/Petty and Penske Racing using Dodges in 2009. I expect that will change soon with Penske making the first move from Dodge and GEM/Petty following.

However, GM is allegedly in worse financial shape than Chrysler and so what happens to all the Chevrolet teams? Ford is allegedly in the best shape of the three manufacturers.

Depending on what the Big Three have to sign over to get the bailout money, Ford, Chevy and Dodge might be out of NASCAR by 2010. No government owned company will be allowed to pollute the way NASCAR does under liberal leadership. There's no way that President Obama will take on the responsibility of explaining a carbon footprint that is so large that they'll have to change the name to "carbon tire track."

Actually, all joking aside, none of the Big Three actually own a part of NASCAR or the NASCAR teams and so changes yes, but the end no. Perhaps Honda will step up with a carburetor engine to comply with NASCAR rules or NASCAR will have to up date their technology to allow other manufacturers to be able to easily step into the sport.

When you think about the COT, designed by NASCAR and used by all the Sprint Cup teams, they don't drive Fords, Chevrolets and Dodges anymore so all you are looking at is the engines supplied by the manufacturers. Otherwise, the teams could use suspension parts made by any manufacturer.

Until we hear of the fate of each of the Big Three, it is hard to say when or what will happen with NASCAR, but as I've shown here, NASCAR has other options if or when the time comes.