NASCAR has let the sport change over the decades. Not even sure if they could stop the changes but they've happened.

Back in the day, when I was a little tyke, my dad and I would go to Michigan to see the NASCAR races. At Michigan we would see drivers that never raced the regular circuit - one-off guys that could get into the race and be successful. And, it was that way all over the country - local boys from California and Phoenix, etc. could and would come in and make sure that 60 cars were trying to get into the race.

The first Brickyard 400 had 85 cars try to get into the field - only 1 car short of enough cars to have two races! It was a NASCAR record but you couldn't get 85 cars at a Cup event if you doubled the purse nowadays because NASCAR has let the costs get so prohibitive and the purses so small compared to what it actually costs that a one-off can't do it unless he's a spin-off from an existing team with a sponsor. The day when a driver can take his local short track stock car and modify it and go racing with the big boys is gone. It's been gone for a while and it took about 20 years of consolidating to get to the point where we are now but there are no extra cars and drivers out there.

1994 Brickyard 400 - 85 cars entered
2013 Brickyard 400 - 45 cars entered

When you eliminate all possibility of competition from other cars you make the existing car owners very, very important. If the "Race Team Alliance" was around in 1994 and walked out of the Brickyard 400 there would have been a lot of yelling and screaming but there would have been a race. If it happens now, well, you've got nothing. NASCAR has got a new problem on their hands even though no one is talking that way right now.

The writer on the link that compared this to F1 and IndyCar was right. Once the BIG MONEY arrived, it changed everything. It reduced competition and it gives the owners with the resources to field a car a lot more power. It also makes it very hard for new people to come in an be successful - the startup costs are too prohibitive.

My two cents.