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CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) -- Former NASCAR champion Bobby Labonte won't race this weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway, his best track, because of sponsorship issues at Yates Racing.

The team had seven races to sell this season for the No. 96 Ford, and the sponsorship it secured wanted Erik Darnell in the car. The 26-year-old will make his Sprint Cup Series debut at Atlanta, where Labonte has six career victories.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Joe Nemechek (above) is renting a race crew for his pit stops and driving a hand-me down Toyota with no corporate logo on its hood with only the No. 87 on its doors.

A year ago the 45-year-old veteran was starting on the front row of the Gatorade Duel qualifying race at Daytona International Speedway, a shoe-in for the Daytona 500.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- I went to the race track Thursday and an economic forum broke out. NASCAR Chairman Brian France addressed reporters during the annual season-opening Media Day at Daytona International Speedway and reiterated his concern that his sport be "sensitive'' to the tough economic times.

Drivers were talking about testing restrictions, marketing cutbacks, team layoffs and the future of Ford, Chevrolet, Dodge and Toyota – before getting to the usual nuts and bolts of championship favorites and drafting Daytona -- site of the Daytona 500 on Feb. 15.

Here's what everyone will be talking about as the NASCAR haulers roll into Daytona International Speedway next month for the start of one the most unpredictable seasons in recent memory.

No sport is more intrinsically affected by the economic slowdown than auto racing and, specifically, NASCAR. Corporate America is more cautious with the sponsorship money it had been throwing NASCAR's way for years and the average fan has to really consider if he and his family can afford a race weekend.

Finally, the NASCAR world is feeling a little bit of good news amidst a backdrop of nothing but bad for both the sport's and the rest of a world's business climate.

Earlier this week, Tommy Baldwin, Jr. -- the Daytona 500-winning crew chief from 2002 with Bill Davis Racing's Ward Burton -- announced he was putting plans in place to field a new race single-car race team for the 2008 season starting with next month's Daytona 500.

The team, Tommy Baldwin Racing, said in its PR that "With tough economic times upon us, the timing for starting this team is right. Our overhead is low and we have a great group of talented mechanics and specialists to choose from. We can offer sponsors the chance to get into Sprint Cup racing at a fraction of the costs [...]."

It sure seems odd that "tough economic times" and "timing [...] is right" go together, but there's a vast amount of resources available in the Sprint Cup market place in terms of mechanics and other crew members who have been laid off, in addition to teams that are probably selling off inventory to gain back some capital.

With the right amount of sponsors and a little bit of help from Toyota, this team could be an interesting low-budget venture. Jayski says the driver could be Dave Blaney from the unsponsored No. 22 BDR team.

Additionally, JR Motorsports, General Motors and Dodge all had a small bit of good news this week.

Earlier this week, we talked about the possibility of big job losses in the NASCAR industry after the season-finale weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway in November.

Sponsorship is obviously the lifeblood of the expensive sport, and without it, it's tough for teams to pay the bills. Naturally, NASCAR's most popular driver chimed in on the future of sport Friday at Texas Motor Speedway -- site of Sunday's Dickies 500.

Dale Earnhardt Jr., who will be laying off some employees from his JR Motorsports operation thanks to a lack of sponsorship for 2008, feels that shoring up the season might be the best answer, cost-wise and entertainment-wise.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. knows there's too much money to be made in Sprint Cup racing for it to happen, but he believes a shorter schedule would actually help stock car racing.

"What's happened is we have saturated the market with race after race after race," Earnhardt Jr. said. "The NFL does such a great job. ...It gives you just enough to keep you wanting more. The season ends before you want it to. You just get just enough to get excited and then it's all over and there's such a long wait. The model works."

Earnhardt Jr. said NASCAR is more like other sports with longer seasons.

"There are lulls and inactivity between the fan and the sport itself at times," he said. "There's no way to fix that. We're driven by the ability to go make another dollar and make more money, and there's no way we would ever trim it down.

I'm certainly having a tough time faulting Earnhardt Jr.'s logic in this situation.

Hidden beneath the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, and even under the Nationwide Series, sits NASCAR's third-most prestigious national racing series -- the Craftsman Truck Series.

Though next season it's currently in position to take on simply the name of "NASCAR Truck Series" as the Craftsman, the corporate sponsor sits the series began in 1995, will depart. No new sponsor has been found.

Combine that with other factors influencing NASCAR's Double-A league, and the outlook is less than rosy.

Just last Saturday in Richmond, word spread through the garage area that Dodge would be dropping its factory support money of the entire series -- though it only affects one team, Bobby Hamilton Racing. As a result, the team suspended operations of its No. 4 truck and will focus solely on the No. 18 for the rest of 2008.

Dodge's support has been dwindling in recent years, but pulling out entirely truly signifies that the manufacturer feels it can't compete and that it is simply losing money on the attempt to sell more pick-up trucks via NASCAR truck racing.

Tony Stewart will pick up the tempo and take it on home under the hood of Joe Gibbs Racing for the final time this season, as it has been reported that the he will gain his release from his long time racing team and, in all likelihood, take off on his own.

While exploring his options, Stewart was most intrigued in potential ownership opportunities and he's had an offer on the table since April to purchase the fledgling two-car team of Haas-CNC Racing. By owning his own team, Stewart believed he could ensure a spot for himself in NASCAR long after his driving days.

But he first had to gain his release, something owner Joe Gibbs and team president J.D. Gibbs had insisted they would not agree to.

When it became clear Stewart wanted out, the Gibbs' finally relented and will apparently sign off on his early departure Wednesday. The team is expected to replace the 37-year-old Stewart, one of NASCAR's most celebrated drivers, with 18-year-old phenom Joey Logano with Home Depot staying on board as the sponsor.

It's believed that the move would free up Stewart to invest in Haas-CNC. It's also believed that Ryan Newman could join Stewart on his new team, and that he would "gut" the current staffing of the company and bring in his own people.

Stewart and Gibbs Racing have been back and forth regarding contract negotiations, but apparently the outspoken driver stood firm enough to eventually gain his release. The most obvious benefit, as noted, to Stewart getting all entrepreneurial on his next go round, is that he stands to already have a large foot in the door when he decides to step away from the wheel and move into the administrative end of racing.

NASCAR fans have been prepared for this time quite well.

First, R.J. Reynolds dropped their Winston sponsorship of the NASCAR Cup Series in 2004, with Nextel -- and evantually Sprint -- moving in to take it over.

This year, the NASCAR Busch Series dropped its alcoholic moniker in favor of Nationwide Insurance for the 2008 season.

Next year, the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series will follow the same path of renaming after Craftsman announced they were departing the role after the 2008 campaign.

The move definitely comes as a shock to the racing world given Craftsman's renewed contract in 2005 guaranteed rights through 2010 for the tool company. Additionally, the NCTS was the only NASCAR division to see a general increase in television ratings from a year before.

NASCAR made quite a big deal about the AT&T sponsorship on Jeff Burton's Cup car this year -- including some federal lawsuits -- claiming that it violated terms of the sanctioning body's contact with Sprint-Nextel. With so much emphasis on that seemingly minor situation, it makes you wonder why exactly NASCAR can't have companies sticking to their own contracts.

When Winston left the Cup Series in 2003, there was still time remaining on the deal and with the Truck Series, two years are being left out of the current contract. The blatant allowance of sponsors to not follow a contract completely surely doesn't bode well for how other sponsors view contracts within the sport.

Anywho, you fill in the blank, who will make the best title sponsor of hardest-racing series in NASCAR? Craftsman will be tough to beat -- it's a tough image of the American working class with no negative influences.

I think Best Buy is about to get a lot more out of their sponsorship of NASCAR than they've been used to with the CNC Haas Racing #66 Chevy driven by Jeff Green. North America's #1 consumer electronics retailer has taken their business to Gillett Evernham Motorsports to sponsor Elliott Sadler for 15 Sprint Cup races in 2008.

Sadler is certainly considered to be one of the most likeable, personable characters on the NASCAR circuit. Now his face will be all over Best Buy promoting products he loves. Their marketing department must be in heaven. So is he:

"Best Buy is a brand I've believed in and supported for years, so to represent them is honestly a dream come true. I love all kinds of music and movies, and I've always been a 'gadget guy.' My house, car, boat and even my motor home are all tricked out with stereos, speakers, gaming systems, GPS, flat screens, DVD players, you name it. The employees at the Mooresville (N.C.) Best Buy store already know me by name, but they'll be seeing even more of me now."

I imagine Best Buy will be seeing even more brand loyalty from NASCAR fans. Especially if this video is any indication of the kind of entertaining commercials the Best Buy Sadler sponsorship has in store for us.