Tommy Joe Martins perfectly summed up life for mid-pack NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series teams right now.
“It’s almost like we’re all walking around holding a grenade with the pin already pulled. We’re just holding it as long as we can.”
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Martins co-owns Alpha Prime Racing, a multi-car Chevrolet team that has earned its place in the series. Driver Brennan Poole has put up a good number of top-fives and over 600 championship points. The team is not a backmarker. But none of that matters if NASCAR’s next big idea destroys their business model.
The idea in question is a full overhaul of the series, new SUV or crossover bodies, hybrid or electric powertrains, and a spec modular chassis. NASCAR wants to give the O’Reilly Series its own identity. Martins just wants to know how his team will pay for it.
“You’re going to spend millions of dollars on equipment, and then it might not have any value in a couple of years,” he said. “I’ve had this conversation with NASCAR. If the sales pitch is, ‘You’re going to save more money later,’ it’s like, ‘Dude, I don’t have money right now.’”
That is the core problem. Small NASCAR teams survive by running the same equipment across multiple seasons. A full platform switch wipes out everything in the shop overnight. Big teams have manufacturer money and corporate backing to absorb that hit. Alpha Prime runs on race-by-race sponsorship. They have no financial safety net.
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The O’Reilly Series also has no charter system. In Cup, a team that shuts down sells its charter for millions. In the O’Reilly Series, when a team closes, the equipment just sits there.
“What do I get for doing this? What’s the reward for Alpha Prime? Probably nothing,” Martins said. “Now you’re telling me everything I own is worthless? How’s that going to make me money?”
What’s hurtful is that Martins does not have to guess at the worst case. He already watched it play out with AM Racing, a team that made the O’Reilly Series playoffs. It’s now gone. Sigma Performance Services agreed to buy the former playoff team ahead of the 2026 season, but the deal collapsed in January. AM Racing tried to keep going independently and couldn’t. They shut down. The cars sat in the shop with nowhere to go.
“Who’s buying the equipment? That’s a team that made the playoffs. Who’s buying it? What’s the market?” Martins said. “If you’re a big team, you’re thinking, ‘We’ve already got plenty of equipment.’ If you’re a small team, you’re thinking, ‘I probably can’t afford it.’”
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Nobody wants to buy hardware that might be worthless in two years anyway. The NASCAR next-gen discussion is not just making teams nervous about the future; it is making the present unsellable, too.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. has said the same thing from a different angle. As co-owner of JR Motorsports, the most prominent team in the series, he has threatened to walk away entirely if NASCAR pushes through the change. He called it a “massive, massive mistake” that would destroy what the series has built.
Martins is not speaking in hypotheticals like Earnhardt. He is talking of the situation his own team is already in. The grenade is live. The only question is how long they can hold it.
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