Nascar teams spent much of the past decade spending money. On more employees, on private planes, on sprawling headquarters, and on making more of their own engines and parts.

Then sponsors and car companies turned out the lights on the long-running party, leaving a nasty hangover for a sport born of moonshine runners. That hangover has left teams grappling with concerns any business owner can appreciate: reducing travel expenses, steering inventory, shedding labor, controlling benefits costs, and finding more outside vendors at lower prices.

Two years of intense consolidation among teams allowed for large-scale labor cuts. Teams have now turned their attention in recent months to (literally) nuts-and-bolts costs.

“We don’t think this is a blip on the radar,” says Marshall Carlson, general manager at Hendrick Motorsports. “This is a reset of the business. We’re preparing for much less growth in revenue in the years ahead.”

If that’s the case at Hendrick, the most successful and valuable team in Nascar, it’s the case for everyone in the sport. The reasons for the financial meltdown in stock-car racing are obvious enough: Sponsors are cutting back, auto manufacturers are reeling, and everyday fans are unable or reluctant to spend in the face of a tepid job market.

What began with mass layoffs for many teams last year has mutated to every aspect of the business.

“They’re looking at everything,” says Jason Lewis, senior audit manager at Greer & Walker, a Charlotte accounting firm with several Nascar teams on its client roster. “They’re doubling up on hotel rooms, they’re looking at building leases. The reality is setting in.”

Last September, when the financial crisis kicked into overdrive, Hendrick Motorsports launched a comprehensive cost-cutting analysis. The company already had tracking systems and streamlined budgets in place. But in the wake of the economic crisis, it moved to take a more rigorous approach.

Instead of tracking inventory only for parts used in racecars—an item that accounts for 25 percent of the spending at the 500-employee operation—Hendrick began monitoring the life cycle of parts. That, in turn, ushered in a much more accurate and precise method of knowing when to spend and when not to.

Teams across the sport are gearing up for similar breakthroughs while also taking a harder look at every budget item.

Race teams must move drivers and crew members across the country every weekend for races, shuttling back and forth on privately owned or leased planes while booking scores of hotel rooms, renting cars, and paying for meals. As recently as two or three years ago, even lower-tier teams thought nothing of sending multiple flights back and forth from Charlotte to far-flung tracks.

(Less) Frequent Fliers

Now teams are taking a more cooperative approach. At Stewart-Haas Racing, launched this year by driver Tony Stewart, the early crew leaves on Thursday for the race site, parking the team plane until Sunday. For the weekend crew that comes in on Sunday morning just before the race, Stewart-Haas often buys spots on other Nascar team planes looking to fill seats left empty by the recent consolidation of crews and teams.

Then, after the race, the Stewart-Haas plane can make the return trip at full capacity, saving the fuel costs of extra trips while avoiding low-capacity flights.

Other teams are making similar adjustments to cut travel budgets.

At Hendrick, rental cars are now filled with three or four crew members. And the team negotiates hotel room rates with much greater attention. That focus, combined with declining bookings by fans who can no longer afford to attend races, has given teams a decided advantage in such room-rate deals.

Hendrick negotiates three months in advance with hotels and then takes a second look 30 days out for additional savings. It also sends as few people as possible and has them stay fewer nights. Hendrick has booked 500 fewer room nights this year than it did up to this point in 2008. Carlson, the general manager, attributes 30 percent of that cut to Nascar’s test-track ban, with the rest stemming from tightened internal standards.