Bloomberg News is reporting that due to the state of the economy, NASCAR sponsorships are on the decline. “General Motors Corp., Chrysler Corp., Sears Holdings Corp. and Chevron Corp. will cut or drop sponsorships next season.”

Some teams the sport that biggest names, Petty, Earnhardt, and Waltrip could enter the 2009 season with unsponsored cars. Chip Ganassi racing’s No. 40 team lost its Coors sponsorship last season, and managed to stay afloat using a patchwork of one-race deals. The team was shut down earlier this season. Chevron is pulling its Texaco sponsorship of Ganassi’s other team, the No 42 next season.

Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s Nationwide team, JR Motorsports lost its primary sponsor when the U.S. Navy announced it would not return to the No. 88. The team has won two races this season, and sits third in points, and it lost its primary sponsor. That’s an indication of how bad things are.

Earnhardt Jr. said:

The economy is the way it is, there isn’t much you can do about it. A lot of these guys are going to walk around empty-handed next year. …  We’ll race the races we can afford to race. A lot of the people that work there are family and so that place has to be open.