If you needed more proof that the recession is cutting deep into sports sponsorship, here’s your sign: GM, the struggling car maker that needs any good media it can get, appears likely to end a decades long sponsorship of NASCAR’s greatest race, the Daytona 500. Yup, a car maker may stop sponsoring a car race. Pretty dismal.

(That’s not Jimmie Johnson en fuego … it’s GM rushing from Daytona.)

According to the DETROIT NEWS, the carmaker that has been the official car and truck provider of Daytona Speedway since the early 1970s is in talks about a new sponsorship deal to replace the current agreement that ends Dec. 31st. Yet there isn’t significant optimism about signing a new deal because of cash-strapped GM’s need to adhere to strict regulations in order to qualify for the federal funding they’ve been lobbying for over the past month as part of a financial bailout.

“We don’t comment about our business discussions,” GM spokeswoman Jan Thomas said.

If you thought that sounded ominous, listen to the quote from Daytona speedway spokesman Andrew Booth: “I know we’ve had some talks with them but right now, we are continuing to explore opportunities,” he said. “We don’t comment on our prospects.”

GM’s most visible foray into sports advertising in recent years was it’s prepostersouly lucrative sponsorship deal with Tiger Woods, a pact that ended abruptly last month. The company also announced that it’s not going to run ads at this year’s Super Bowl, Emmy Awards or Academy Awards. Now that’s what you call cutbacks.

Still, if GM was going to maintain a sponsorship with any entity, wouldn’t it be with auto racing? As Terry Dolan, the manager of Chevy Racing said, car companies advertising in auto racing is like “fishing where the fish are.”

Oh, about Chevy Racing: They could lose their title sponsorship for the Chevy Rock & Roll 400 in September at Richmond International Raceway. GM’s sponsorship deal with the raceway expires in 2010.

Not a good time to be a NASCAR marketer, or so it seems.