NASCAR NATION. PART 2: The Scary Part

Anybody wanna come to the Subway 500? Or maybe the Sharpie 500? Food City 500? Darn, we just missed the Samsung/RadioShack 500. maybe next year.

I’m all for sponsorship. Sponsorship makes the world (or in this case, the cars) go round. But come on! Seldom to I associate my meatball subway sandwich with an autoracing. While they have kept the Daytona 500 name intact, down the road there is the Pepsi 400. Not to mention the Coca-Cola 600. What worries me, is that in their effort to expand their market and bring in a wider audience across America, they have taken some of the tradition and integrity of the sport away, but shilling to all these willing candidates. They aren’t the only one’s doing it, that’s for sure. The Rexall center? The new Rogers Center in Toronto. Same sort of idea, but nobody seems to be able to do it like NASCAR can. Seeing Jeff Gordon finish a 500 mile race, completely dehydrated and having to take a swig of pepsi as soon as he gets out of the car is kind of gross. I mean, nothing against Pepsi. But its not meant for marathon runners.

My gut feeling is that because of all these endorsements, coming from every sector of the free market, the sport is slowly getting that carnival/circus feel to it. And while it continues to expand for the moment, eventually people may stop seeing it as a real motorsport and simply as a product-placement circus where sponsors are bombarded down our throats by the announcers and by graphics on the screen. I never had a big problem with auto companies sponsoring events, or car-related products. But Sharpie? Isn’t it only a matter of time before it’s the King Burger 500 Formerly known as the Daytona 500?

I know, every sport does it. Golf, tennis, whatever other sport that has weekend events are usually called something that has absolutely nothing to do with the sport in question. But do they do it as much as NASCAR? Again, great marketing on NASCAR. They completely utilize the fact that Gordon is sponsored by Pepsi and that Pepsi is the primary sponsor of a race at Daytona, therefore Coca-cola needs to step up their game and become a big sponsor themselves. Home Depot on Stewart? Well, I’m sure Lowe’s can counter that. Look, they just did! Its internal competition and the winner is NASCAR. I just hope that there is a limit to this madness, or at the very least they don’t lose focus on the purity of stockcar racing in America. Or to put it in more prophetic terms: the soul of the sport.

Now, on the other end of the spectrum, every reporter and fan suggests that Champ Cars need more primary sponsors. Very true. Champ Car is in a tight situation where nobody seems to want to touch the product on account of its dicey past. They’ll come back, but it may be for a few years yet. Once they realize that it’s a completely independent company from the one that was once known as CART, they’ll come back. For the time being though, what Champ Car needs to do (and has been doing) is focus on the city they are going too and attract local sponsors on the cars and in the title of the race. Champ Car’s biggest advantage is the fans in attendance at the races. No question about that. Local merchants love that kind of publicity. It’s a lot more difficult for the marketing department over at RusSport to try and attract a different sponsor for every race to be placed on AJ’s car. But right now, it’s a necessity for the series. A few can have the luxury of having a big sponsor on their cars for the entire year (I’m looking at you Bourdais!), but until that time comes, they need to hit the local merchant of the upcoming race and show them the benefit of having their product on the sidepods for the weekend or in the title sponsor of the event. It looks like its something some have been exploring the last couple of seasons and I am betting the returns for both the series and the merchant are worth it.
Champ Car baby! Champ Car for life!!