Sponsorship in NascarSponsorship in NascarSponsorship in NASCARThe NASCAR world has not always been filled with the familiar sponsor names like that of Craftsman, Nextel, GM Goodwrench, Kelloggs, Home Depot, DuPont, Budweiser, and M&M’s. Back during the early days of racing before there was any sort of governing body like NASCAR, the sport of racing took more of a what they could get approach to races. In other words, they couldn’t really be picky about who participated in the races. A majority of the drivers either borrowed cars to race with, raced their own cars, or raced the vehicles that were meant to ensure safe shipment of whiskey to its proper destination. The whiskey vehicles tended to be the vehicles that won most of the early races. Not only because the vehicles were stocked with better parts, but the money backing these vehicles allowed for constant fix and repair (Fielden 13,16,23-29).
Raymond Parks could be considered one of the first major sponsors in racing when it comes to providing drivers like Lloyd Seay and Roy Hall with vehicles and the tools necessary to win a race. However, the days of drivers funding their cars would be short lived as soon as Bill France organized an official racing organization now known as the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, NASCAR. After the governing body was established you tended to see a vehicle makers logo or model number on the sides of most cars. This was a moderate way of advertising a sponsored vehicle, but this came nothing close to what was to come (Fielden 13,16,23-29,).
The meeting at the streamline hotel was one of the most beneficial meetings ever for NASCAR’s future for sponsors. The result of this meeting gave France’s organization the ability to start formulating rules and achieve more efficient and effective operations. With a formal governing body NASCAR could establish a more organized business plan in order to support the sports future. Automotive company’s like Ford, Chrysler, and Dodge began taking big interest in racing because racers were using their vehicles. It was common for a driver to advertise their vehicles credentials on the sides. The automotive industry continued to assist NASCAR drivers because their vehicles were being observed by the public. However, the real opportunity for the sport to prosper came during the 1971 season. NASCAR had fallen on hard times because big automotive company’s reduced the amount of sponsorship dollars and technical guidance. Ford had completely withdrawn from the racing scene and Chrysler had cut its vehicles to just two. This left the small privately owned race cars stumbling to stay afloat in order to purchase the necessary factory parts at full price (Fielden 16, 154-155).
Everything would change when Congress made it illegal to advertise tobacco products on network television in 1971. So, the tobacco industry was looking for a new method of marketing that worked around these stipulations. R.J. Reynolds came to the rescue and dumped tons of cash into NASCAR virtually saving it from a huge downturn. The top stock car division was called the NASCAR Winston Cup Grand National. Winston put $100,000 into NASCAR’s championship points fund and supplied the advertising for promoters who put on Grand National races over 250 miles. Companies would gradually attempt to invest money is small car sponsorships until the 1990’s when the corporate world threw it into overdrive with sponsorships (Fielden 154-155).
In racing, there is never such as a thing as a flawless driver. Driving at speeds around 160-190 miles per hour does not leave much room for error. When error does occur, it comes at a hefty price considering it takes several thousands of dollars for a new specialized racing machine. In order to keep these race teams up and running, big name sponsors needed to foot the bill. This become more prominent in the 1990’s when corporate America started catching on to the fact that sponsoring vehicles in NASCAR was affective. For a Winston Cup team in 1999, it cost anywhere from three to six million dollars a year. Most all race teams have primary and associate sponsors. The primary sponsor is the one fans associate with the car and the associate sponsors are the smaller advertisements squeezed in on the driver’s car and uniform (Fleischman and Pearce 269).
The Problem
Now what if it makes more sense to go for a specific set of rules? Well, if you’re NASCAR on a budget of $400,000, a custom set of rules costs $2.5 million and includes the following:
A. Design a road course that includes no-parking zones for all vehicles.
B. Design the race track inside a separate oval. No parking.
C. Design a track that doesn’t have a red line or traffic signal, or where race officials stop a vehicle.
D. Design the track to be completely paved with a single track, one single right turn, and one left turn in the middle of the course.
“All of these must be changed,” says Mark Thompson, one of the sponsors of the 1999 Winston Cup team. “It may seem that there are many changes in the rules, as we’ve always done, but the goal is to not have the change be so dramatic, and still allow for the right track. But you are saying that the rules are too complicated, too subjective, and that people don’t care about what else they can do with the space left for them to do. It can be difficult.” You have to get up off pavement, in a corner or inside one of the corners. You have to make sure you have enough space left to go around. Then on top of that you also have to change everything. But then one question becomes: What if a driver’s idea are to make all the changes they possibly can but not one that would provide good feedback for racing and for their sponsors? With a new driver on the grid it would be much better to have a different idea of what the next step would be or what would be possible. So, if the next step is to introduce a car that is so unique it’s hard to keep track of it even if you are the only person racing on your own track, and you can’t turn on the brakes, then you have to find a better idea. You have to go find things that are different. Some of which people may not even know they were doing, like with the F1 rule changes, but they still want to get a car. They wanted to do it before the F1 rules or whatever it was. So now it’s not any simpler for them to see that it’s about changing what it is to have your ideas as well as change what you can do with it. The car could only become a little stronger if it could make the cars smarter. That’s why it costs so much money to have a car that can do that. You have to make the car as much as possible smarter in order to take the car where it needs to be, and I mean to make sure it looks better, and that it has the right feel.” What the NASCAR Rules Say
While it is interesting to look at how these regulations were changed and why that change was done. The first thing you have to understand is that most of the regulations were changed to eliminate the need for any driver to have a driver license. In many racing teams, the drivers would only have a driver’s permit if the driver was registered in the United States and had no other financial obligation to register under the US Motor Vehicle Laws. With the current rules as it is, most drivers are able to practice one or two years of
Many of the successful sponsors can easily validate spending millions of dollars for a sponsor. Take for instance Texaco and Valvoline, this sport is vital for their interest because if customers see a winning car then they will assume the associated oil helped them get that way. During the 1999 season, both Texaco and Valvoline spent five to six million dollars in order to sponsor a single Winston Cup Team. With this extreme amount of money requires success from the driver or else the sponsor will find another top contender.