Sponsorship hunting this time of the year isn't anything new to the world of NASCAR racing. A lot of sponsors tend to move to other teams thinking that they're getting better deals with team owners or better drivers to hawk their wares.
This season isn't any different in that respect. There are a few sponsors moving to other teams in hopes of bettering their position in the advertising milieu. What is different this season is that there's getting to be a lot of sponsors who are stating that they're through with NASCAR sponsorship. The reasons given vary, but the majority of them center on the failing economy.
The 12 to 16 million dollars that teams are demanding these days for a full season's sponsorship for a Cup team leave a lot of corporations disillusioned. They are coming to realize that NASCAR's price for individual car sponsorship is getting much too high. They aren't getting enough bang for their buck.
A lot of the sponsors who have quit sponsoring individual teams have taken other avenues with their NASCAR advertising. Some are sponsoring individual races in areas where they have a more prominent customer base, while others are opting for the lesser costing associate sponsorships that only allows minimal exposure of their logos on the race car.
There are over half a dozen top NASCAR Cup teams searching for sponsorship as this is being written. One of the top teams in the sponsorship hunt is Dale Earnhardt Inc. (DEI). Pennzoil is leaving the No. 1 DEI Chevy at the end of this season, and the No. 8 Busch Series Chance Motorsports Chevy co-owned by Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his stepmother Teresa Earnhardt, is also searching for sponsorship.
Ty Norris, vice president of DEI, has stated that his sponsorship woes for the 2004 season are almost over. Norris has taken a different approach to sponsorship on the DEI entries that were left un-sponsored. Instead of having one major sponsor on each entry for the entire season, Norris has opted to sell limited sponsorship to corporations for a limited number of races.
Norris explains that one corporation will have their logo on the car as the major sponsor for the first five races of the season. After that, another corporation will take over sponsorship of the car for the next five races, and so on down the line, switching sponsorship every five races until the season is completed.
Go To Page: 1 2
| Here's the follow-up discussion on this article: | View all related messages |
For a complete listing of article comments, questions, and other discussions related to Thomas M. Sampson's NASCAR topic, please visit the Discussions page.