Canceled Qualifying Rains On NASCAR Sponsorship

(Originally published on July 11, 2008)

Account managers for NASCAR teams are considering trading their business cards for .357 Magnums. Going the “Stick’em Up!” route seems to be the only way to get someone to come off the hip.

In a market this bearish it’s hard to find sponsorship, even with NASCAR’s proven track record of successfully pushing products. Throw any other variable into the equation and selling goes from difficult to downright impossible.

That’s why I don’t understand why NASCAR hasn’t yet figured out a better way to deal with qualifying rainouts. Magically, you can qualify Nationwide and Craftsman Truck teams just hours before they race. But reschedule Cup qualifying with a two-day window? Impossible!

Many companies aren’t going to ink an umpteen-million-dollar contract right off the bat. They’re going to dip their toe in the water and see if NASCAR is something for them. That likely means looking for a bargain with an also-ran team, which in most cases is a go-or-go-homer.

Thursday night at Chicago, Tony Raines (No. 34 Chevy) and Johnny Sauter (No. 08 Dodge) were sent packing with nary a qualifying lap. You could say that the rainout is a non-issue because two woefully overmatched teams were the only ones going home. But that’s not the way to approach it.

It’s hard to imagine the rainout element not being at least a contributing factor in fewer cars appearing each week. Remember, the more cars that show up, the more that take a chance of Mother Nature literally raining on their parade. That equates to more cheated sponsors. Why not just eliminate the middle man and stay home?

And look at Raines’ team, Front Row Motorsports, which actually found a sponsor this week. That sponsor was Weber Grill, and according to Yahoo! Finance, the privately held company did $190 million worth of business in fiscal year 2007.

A business that size likely won’t be looking for a $20 million primary sponsorship. But a $2 to $4 million major associate spot with occasional primary signage? That’s quite feasible if the company has a good taste in its mouth after initiating itself by throwing a few peanuts at a desperate team.

You think the Weber marketing crowd is feeling giddy about pursuing the next step after being jettisoned without even getting a qualifying lap? Long-term, that company could’ve been one of the pieces to the puzzle in getting a Dario Franchitti back on the track. Now, the prospect of NASCAR sponsorship must bring to mind Great White’s “Once Bitten, Twice Shy.”

This is a case where the marketing branch of NASCAR needs to get in the competition side’s ear. In the case of this weekend, you could’ve easily set the top 35 by owner points, then had the go-or-go-homers qualify in the half-hour before Friday’s first practice. The guys who make the race from that qualifying session could then go back into the garage, change into their race setups and get back for the rest of the first practice and all of Happy Hour.

Sure, this isn’t always an option. For the upcoming Allstate 400 at the Brickyard, where qualifying is Saturday for a Sunday race, you might have to go ahead and set everybody by points if it rains. But why have the same rule for each race? Reschedule qualifying whenever you can.

Otherwise, you give an already wary ad market even more of an excuse to stay away.