No Blank Car For Sponsor-Seeking 01

(Originally published on April 20, 2008)

The No. 01 DEI Chevrolet of Regan Smith may be short on sponsorship, but don't expect a blank car to show up at the track resembling Yates Racing entries.
Instead of running a plain scheme to highlight the need to find more sponsorship, DEI Vice President of Motorsports Operations John Story said the team has decided instead to "sweeten" its deal with Principal Financial Group, who initially just signed as a full-season associate sponsor with a handful of races as the primary.
"We've discussed, do you leave the car blank, do you do what Yates has done and say, 'SponsorYates.com and call us,' and we believe it can actually work against you in many ways," Story told the Press.
"If you left the car white, a sponsor may in fact say, 'Hey, that's a great car and they've got space available, let's call.' Or they may say, 'Nobody else is sponsoring that car. Why should we? Is there something wrong with them?'"
Recently, the car has run with the DEI logo on the hood, but with the Principal signage on the rear quarterpanels and back. In addition, Smith has worn the Principal firesuit and referred to the company in interviews as if it's any other primary sponsor.
Story doesn't believe that DEI is devaluing the sponsorship long-term by giving Principal more than it's paying for. He also doesn't think the No. 01 is missing out on the opportunity to attract new sponsors by not running a blank car, saying that DEI is in discussions with companies about sponsorship for this year and beyond.
"Very rarely in my history working in this sport have I ever gotten a phone call that somebody said, 'Hey I saw a blank racecar on the racetrack, I'm interested in sponsoring it.' Unfortunately, it doesn't happen that way," Story said. "There not some CEO sitting at home on Sunday, seeing the white David Gilliland car that says, 'Boy, that looks like a great opportunity, I'm going to call those guys because they have no sponsorship.' I wish it worked that way."
DEI became a four-car team after merging with Ginn Racing last year. Ginn, which experienced sponsor woes almost from the get-go, ran blank schemes and also ran the colors of sponsors who reportedly weren't paying for the privilege. Story explained that giving away a race is a good way to reward a loyal sponsor, which may be worth more than running a blank scheme in an effort to attract additional backers.
Story added that he took mental notes of how Ginn handled the sponsorship shortage before DEI became involved.
"I specifically remembered saying, 'Boy, I don't know if [running a blank car is] a good strategy,'" said Story. "Then they ran the Ginn Resorts logo on the car quite a bit. Which in my mind, the car looked better, it looked complete, but everyone knew it wasn't a sponsored car, which I thought was a better way to do things."
Smith is just barely locked into a top-35 starting spot, holding the edge over J.J. Yeley's No. 96 Toyota by a mere three owner points. Story said the formula for bringing in new sponsors is a fairly simple one.
"Frankly, it has to run better."