The View from Here: The Business of NASCAR

When I think of diversity in NASCAR, three primary topics come to mind: age, race, and gender (in that order). Since the fundamental idea behind the business of NASCAR is to make money, team owners are looking to recruit younger drivers each day. The older drivers are beginning to phase out, while the owners are looking for long-term investments.

Joe Gibbs Racing is the easiest target right now; they just signed 18-year-old Joey Lagano to a long-term contract reportedly up to 5 years, an added bonus to the normal 3-year contract. An 18-year-old signs a very lucrative sports contract, sounds like I have heard of this before. NASCAR seems to be more like other sports than many people give them credit.

Do we really know how much this kid has to offer? There is the question of experience: is he ready to move up the ranks of racing? Well, Joe Gibbs answered that question by replacing Tony Stewart. Being a Hall of Fame NFL Football coach and accomplished “investor”, what does he have left to do but find ways to make more money? Many people think Lagano has the talent, and we will soon find out whether that holds true.

Age, then what? Ah, Joe Gibbs Racing is also working with 18-year-old African-American Marc Davis as a developmental driver. He already made his truck debut with Randy Moss Racing this past month and will be making his Nationwide Series debut on October 25 in Memphis, TN. This situation embodies the diversity of age and race, implying that Gibbs is looking for all young talent.

As far as gender goes, female drivers date back to 1949 with Sara Christian, the year after NASCAR was formed. Most recently the names Patty Moise, Shawna Robinson, and Danica Patrick have been in the mix. It is obvious that female drivers have made appearances on the circuit, but were not able to make a successful run in the NASCAR world. The looming question is whether women can compete with men in this business.

What will be the next minority group to take a shot at NASCAR?

And that’s my view from here.

PM

Posted by at 4:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

The statement that NASCAR does not glean international attention may no longer be true. About ten years ago NASCAR tried exhibition races at Twin Ring Motegei and Suzuka Japan with little success. Fast forward ten years and NASCAR now has points-paying races for the Nationwide Series in Montreal, Canada and formerly Mexico City, Mexico. True, these sites are still in the Western Hemisphere and just north and south of the United States, but it is a start.
If you take a look at the drivers, many of their backgrounds are much different than the drivers of a few years ago. Sponsors have changed as well. The sport has moved from Winston and Goodwrench to M&M’s and Red Bull energy drinks. This is where the future of NASCAR lies.
Team Red Bull Racing is a new form of NASCAR team in the series. This team is not owned by a single owner or small group; it is owned by Red Bull. This is new to the sport because never before has a sponsor owned the whole team. From top to bottom, executives at Red Bull Racing make the personnel decisions, which brings us to the topic of Scott Speed.
Speed broke into the world of big-time racing when he got a ride with the Red Bull Formula One team after winning a driver-talent competition put on by Red Bull. After a couple of poor seasons in Formula One, Red Bull dropped Speed and put him in the stock car ranks. He came up through the ARCA ranks and is now poised to take the seat vacated by A.J. Allmendinger on the Sprint Cup Series team.
The interesting thing about this driver switch is that the decision was not made by the NASCAR team; it was made by Red Bull executives in Austria, the company’s home country. In my opinion, I believe this is what is on the horizon for NASCAR: powerful international companies owning teams from top to bottom and making driver changes in the board room far away from the race shops.
With Scott Speed on the scene, even though he is an American, Red Bull and companies like it may look to buy into NASCAR along with international drivers to make a statement in an American sport. The money is definitely there and the coverage is plentiful, enough to pull the likes of Jacques Villeneuve, Dario Franchitti and Juan Montoya over. Maybe in ten years the next Justin Wilson will be in a Vodafone Chevy and not a McLaren.
And that’s the view from here.
AT

Posted by at 3:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Phil Richards of the Indianapolis Star takes an overview of NASCAR's diversity issues. Includes comment from Jon Ackley.

Posted by at 9:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)