One would think with all the added exposure that Danica Patrick, driver of the JR Motorsports No. 7 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet Impala brings to the NASCAR Nationwide Series, a potential sponsor on the fence about supporting a low budget team for a bargain, would jump at the chance to get involved. Many of the smaller Nationwide team owners and their sponsors would disagree.
"I am sure it is a bargain for GoDaddy," says Darrell Blanton of Blanton Motorsports, Inc. "The exposure they have received from this has been nothing short of amazing. Overall, I think it is a double edged sword, not only for the sport, but also for Danica. On one hand, because of the additional media attention focused on Danica, fan awareness of the Nationwide series has increased. On the other hand, the media frenzy over Danica has created a bit of overkill for fans and I am sure to some degree for Danica. While the increased media attention has increased fan awareness of the NASCAR Nationwide brand, other sponsors are feeling a bit left out. At the end of the day, there is only so much time in the broadcast and it is very difficult to get your story line picked up especially with that much focus on one team/driver."
"We chose specifically to sponsor the New Hampshire race with Morgan Shepherd because that was Danica's first race back," said Kevin Strawbridge, President of DealTaker.com. "In that sense it was a bigger bargain. Of course we did get more than we bargained for when our car tangled with Danica in the early laps."
HostGator.com took advantage of the extra publicity by running a promotion for a year of free shared web hosting, for any GoDaddy.com customer that switched to HostGator.com immediately following the Dollar General 300 at Chicagoland. For fans to claim the free year, Joe Nemechek had to have a better finish than Danica Patrick in that race. Nemechek was 15th and Patrick finished 24th. This was not mentioned once by the television coverage.
Lance Custen, HostGator.com CEO says, "We believe that the coverage of Danica Patrick, while good for NASCAR, is so much that it may overshadow other drivers and their sponsors."
"It adds a whole new mix to the sport. NASCAR team owners not only have to think about how skilled a driver is, but also how attractive they are. The more coverage Danica receives the less everyone else does which is going to negatively affect the value sponsors put on their drivers."
Dana Tomes, co-owner of Herd Racing said, "I think her involvement has not changed the sponsorship hunt. But her being in races results in the smaller teams being ignored by the media, which makes it harder to convince sponsors to come on board."
"For teams without sponsors or only limited sponsorship, consistent mentions of the team during a broadcast certainly helps," Blanton says. "When a sponsor signs on with a team, they naturally expect to get media attention, TV exposure and mentions during the event. If this does not happen, it becomes difficult to justify the expenditure. It certainly makes it more difficult to keep the sponsor or increase the level of commitment from that sponsor. That’s why we really need the announcers to focus on all teams. Believe me there is a good story behind each one these teams and the companies that are putting out money to support them. These guys are struggling to make it out there each week and for some guys the only time their sponsor may get a chance to be mentioned is in qualifying. So again, it is really important that the announcers focus on this group as well."
"I think that drivers mid-pack and back have been hurt by the Danica race coverage," said Steve Burke, CEO of Zimmzang.com. "The TV coverage spends so much time focused on the leaders of the race and on Danica that drivers who would normally get at least a minimal mention by the commentators are being completely left out. More eyeballs on the sport is always a good thing, but the obsessive coverage of only a handful of cars per race leaves every other car, and sponsor, out."
"We would like to do another sponsorship deal with Kenny Wallace, but the complete lack of coverage of Kenny (along with many other drivers who are 12-25th in points) on ESPN2, makes it impossible for us to get any kind of TV return for our investment."
"I think it is disappointing that other drivers/teams/sponsors are overlooked just to try and get a reaction from Danica regarding her back of the pack performance," says Strawbridge in reference to the post race interviews. "But in the end, news is news and Danica's presence is an influence and perhaps that exposure increases overall exposure over time."
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Comments
Great piece Jesse.
This drama is fascinating to watch as more racefans realize that Danica is in way over her head.
great piece. It is a bad deal for the drivers and sponsors that they don't get equal coverage. Since the N'wide races are dominated by cup drivers and danica, how does NASCAR expect the little guys to make a living? Oh, yeah, that's right, they don't.
While I would love for the smaller teams to get their due mention, I really couldn't ask a network to steer away from what is driving their ratings. After all, they have sponsors to keep happy as well. I guess the silver lining is that the guys who don't mentioned are usually seen racing around Danica.
Good point Scott. That has crossed my mind too, during her few Nationwide races. And it was most evident with the Morgan Shepherd incident mentioned in the article. I wonder if drivers bump her, just in the hope it will get their sponsor some air time.
Frankly, every NASCAR fan I know has been saying the same thing since Patrick's first mediocre showing to great (and undeserved) fanfare. We heard about the leaders, and we heard about Danica...and that was it. When a 20-something finisher gets interviewed before most of the top-5 finishers, that's a sign of badly skewed priorities. Unfortunately, I'm sure NASCAR and the various broadcast networks will continue to bleat, "But Danica is a great thing for all of NASCAR and brings increased sponsor exposure to all the drivers!" even in the face of contradictory statements from actual sponsors.
All the Danica/Go Daddy thing is for is Publicity. Do you really think that if Danica was driving for a small team, that she would have the coverage she gets? Go-Daddy picked the most popular name in NASCAR to pair her up with. Sure, it's smart on Go-Daddy's part, but unfair to all the other teams. I feel the same way about Jr. Driving the #3 in the Daytona Nationwide Race. There was so much PR about that, that the new sponsor Nemechek had got absolutely nothing. Scene Daily did not even say anything about Hostgator until after the race. It comes down to money. Unless sponsors spend money with TV and Most other print/internet publications, even a new sponsor gets little or no mention unless begged.
This is stupid on their parts. A new sponsor comes in; the media needs to hit it hard. Then, when they (the new sponsor) look at extending a contract, they will have a reason to spend money on more advertising. People complain about all the start and parks. When a start and park gets a spo
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