With the economy in the state it has been in for awhile now, race teams and tracks struggle to find sponsors. When the economy is flourishing, however, and companies are looking to throw advertising dollars at NASCAR, is there anything that can't be sponsored?
Of course, there are the normal sponsorship avenues -- race cars, naming rights at racetracks, race title sponsors, award sponsors. . . . The list goes on and on. Over the last few years, entities looking for sponsorship have found new things to be sponsored, and some of them seem a little off the wall or maybe even over-the-top.
Not so many years ago when NASCAR did away with racing to the yellow flag, a move was made to allow the first car not scored on the lead lap to get a lap back under each caution period, provided the restart would come with more than 10 laps to go, to counter-balance the fact that eliminating racing to the yellow would take away a lapped car's chance to get back on the lead lap.
Apparently when this happened, someone thought, "Ah ha, sponsorship opportunity," and not long afterward Aaron's Sales and Lease Services was sponsoring cars' return to the lead lap under caution with the "Lucky Dog."
Cautions provide even more opportunities to earn sponsor dollars, as illustrated by ServiceMaster Clean's recent announcement that it would return in 2010 for its second season as the official sponsor of caution periods at all tracks owned by International Speedway Corporation, Speedway Motorsports Inc., and Dover Motorsports Inc. This would include almost all racetracks NASCAR's three national series compete at, including Kentucky Speedway, which hosts a Nationwide Series event and a Camping World Truck Series race each season. The only tracks on the Sprint Cup schedule not included are Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Pocono Raceway.
"Our initial year was an unqualified success," ServiceMaster Clean Chief Marketing Officer Jim Wassell said. "We are looking forward to building on the awareness, relationships and momentum established in 2009."
To get the exposure bang for their sponsorship bucks, yellow ServiceMaster vehicles were on the track aiding in clean-up efforts during caution periods in 2009, the first year of the company's sponsorship of cautions.
"Our partnership with ISC, SMI and Dover has truly exceeded our expectations," Wassell said.
If a company is to sponsor the caution flag, I guess it's only fitting that it be a cleaning company spending its dollars to be the official company of track clean-up.
To be notified when new articles are posted, follow me on Twitter at twitter.com/nascarexaminer or become a fan of NASCAR Examiner on Facebook.
Comments