Sponsor decals are pasted so thick on a typical NASCAR racer, it’s sometimes hard for the uninitiated to tell if there’s a Pontiac, a Chevrolet or a Ford underneath.
But fans of what has become one of the most popular spectator sports in the U.S. know the differnece, and so do the announcers calling the races in NASCAR’s Winston Cup Series on television. And that brand-name recognition warms the hearts of the marketing departments at General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co., who believe the adage “race on Sunday and sell on Monday” still applies in the auto industry.
The draw is so strong, DaimlerChrysler’s Dodge Division announced last month that, after an absence of 24 years, it will return to NASCAR competition at the Daytona 500 in February 2001.
“Given the popularity of the Winston Cup series, it is time for Dodge to get back into the competition,” says Jim Julow, the DaimlerChrysler vice president in charge of Dodge. “It’s time to give our Dodge owners, Dodge dealers and our employees the opportunity to cheer.
“NASCAR fans are our kind of customers–the most brand-loyal fans of any sport in this country.”
All century, carmakers the world over have courted the brand loyalty loyalty garnered by racing.
Even Henry Ford helped his fledgling company by winning races around the Midwest nearly 100 years ago, and races as different from one another as the Indianapolis 500, the 24 hours of LeMans and Formula One series have energized car buffs.
None, however, has exercised as much influence on motor-sports buffs and car buyers in the U.S. as the stock car races sponsored for more than 50 years by NASCAR, the National Association of Stock Car Automobile Racing, of Daytona Beach, Fla. Since the first running of the Brickyard 400 in 1994, stock car racing even been an annual event at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the mecca of open-wheeled racing in the U.S.
“Winston Cup is clearly the top racing series in America right now,” says Bob Tripolsky, a spokesman for GM’s Chevrolet Division, which resumed its factory support for racing after dropping it in the late 1960s.
As it has expanded beyond its roots in the South, NASCAR has become one of the most effectively marketed spectator sports in the U.S., says Jerome Anwyl of Martec, a Los Angeles-based consulting group that specializes in automotive marketing.
“NASCAR’s ratings keep getting bigger, and it’s making some inroads in the Midwest and California. The manufacturers are going where the eyeballs are,” said Anwyl.
NASCAR attracted 6.3 million fans in 1998, while Championship Auto Racing Teams’ (CART) FedEx Series drew 2.5 million fans to the tracks, according to Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., which compiles racing statistics. NASCAR estimates its attendance at Winston Cup races has risen 91 percent in this decade.
Television audiences have grown 19 percent on network and by one-third on cable, and retail sales of licensed merchandise, such as hats and jackets, have grown 1,100 percent, according to NASCAR’s marketing department.
“NASCAR heightens brand loyalty,” says Torrey Galinda, manager of global racing marketing at Ford.
“We’ve had some spending cutbacks and are focusing a lot more on NASCAR because of the popularity and the loyalty of the fans. It’s very exciting and family oriented. The drivers are clean cut, and there aren’t any strikes or salary disputes.”
Besides, he says, the Winston Cup, which runs from February through November, is a cost-effective form of advertising.
Announcers mention brand names dozens of times during telecasts, exposure that would cost advertisers thousands of dollars.
In addition, GM and Ford benefit from the expenditures of other NASCAR sponsors, such as cereal companies General Mills and Kellogg. NASCAR estimates corporate sponsors spend almost $1.2 billion a year supporting their racing teams.
With NASCAR’s TV contracts coming up for renewal in 2001, the sport is expected to be open to even bigger audiences.
“It will take the sport to another level,” Galinda says.
Galinda adds in the last three seasons, Ford has set up a program involving dealers around the country in promotions linked to NASCAR events, such as cutouts of drivers and racing banners in stores and free tickets to races.
In 1999, 48 percent of Ford dealers have signed up to participate, up from about 17 percent in 1997, he says.
A large part of NASCAR’s appeal rests on the appearance of the cars that look much like the machines that get driven to church or the supermarket.
The stock-only rule has been gradually modified since NASCAR’s formative years in the early 1950s.
While NASCAR racers are built on special racing chassis and come with roll-cages to protect the driver from a crash, they retain the essential shape of a Pontiac Grand Prix, Ford Taurus or Chevrolet Monte Carlo.
The Winston Cup racer from DaimlerChrysler will resemble the Dodge Intrepid.
NASCAR, however, still rules out even subtle changes such as different kinds of spoilers for fear it could upset the competitive balance that is considered a key part of the show.
NASCAR racers can still reach 190 miles per hour on the big oval tracks with steeply banked turns.
One of the big transitions in NASCAR racing came in 1998, when Ford dropped the Thunderbird, which, at 184 wins, had more than any other car in NASCAR history, and replaced it with a four-door Taurus–or rather one that looked like a sedan.
Race buffs and manufacturers are getting excited about the NASCAR’s first race of the 2000 Winston Cup series at Daytona in February, when Ford will unveil a new racer based on the 2000 Taurus and Chevrolet will roll out a racer based on the 2000 Monte Carlo. It’s the first time in years that both companies have introduced new racers at the same time.
Winning races on the NASCAR circuit generally helps increase the manufacturer’s commitment.
Rick Asher, a spokesman for GM’s Pontiac/GMC Division, says that isn’t necessarily a sure thing. Links to NASCAR did not generate a lot of enthusiasm for the Pontiac nameplate in the mid-1990s when Grand Prixes usually were not among the leaders from week to week, Asher notes. This year, though, the enthusiasm is back because the Pontiacs are contenders again, he says.
Japanese and European carmakers, however, have not pushed to get into the Winston Cup competition.
They have a different approach, supporting motor sports series such as Formula One, where the cars with their low-slung chassis and naked, oversize tires look like nothing found in the mall parking lot, and much of the emphasis is on technical and engineering innovations.
