Life in the fast lane
NASCAR CEO Brian France is revving up the stock-car racing money machine
NASCAR fans do differ from other fans in a critical way, however. "They definitely are more responsive to sponsorships," says Beatriz Perez, vice president of sports and entertainment marketing at Coca-Cola, which has sponsored a NASCAR cup race in Charlotte, N.C., every Memorial Day weekend for the past 21 years. To an uncanny degree, NASCAR fans make conscious decisions at the grocery store to support their sport and their favorite driver. "From a sociological point of view, it's quite interesting; from a marketing point of view, it's pure gold," says Andrew Grenville of Ipsos-Insight, a global survey firm that measures NASCAR fan brand loyalty.
That's exactly what lured Nextel to the sport. In 2003, the mobile-phone company signed its 10-year agreement with NASCAR, which replaced R. J. Reynolds's Winston brand with Nextel as the cup title sponsor. It's the biggest sports sponsorship deal in history, and it puts Nextel in good company: A third of the Fortune 100 companies sponsor NASCAR in one way or another, and France wants even more.
What do the fans love about NASCAR? The close competition, the side-by-side racing, and the passing. One of France's biggest efforts going forward will be to keep the races close--but also safe. The 2001 racing death of the most popular driver in a generation, "the Intimidator" Dale Earnhardt, dealt a serious blow to the sport, and France doesn't want to see it happen again. Nor do he and his staff want NASCAR to go the way of Formula One racing, which one driver, Michael Schumacher, has utterly dominated in recent years. Thus a new 9,500-rpm limit will be implemented for Nextel Cup cars next season. The goal is to cut the advantages of big-budget teams--because in racing money buys speed--and thus produce closer competitions.
Low whine. The rpm rule, handed down by NASCAR in August, was not well received by many of the teams. Yet prosperous times have kept complaints to a low murmur. "They call the shots, and you have to do what they say," says Bob Bahre, owner of New Hampshire International Speedway, "but they're fair, and everybody's benefited from it."
Surprisingly, there have been relatively few challenges to the France family's grip on stock-car racing since Big Bill France faced down a Richard Petty-led driver insurrection in 1969. The most recent came in the form of an antitrust lawsuit filed in 2002 by a shareholder of Speedway Motorsports Inc., a Concord, N.C., company that owns six tracks. The suit, which promised a battle royal between L.A. hotshot attorney Johnnie Cochran, representing SMI, and super lawyer David Boies for NASCAR, was settled in July when SMI was awarded another Nextel Cup race.
For now, the populace is peaceful. But other challenges loom for France, as NASCAR' s growth slows from spectacular to solid. Within NASCAR, most think he is up to the task. "When Bill Jr. took over from his dad, everybody thought it wouldn't work, that he didn't know what he was doing, but he proved them wrong," says Petty. "Brian will do the same."
2003 attendance at the Nextel Cup races 6.7 million
2003 broadcast TV viewership of an average race 9 million
2003 sales of merchandise licensed by NASCAR $2.1 billion
advertisement
