NASCAR Then and Now - Ben White [8]
And Now, Some Words for Our Sponsors
Racing is an expensive sport. Today’s bigger NASCAR teams have budgets in the tens of millions of dollars, with much of the funding coming from corporate sponsorship. Their return on investment comes from having their logos displayed on cars racing on national television and by building an association between driver and product to the point where a driver’s likeness and endorsement can lead to a purchase at the checkout counter.
In NASCAR’s early days, sponsorship was usually limited to a driver or team’s local affiliations—restaurants, auto body shops, or lubricants. By the mid-1960s, car dealerships and automotive-related products were often featured. As national exposure grew in the early 1970s, numerous brands joined the NASCAR fraternity, a trend that has continued to this day.
This is Richard Petty lending his familiar voice to a sponsor’s radio commercial, circa 1967. Petty may be the King of Stock Car Racing, but this great man doesn’t have a snobbish or regal bone in his body. And that’s what has made this modest, down-to-earth superstar a sponsor’s dream for half a century.
Jeff Gordon addresses a packed crowd of supporters during a pre-race hospitality event. These events offer corporate sponsors a return on their investment by allowing their employees to enjoy up-close access to drivers and team personnel.
For many years, NASCAR celebrated the completion of its season with a banquet in New York City. The event is a sign of how the sport has grown from its Deep South roots into a national—in some ways, international—entity. In December 2008, Jimmie Johnson (left) and crew chief Chad Knaus display their third consecutive championship trophy in New York.
Fox and SpeedTV announcer Mike Joy (left, at podium) emcees the awards ceremony in New York. Although they may not be immediately recognizable without their race suits on, the 12 sharply dressed men on stage are the 2008 Chase for the Sprint Cup contenders: (left to right) Dale Earnhardt Jr., Matt Kenseth, Kyle Busch, Tony Stewart, Denny Hamlin, Jeff Gordon, Jeff Burton, Clint Bowyer, Kevin Harvick, Greg Biffle, Carl Edwards, and Jimmie Johnson.
Meeting the Fans
Throughout its long history, NASCAR has enjoyed a reputation as a fan-friendly sport. As the sport has grown from its regional roots, expanding its fan-base into the tens of millions, Sprint Cup drivers have become celebrities, some of them even household names. And while the fame and fortune are great—especially when you are earning it doing what you love to do—the sheer number of spectators at a NASCAR event requires fences and other crowd-control measures to keep drivers and teams separated from the general public. But today’s NASCAR drivers still stay connected to their fans by showing up to offer their autographs in designated areas.
NASCAR star Fred Lorenzen (dressed in white) offers some youngsters an up-close view of his pearl white Holman-Moody Ford Galaxie prior to the start of the 1963 Rebel 300 at Darlington Raceway. One of the most popular drivers of the 1960s, the well-spoken and approachable Lorenzen collected 26-career victories and was the first driver to earn $100,000 in a single season.
Thirty-six years after Lorenzen’s impromptu tour, here Kasey Kahne takes some time out of his busy schedule to sign for a throng of fans during a race weekend at Pocono Raceway in 2009. For drivers, there is only one drawback from these autograph sessions: They will often have to replace their uniforms because of accidental marks made on them by all the black permanent markers.
Chapter 2
Fans
It’s Labor Day 1950, and stock car racing fans from various parts of the country await the start of the first-ever 500-mile race in NASCAR history, the inaugural Southern 500