Kevin Harvick will mow two lucky fans' lawns this season. Credit: Autostock

Harvick cuts the grass?

Nextel Cup star will mow lawns as part of new sponsorship deal

Modern Tool & Die (MTD Products) is having fun with its first foray into NASCAR.

The company's Yard-Man lawnmowers will be the primary sponsor of driver Tony Raines and Kevin Harvick Inc. for 10 races in the NASCAR Busch Series this season, plus serve as an associate sponsor on both Raines' Busch car and the Craftsman Truck Series Chevrolet of Ron Hornaday. Harvick will drive the Yard-Man truck at Martinsville in October.

Some lucky fan is going to get his or her lawn mowed by none other than Harvick himself. Through its web site and at participating Wal-Mart stores, fans can register for one of two chances to have Harvick and the Yard-Man pit crew professionally manicure their lawn.

The lucky fan will also win a limited edition Yard-Man No. 33 racing lawn tractor, lawn maintenance equipment and NASCAR apparel.

The racing lawn tractor, tricked out in team colors, is part of another promotion which will see 2,500 of them produced for sale at Wal-Marts nationwide. All the racing tractors have a special 22-horsepower Briggs & Stratton engine as standard equipment.

As a way of leveraging its involvement in racing, Yard-Man will also travel to the 10 races where it is primary sponsor with its Yard-Man Garage, full of racing tractor simulators, show cars and plenty of product information.

"We have never done anything like this, in all our years of selling lawnmowers," said Tim Coughlin, brand marketing manager for Yard-Man. "We decided that the Yard-Man brand would be the perfect opportunity to relate to the NASCAR fan.

"The Yard-Man brand is primarily distributed at Wal-Mart stores, and between 100 million customers a week walking through Wal-Mart and 75 million NASCAR fans each weekend, we figured it was a great way to make that association and hopefully sell more lawnmowers."

Tony Raines Credit: Autostock

Harvick fit Yard-Man's profile, being young and an established star, and after working with NASCAR to find a team to debut with, Coughlin and KHI inked the deal. In addition to being a way to get its corporate feet wet in racing, it was also a way, as Coughlin said, to sell more lawnmowers.

MTD Products sells Cub Cadet, Troy Built, Yard-Man and Yard Machines mowers and tractors, and the demographic NASCAR presents is tailor-made for such a company.

"Cub Cadet and Troy-Built are more heritage brands, having been around for a long time," Coughlin said. "Yard Machine is our low-end, durable line and Yard-Man is a mid-market brand that has some great features. We save our innovations for that brand."

Having never been involved in motorsports before, what does Yard-Man-MTD expect from its first season?

"We'll obviously sell more lawnmowers, at the end of the day," Coughlin said. "We want to make the brand better known to race fans. We're doing that with sponsorship, which is sticking our toe in the water; we have the at-track activation with the trailer and simulators, which is a great concept and the national promotion with Kevin Harvick mowing their lawn."

The way Coughlin explains it, that promotion will be a pretty neat experience for the winners. "It's called, 'I Can't Believe Kevin Harvick is Mowing my Lawn,' and it's going to be another fun one," Coughlin said. "This trailer will roll up to the winner's home, and Kevin will come off the back in his fire suit and helmet on the tractor. The whole pit crew will be there and they will give the lawn almost an extreme makeover, NASCAR-style."

KEVIN HARVICK •   Driver Page •   Superstore: Harvick gear! •   Harvick Article Archive

Harvick laughed when asked how Yard-Man got him to mow someone else's lawn. "In today's day and age, you pretty much do whatever the sponsor wants," he said with a chuckle. "I like to do stuff like that. I think it's pretty cool when they come up with promotions like this where you get a chance to do something besides sit down and sign autographs."

The first race in which Yard-Man will be the primary sponsor will be the inaugural Busch Series race at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City.

Harvick's team, Kevin Harvick, Inc., welcomed the sponsorship as much for its future considerations as for the short-term benefits. The pact "brings a company that has a long history of being a top brand with a lot of experience in what they do," Harvick said.

"They're trying to establish a partnership to grow. They're starting with 10 races, and that's good for us because we're starting to grow as well. It brings us a solid partner that wants to grow with us.

"Our goal is to win races, and Yard Man wants to see some return on its investment and sell some lawnmowers. We think both those things will happen."