 | | Pamela Anderson asked to be the grand marshal of last year's all-star race. Credit: Autostock |
By David Newton, NASCAR.COM
May 19, 2006
02:48 PM EDT (18:48 GMT)
David Stremme only recently had been promoted to the Nextel Cup Series last season when he approached a Hollywood film crew working on the movie Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. He sought out Sarah Nettinga, NASCAR's director of film, television and music entertainment, and volunteered to be a part of any upcoming project. Six months later, he appeared as a celebrity guest in the audience of the hit television show American Idol. NASCAR and Hollywood. It's hard to separate the two these days. One hardly can turn on a television without seeing a driver making a guest appearance, such as Jimmie Johnson on Las Vegas, Carl Edwards on 24, Jamie McMurray on The West Wing and Casey Mears on Days of Our Lives. One hardly can go to the track without seeing movie and television stars such as Will Ferrell, Adam Sandler, Matthew McConaughey and Ashton Kutcher promoting an upcoming film. One hardly can go to a race weekend without seeing a car promoting a movie with a special paint scheme or hearing a popular music performer, such as Red Hot Chili Peppers that will perform at the all-star race. "In Hollywood everybody talks about the buzz factor,'' Nettinga said. "Certainly, NASCAR has become a buzzword in Hollywood.'' It has become more than a buzzword. It has turned into a huge marketing tool for both industries -- NASCAR to become a bigger part of mainstream America; Hollywood to take advantage of NASCAR's 75 million fans and television rating that is second in sports behind the NFL. "A lot of the people I know in Hollywood say they've watched us for a long time, but would never admit it to anybody until recently," said Dale Earnhardt Jr., NASCAR's most popular star. "It's kind of cool for them now.'' It's so cool that stars now come to NASCAR. A year ago, Pamela Anderson asked to be the grand marshal at the all-star race. Idol star Chris Daughtry recently asked if he could perform the national anthem at a race. "Hollywood has seen the power of marketing in NASCAR,'' Jeff Gordon said. "They see what our sponsors are doing, what NASCAR is doing. A 200 mph billboard is not a bad idea to promote your movie.'' McMurray didn't fully understand why The West Wing wanted him until he saw NASCAR's ratings. "If I was a movie star and wanted to promote a movie or sitcom this would be a great venue,'' he said. Ferrell, who plays the main character in Talladega Nights, said studios were lining up when the idea for his movie was pitched.  |  | | David Stremme recently visited "American Idol" and talked with contestant Taylor Hicks. Credit: Greg Barker/NASCAR |
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"We really recognized it as an opportunity as far as the fan base and the television coverage,'' said Ferrell, who spent a recent weekend at Talladega promoting the movie that will be released on Aug. 4. "I'd like to think that [me being behind it personally] helped, but I have to say it really was more about the power that the sport has behind it and the opportunity to reach out to a very large and loyal fan base.'' NASCAR always has had a peripheral association with Hollywood through movies such as Stroker Ace and Days of Thunder. One of the original movies about NASCAR was Thunder in Carolina, a B-rated film released in 1980 starring Rory Calhoun and Alan Hale, "The Skipper'' on Gilligan's Island. "We've come a long ways,'' said Jim Hunter, NASCAR's vice president of corporate communications. "It's just another way to expose our sport to those that might not be exposed to it.'' Hollywood's involvement with paint schemes began in 1997 when Gordon ran a Star Wars theme on the 20th anniversary of the original film. That paint scheme was huge for die cast car sales, according to Ray Evernham, who was Gordon's crew chief at the time. "The movie people started to realize not only was it doing a good licensing job, it was putting more people in the theater,'' said Evernham, now the owner of Evernham Motorsports. But NASCAR and Hollywood didn't move into the fast lane until 2001, when under the guidance of soon-to-be NASCAR chairman Brian France and leadership of Paul Brooks a Hollywood division was opened in Los Angeles. "They had to have that foresight to allow them to continue to make the sport a more national product,'' Nettinga said. Nettinga, who came to NASCAR from Warner Bros., was one of Brooks' first hires. Her arrival coincided with the series' television deal with FOX and NBC, which realized the more the sport worked into the mainstream the better the benefit for both parties. One of Nettinga's first projects was to lure singer Sheryl Crow to California Speedway. Crow was so captivated by the sport that she invited Earnhardt Jr. to appear in a music video for her 2002 single Steve McQueen. |  | | Kyle Boller and Nick Lachey were on hand at the California race. Credit: Gavin Lawrence/Getty Images |
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Others weren't so easily sold on the sport. Nettinga admitted there were impressions of NASCAR being a Southern-based and so-called "redneck'' sport that had to be overcome. "It didn't take long for them to understand the statistics and the numbers, and they've embraced them,'' she said. "When you have FOX and NBC as partners, most of Hollywood was like, 'Ah, maybe we should check the sport out.'" Ferrell said movies such as his will only enhance the relationship between Hollywood and NASCAR. "NASCAR is well on its way to continue to grow and this is just another piece of the puzzle,'' he said. Nettinga hopes so. She's got several projects in the works, including a possible NASCAR theme on the new hit game show Deal or No Deal. Nettinga, staying true to her job description, calls NASCAR's relationship with Hollywood the "perfect storm.'' "NASCAR is entertainment," she said. "Hollywood is entertainment. It makes sense to line up the two.'' | 
