1on1: Jeff Moorad

Jeff Moorad has been named one of the 100 Most Powerful People in sports eight times by The Sporting News.

He initially earned that distinction as one of the most influential sports agents, negotiating contracts for such standouts as Will Clark, Manny Ramirez, Raul Mondesi, Mo Vaughn and Shawn Green in baseball and Troy Aikman, Steve Young, Warren Moon and Thurman Thomas in football.

In August of 2004, he switched hats and became an owner and general partner in the group that purchased the Arizona Diamondbacks in Major League Baseball. While continuing to help oversee the day-to-day operation of the Diamondbacks, Moorad also teamed with Tom Garfinkel and Tom Davin to head up an ownership group that purchased a controlling interest in Hall of Fame Racing in August of 2007.

Garfinkel talked about Moorad's management philosophy last weekend at Daytona International Speedway, where he and Moorad were on hand to watch the Daytona 500 (their driver, J.J. Yeley, battled engine problems en route to a 25th-place finish).

"He really believes in putting good people in place and letting them do their job," Garfinkel said. "All the people that we have down there [heading up their racing operation in North Carolina], they know what they're doing. We're going to set a vision and a strategy and have things sort of laid out, but you're not going to see Jeff and I with a monocle looking through at a spark plug or standing on the pit box and telling the crew chief to take two or four with 30 laps to go. But we will set a strategy and a vision for the way we want to go about things."

Moorad expanded on his philosophy as an owner and a variety of other topics with NASCAR.COM.

Q: What drew you to NASCAR as an owner?

Moorad: I have a passion for racing and I have a passion for competition. I'm here largely because of Tom Garfinkel [who has wide-ranging experience in the sport], and also because I believe in the NASCAR model. I believe in the opportunities this sport offers. And I believe ultimately that with the right business plan and focus to be determined, and strategic approach, that we can be successful at Hall of Fame Racing.

Q: What is your vision, your strategic plan? What do you plan to do differently than maybe some of those single-car team owners before you?

Moorad: We're not about buying the biggest, baddest motorcoach -- although we do like the one we have. We are committed to giving our partners -- in particular Texas Instruments and Toyota -- the confidence that we are going to move forward in the most financially efficient, and ultimately most professional manner.

Q: You guys have formed an "advisory board" that includes officials from various companies, including TI and Toyota. Talk a little about what that is and why you have done it?

Moorad: I think this board gives our partners a chance to see up close and firsthand how we intend to do business.

Q: Is it also a way to perhaps bring in new sponsors?

Moorad: Well, certainly that possibility exists. As we grow, which we are committed to doing but only if and when we're ready, we'll obviously be interested in talking with new sponsors. To the extent that those opportunities come in part from involvement of these professionals, I think that's a positive byproduct of the process.

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Q: This is the last year of the current sponsorship deal Hall of Fame Racing has with Texas Instruments/DLP. Where do you think your relationship with them may be headed?

Moorad: I think Texas Instruments and their DLP brand has done a phenomenal job of partnering with Hall of Fame Racing out of the gate. ... They saw the vision, as did Troy Aikman, Roger Staubach and Bill Saunders [the founders and original owners of HOF Racing who remain involved as minority owners]. They bought into the vision. I think they've enjoyed, frankly, the creation along with Hall of Fame of a very credible foundation. At some appropriate point, we'll engage with [TI/DLP] about their future and our future together. But the reality is, as I've traveled with them in essence for the last six months as an owner, I've seen the significant value that they've achieved. And frankly, I've heard it from their chairman and CEO on down; I've heard about the opportunities that have been created as a result of their involvement in NASCAR. And again, we'll figure out the future at some point. I know that they've been very pleased with their involvement in the sport.

Q: What do you feel you gained from switching from Chevrolets to Toyotas for this season?

Moorad: We have great confidence in Toyota as a player in the sport. They've obviously proven themselves in virtually all the other circuits, and I think they're well on their way to showing what they can do in NASCAR as well. That having been said, just as I know that we will pay our dues as new owners in the sport and a relatively young team, we recognize that Toyota is doing the same thing.

Q: You talk about taking what you learned in baseball and applying it to this, but aren't they largely two different animals? How much can you realistically take what your model was in baseball and apply it to NASCAR?

Moorad: There is a great deal of similarity to the challenge, or to the individual challenges, of the two sports. I think it starts and largely ends with the people -- not only our drivers behind the wheel that we feel extremely good about this season -- but all the people involved in the team, from the leadership, in particular Tyler Epp, who is general manager in North Carolina, to the entire leadership team back at the race shop and all the way to the individual engineers and mechanics and tire changers.

In our view, every person is a critical component of the ultimate formula for success in the sport. That focus on individuals and their abilities, their integrity, their approach is really the same approach that we've employed out in Arizona with the Diamondbacks. It starts and largely ends with the people involved. And that's a key. Obviously, athletes on the field and race drivers behind the wheel are key components. But in our view, so are all the people behind the scenes who support them and their efforts.

Q: You're more or less on your own in this sport, in that you don't have protection of being part of a franchise system. Doesn't that make it more difficult to be successful?

Moorad: I think if you accept the system as just that, it might be limiting. The fact is when I expressed an interest to Tom about getting involved at the ownership level in NASCAR, the first recommendation he made was to sit down with [chairman and CEO] Brian France and [president] Mike Helton. I liken that meeting, to be frank, with the meeting I had with [commissioner] Bud Selig in Milwaukee when I first transitioned over from the agent business to ownership in baseball. We view our role in NASCAR not unlike the role that we play in Arizona with Major League Baseball.

Even though there aren't formal, technical franchises in place, the reality is there is a need for good partners in the sport. And in our view -- well, strike that -- at Hall of Fame Racing, we're committed to being a good partner of NASCAR. We believe that ultimately if other team owners -- which I believe they do -- have that same commitment to the sport, it will end up being to the benefit of all of us.

Q: What do you take from being an agent that you transferred to ownership in baseball that you continue to apply to what you're doing now?

Moorad: I negotiated J.J.'s contract. He had an adviser who we interfaced with. Listen, I have a unique perspective certainly because of my time on the representation side of the sports industry, as it relates to the individual athletes. But I appreciate the fact that whether it's a player or a driver or any athlete involved in sports, that the business process is one that demands focus on compensation and financial structuring and the like. So I'm probably as open-minded as any owner could be about that process, because of my experience on the other side. But I certainly appreciate it as being part of the landscape.

Q: What was the toughest, most challenging negotiation you ever did as an agent?

Moorad: That's a great question. Probably a trade that I helped broker. It was Raul Mondesi, who went from the Dodgers to Toronto; and on the other side of the trade, I had Shawn Green as a client who went from Toronto to L.A. I negotiated not only the terms of the deal for the most part, although the general managers on both sides were involved at some level, but I negotiated contract extensions on both ends: an $84 million deal for Green with the Dodgers, which at the time was, I think, the fifth-highest deal in baseball [history] and a $24 million, two-year extension for Mondesi with the Blue Jays. So that was probably the most challenging that I had done before. My ex-partner, Leigh Steinberg, always told me that as hard as you think it is to negotiate with an individual team, the hardest thing you'll ever have to do is to get two teams to try to cooperate on some level. And in that case, I did all of the above. So it was quite a challenge.

Jeff Moorad and Tom Garfinkel

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Q: J.J's contract was probably a walk in the park after that, wasn't it?

Moorad: J.J's was anything but a walk in the park. J.J. is a very focused young man, and a very good businessman. Those things need to be win-win. At the end of the day, we went to the well more than once -- but we felt like it was the right thing to do to sign J.J. to a multi-year contract.

Q: How many races to you plan to attend this year?

Moorad: I'm committed to making Hall of Fame Racing everything it can be. I'm also very focused on the work that we have to do out in Arizona. As a result, I probably will be at about a third of the races over the course of the season. At least that's the plan. My guess is that it will end up being more like half at the end of the day; just don't tell my wife.

Q: Do you plan to keep the Hall of Fame name?

Moorad: We have no plans to change it. Troy and Roger continue to stay involved. We like the brand, we think it's been a positive one ... despite the guessing of others, which I understand got pretty intense at one point, that it was going to change immediately.

Q: When did you become a race fan?

Moorad: Probably four years ago when I attended my first NASCAR event.

Q: Talk about how that came about ...

Moorad: I actually watched a fair amount of racing on television while I was growing up -- some NASCAR, but a lot of Indy car races as a kid. I'm from Modesto in Northern California. I was a [Rick] Mears fan, as he was from down in the valley in Bakersfield. I must admit, and I tell people all the time now, but until they attend their first live NASCAR event, they won't really appreciate the sport. That's largely based on my own experience. When I was first exposed to the sport, I became hooked immediately.

I'm the first to admit that I don't know a lot about the car itself. I'm learning and will continue to learn. But the reality is that I have a great appreciation for the challenge and the difficulty involved in competing at this level. It's certainly shown itself to be a significant challenge, and one that I'm thrilled to be a part of.

Q: What race did you go to?

Moorad: My first race was in Phoenix, four years ago.

Q: What about it hooked you?

Moorad: A combination of the noise, which I think is intoxicating, and the crowd, the fans. I love the roar of the engines. And the enthusiasm of the NASCAR fans which, to me, was like nothing I had ever seen before. To see 170,000 people at a raceway in combination of infield, grandstands, motorcoaches, RVS, you name it ... it was an experience I will never forget. My second race was at Daytona. I'll never forget, I happened to be the guest of a sponsor. ... and we drove onto the track. We drove on there in a van, and even that was an experience I will never forget.