NASCAR roundtable on economic welfare of sport (cont'd)

SBJ: Is there going to be fallout from all of these new team alliances and driver changes?

Waltrip: When you have a Dale Jr. going from the red 8 to a new sponsor, it's more difficult to market, isn't it?

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We went how many years with Winston as the title sponsor? Jimmie Johnson told me that he didn't know Winston was a cigarette, he just thought it was the name of the series.

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MARK DYER

Dyer: It is, it's a phenomenon that's rather recent in the sport. Jeff Gordon unveiled his 2009 paint scheme and it's only the third one he's had in 15 years, with one sponsor and one number. I wonder how many of those we'll see in the next 15. Junior is an interesting [sponsorship] model that we're going to see more of, the 60-40 or 50-50 primary paint schemes. Tony Stewart is doing the same colors [red] with Office Depot and Old Spice, but with Junior's you had green Amp and blue National Guard. ... We've got a faster rate of change in this sport than ever before. We went how many years with Winston as the title sponsor? Jimmie Johnson told me that he didn't know Winston was a cigarette, he just thought it was the name of the series. We've grown up with these things. All of the change is hard for the fan to process, but they're getting there. ... We've still got great stars, drivers that are brands. It's more difficult now because sponsors are spending so much money, they almost have to hijack the driver's brand to be successful. Dale Earnhardt created Dale Earnhardt, then Goodwrench and Chevy and everybody else dovetailed with that. ... Some drivers don't get that they have to make their own persona and then they'll be more valuable.

Coughlin: Part of getting back to the basics is letting the drivers be who they are. If the guy is a bad boy, let him be a bad boy.

Dyer: It's been interesting how M&M's has allowed Kyle [Busch] to be Kyle. He's the fastest-growing driver [in merchandise sales] at trackside year over year, faster even than Dale Jr., Carl Edwards, any of them. Now M&M's is a great sponsor, but there's something to be learned that Kyle's been allowed to be Kyle. There have been some boos, but there have been a lot of cheers.

SBJ: So, where does that leave the pursuit of sponsors?

Lauletta: Budgets are shrinking, timelines to make decisions are longer. ... It all comes down to convincing that CMO or CEO to write that check when it's $14 million, $15 million, $16 million and sometimes $26 million, $28 million.

Waltrip: And that's life right now. Those are real numbers.

Lauletta: They are real numbers. That's just to get in the game.

Wheeler: And then double that for activation, if not tripling. You're talking $80 million, $90 million.

Coughlin: There's just not a lot of those companies that can afford that.

Wheeler: If you've got to make $300 million in revenue to justify that $100 million in sponsorship, that is a tall order.

Lauletta: The number of companies capable of doing that are a handful. I could never say Miller sold 10 more cases of beer in Talladega because Rusty was there than because it was 90 degrees and we had a better display and price at Kroger. If you want to know how many eyeballs, bam, SPEED and ESPN can tell us black and white. In our world, the sponsorship world, it's never going to be like that, and it makes it that much more difficult in this environment.

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It's been interesting how M&M's has allowed Kyle [Busch] to be Kyle. He's the fastest-growing driver [in merchandise sales] at trackside year over year, faster even than Dale Jr., Carl Edwards, any of them. ... there's something to be learned that Kyle's been allowed to be Kyle. There have been some boos, but there have been a lot of cheers.

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MARK DYER

Hargrave: Your competition is not sitting still. They're finding new and better ways to approach sponsors. At the end of the day, you've got to contain your costs. I know how competitive it is just on my own floor [at Bank of America]. I'm competing against the NFL. ...

Lauletta: The Yankees are building a new stadium and the pot of money is the pot of money. And it might mean, "Hey, Mike, we're going to take some of your money because we've got to do the Yankees." That's a tough position to be in.

Waltrip: In the history of NASCAR, we've only sat around and had these meetings since the beginning of time. How can we make this meeting, what we're saying today, make a difference and bring people together and challenge NASCAR and team owners? Let's say the economy today is why we're going to convene. Let's make this meeting be like the one they had -- well, this is stretching it -- but like the one they had when they made NASCAR. We should see if there's a way we can make a difference. It's that important. And maybe [Bank of America will] have the money to do the Yankees and have a little left over to do NASCAR, I hope. As a car owner, that would mean a lot to me.

Burch: I think we have to look at what each of us can bring to the table. I want you [Waltrip] to have more racing fans because the more fans you have, the more likely they're going to come to one of our facilities to see you. You have fans, we have facilities, we know where they live, we send them information. How can we help tell people that Juan Pablo is going to be out in the campground on Saturday? Or NAPA will have this display, stop by? How do we get more fan-driver interaction? How do we keep that fan engaged? If that fan isn't engaged, we don't have a reason to go into the boardroom and ask for that $28 million.

Waltrip: You guys have talked about how Brian [France] had that meeting and out of that came the return to NASCAR's roots. Out of this meeting, I'd like to think we could go forward and have additional meetings to talk seriously about containing costs so we can deliver better value.

Lauletta: I agree, but we also have to remember that there are people not in this room that it's working for right now. They're doing OK. Mr. [Rick] Hendrick would be like, "What do you mean?" That's where NASCAR plays a role of getting that right group together.

Brooks: We have the best people in the world running the competition side. There's ongoing work every week in the garage. These meetings are happening. Sure, there's things we can do better, but it's been pretty darn successful for 60 years. Anyone around the globe would love to have the problems we have. More Fortune 500 companies are in this sport, companies are spending more than ever. Are there issues? Absolutely. But I think we're doing pretty darn good as a sport and I would put the leadership of our competition efforts against anyone.

Wheeler: But take Michael's idea to say, "How big can we get?" It's not so much about fixing negatives, it's "How big can we get?"

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