NASCAR's 2008 season has come to a close, and few people seem certain the sport will look the same next year as it did this year.

Garage talk is dominated by merger-and-acquisition rumors as teams fight for the right short-term and long-term strategies to stay afloat. Marketing budgets are being scrutinized so sponsors can adapt to the changing economy. Questions about car counts and attendance loom over a sport that has been riding a wave of prosperity.

Those and other topics were fair game when NASCAR stakeholders from throughout the industry gathered recently in SportsBusiness Journal's headquarters in Charlotte, N.C. Here are the highlights from that roundtable discussion that featured:

• Paul Brooks, president, NASCAR Media Group
• Michael Burch, VP, business development, Speedway Motorsports Inc.
• Mark Coughlin, executive VP, Octagon Racing
• Mark Dyer, CEO, Motorsports Authentics
• Michael Hargrave, senior VP, motorsports executive, Bank of America
• Steve Lauletta, president, Chip Ganassi Racing
• Hunter Nickell, president, SPEED
• Julie Sobieski, VP of programming and acquisitions, ESPN
• Michael Waltrip, owner/driver, Michael Waltrip Racing
• Trip Wheeler, president, The Wheeler Group, and independent contractor, Velocity

“

That's partially why I wanted to be a car owner, because I thought I could do more for my sponsors than what I saw other owners doing.

”

MICHAEL WALTRIP

SBJ: How much does the economy dominate your conversations these days?

Sobieski: For us, it's dominating a lot of conversations. The point of innovation is really important. We're constantly rethinking how we can deliver more value to our sponsors. At this time of year sports is a great distraction, but there's also a lot of competition in the marketplace for eyeballs, for sponsorship dollars. It makes it even more important on the NASCAR side to be doing it better and to make it the most viable option. There's a ton of tremendous value this property delivers, so it's a matter of rethinking it and working with SPEED, working with tracks, working with teams and all of us working together even more than we have in the past.

Nickell: We've spent a lot more time talking to the tracks, but more now than ever we talk to people like Michael [Waltrip] about ways we can work together. While we're grateful TV ratings have been solid this year, we're totally connected with the tracks because we've got to find creative ways with these guys to keep the live attendance value going.

Burch: The point about value is what dominates our conversations. How do we make it worth the effort for the fans? How do we make sure we have a full weekend? We've had more conversations with our network partners this year than at any time in five years. With teams, with NASCAR, we all have different pieces of the puzzle. How do we deliver more value? How do we get consumers more interactive, get them in the garage. The money is there, it's just under closer inspection. But if you show you can bring the value, now is a great time to build your brand. There was a great story during the [NASCAR] sponsorship summit about Kellogg's and how the investments they made during the Great Depression really won them the advantage that they still hold today. The companies that understand where the value is will have a huge leg up when things turn back positively.

Brooks: We're definitely seeing more collaboration in the industry to move forward in a better way. The tightening up is forcing us to look at how we can work closer together. We're so fortunate because how many sports do you hear their athletes and the first thing they talk about is adding value for sponsors?There's a real awareness that that's what drives our sport and we have to take care of those sponsors. I see us all coming together in better, smarter ways than we have in the past. These times are forcing that and that's healthy.

Waltrip: That's partially why I wanted to be a car owner, because I thought I could do more for my sponsors than what I saw other owners doing, to try and deliver value on the marketing side or, more importantly, marry all these sponsors together so they can grow their businesses away from the track. I'm as much into that as I am anything in the car. I'm all-in on all aspects of this owner deal, but the thing I'm most interested in is how to deliver that value. It's there if we're smart enough to get it. There are opportunities everywhere.

“

It's up to all of us being willing to take a piece of the pie instead of trying to eat the whole pie. It has to be a feeling that we're protecting each other for the good of the sport.

”

STEVE LAULETTA

Hargrave: It's on our minds all the time, but the key for us is that our world is changing so fast, we have to be tremendously nimble going forward. The strategy changed 10 days ago and it's going to change again soon. We've got to be ready to move, and it's critical that we have partners willing to pull together the various entities that make this sport unique and they're willing to listen to what we have to say.

Lauletta: I think collaboration is getting better, but it's so minimal compared to what could happen. We all go racing every week and we're not talking to Michael Waltrip Racing that much from a team perspective. And there probably are things we could do together. Not us taking NAPA or them taking Target, that's where we are right now, we're all feeding off the same mound. But there are things we could do better team-to-team or team-to-track. You get that in other sports. The White Sox and Yankees can feed off each other with ideas because they're in different markets and have different approaches. It'd be really interesting to see if NASCAR could formalize that and get people to think beyond their own team boundaries. ... If somebody like Target needed a personality that was a Michael Waltrip personality, I should pick up the phone and say, "Hey, man, let's do something. You could be a fit in this program." You're not going to paint your car white and put a bull's eye on the hood, but we should be able to do this. That doesn't happen enough because there's too much of a mentality of "stay away."

Waltrip: I like the Young Guns deal where you've got guys coming together for a common cause. I've been in this sport forever and I know how owners come up to you and say, "Good to see you, glad things are going good." And at the same time, they're thinking, "I wonder what NAPA is going to do?" That's been happening forever and it's going to continue to happen, but if you could model something around Young Guns, you could say "Let's have Juan Pablo [Montoya] come over and do some kind of cross-promotion." That'd be great.

Lauletta: We have the only diversity driver [Montoya] in the highest series of the sport. I guarantee you there are a lot of sponsors who could take advantage of him in their program. Not to take NAPA, but if Michael is trying to keep NAPA and he could say, "I can bring you Montoya to make three appearances in this market or that market," and it would throw the deal over the edge, why wouldn't you do that? ... It's up to all of us being willing to take a piece of the pie instead of trying to eat the whole pie. It has to be a feeling that we're protecting each other for the good of the sport, to maximize the benefit, as opposed to a sponsor staying in for two years and saying, "That didn't work for me, I'm out." Instead, they say after two years, "That was great, I'm in again." We can't have the rotating door of a year or two and out. The way you do that is to work together.

Brooks: We've seen that with SPEED and ESPN cross-promoting their races, for the first time ever, I think. In the interest of the sport -- they're very competitive in their own right -- they're helping to build the sport and it's working for both.

Nickell: It's been a really solid start.

Sobieski: We have a lot of discussions about what else we can do. We don't want to stop there.

Transcript
• NASCAR CEO Brian France talks economics (Continued)