"Virtually every sponsor is hoping to find the next Jeff Gordon," says Tom Cotter, managing director of CMI Cotter Group, a marketing firm with close ties to the sport. "Because of his success we're seeing a lot more young guys going for it. There are probably a lot of fathers today coaching their kids in go-kart racing and mini-sprints rather than Little League."
As the Jeff Gordons and Jimmie Johnsons and Tony Stewarts reach Victory Lane, NASCAR's fan base expands into new territory. While Major League Baseball considers contraction and the NBA comes to grips with a future without Michael Jordan, major league stock car racing is reaching an unprecedented number of households, thanks primarily to a billion-dollar television package now in its second year and, yes, thanks to a new wave of young drivers.
Even Sports Illustrated took notice earlier this year, putting Dale Earnhardt Jr. on its cover, an undeniably rare placement for a NASCAR driver. With Earnhardt Jr. reaching the pages of People magazine and appearing on MTV, and with Gordon making appearances on popular talk shows, NASCAR has become mainstream in America, appealing to a cross section of fans, especially young ones. A Britney Spears movie based on NASCAR is even in the works.
"NASCAR had traditionally appealed to older adults, say from the late 20s, maybe 30 on up," says Cotter. "But there's a whole huge marketing segment of people who have billions of dollars of marketing power, billions of dollars of buying power, that NASCAR has not been at the top of the mind with those people. Having a driver like Jeff Gordon, who appears on the cover of magazines they may read, or more lately Dale Earnhardt Jr., who is appearing on everything that's hip, that's attracting a lot more media attention in the media of a particular demographic type. It's hard to escape NASCAR. That's how you breed new blood to take over the reins of fandom in this sport."
As the fan base grows, the sport benefits in several ways. "The interesting thing is both of the cola companies are in it and they have one of the youngest demo skews of anybody," Muhleman says. "They're interested in demographics down to 12 years old, which is a lot younger than motor oil or something like that. As the demographics improve, the sponsor net gets wider."
Sponsors, meanwhile, have become increasingly impatient in recent seasons, as the demand to win correlates directly with the amount of money spent. "Silly Season," NASCAR's annual period of driver changes and rumors of driver changes, experienced a spring renewal this year, earlier than ever before, primarily because of impatient sponsors and the pressures team owners face.
"There seems to be a lot more immediacy now," says Cotter. "The price of sponsorship has gone up so dramatically in recent years, there is not as much patience to wait for a program to come around and start showing benefits and increasing sales of whatever product a company has. "There used to be, 'Plant the seed and we'll wait for sales to rise.' Now it's much more immediate, 'We want to start seeing increased sales over the next two quarters,' and there has to be measurement mechanisms put in place. The reason for that is racing has gotten expensive. It's on the radar charts now, not as just throwing away a couple of million dollars and saying, 'We'll see what happens.'"
It remains to be seen whether the current youth movement will be a lasting trend or a passing phenomenon; whether twenty-something drivers will be leading the sport or merely following experienced veterans. In every other major sport, after all, athletes typically are most productive before age 35. Should stock car racing be any different?
Of the 19 different winners last season, five were 30 or younger, and five of 11 winners were 31 or younger during the first half of this season. Second-year driver Kurt Busch was 23 when he won at Bristol during March of this year, joining Johnson, who was 26 when he won at California, his first Cup victory. Six winners last year were over 40, however, and five were 40 or older during this season's first 17 races.
"Obviously we've all been given great opportunities and great equipment," says Johnson. "A few of us have some great coaches to learn from, so we're all making the most of it. Don't be fooled. The veterans, they're on their game; they're up front battling and winning as well."