NASCAR New York Office - NASCAR's Secret Weapon

"We use them for two reasons," Miskel says of Yormark's team. "They're sort of an outreach for other sponsors, and there are introductions to other companies or comarketers. The other piece is the idea portion. We tell them, 'If you see an idea that might be implemented, tell us.' They're also surveying all sports, not just racing."

"We go out and identify companies," Feit explains. "We go in and sell the sport. Before we can sell an opportunity, we've got to sell the sport. If a guy wants to spend $2 million, we put opportunities in front of him."

In what has been one of the smartest moves, NASCAR found Yormark, a New Jersey native who had no contact with auto racing before he interviewed with company officials. But while Yormark lacked stock car experience, his background was steeped in experience with traditional sports on Madison Avenue that more than made up for the racing experience shortfall.

Indeed, having a guy like Yormark on the front line has helped from the start. Before he joined NASCAR, Yormark worked with a couple of NBA teams, including the New Jersey Nets and the Detroit Pistons. At one point in his career, he managed broadcast sales rights for several NBA, MLB, and NHL teams.

So, when Yormark walks into the doors of many corporations as a NASCAR salesman, he does so with some familiarity with those he's trying to lure in.

"The fact that I came from a stick and ball [industry] gave me some credibility when I was reaching out to corporate America," Yormark says.

He joined an office of just three people, who until then had little experience in marketing a sport that is radically different from any other when it comes to sponsorship. How so? The New York Knicks will continue to play at Madison Square Garden whether or not Nike provides free shoes to one or all of the players. But with NASCAR, the failure to land a major sponsor can-and has-sidelined a team for good. There's an inescapable link between the corporation and a team's participation that simply does not exist in other sports.

Yormark and his team in New York used his credibility to get companies involved. Today, some of the biggest corporations in the country are NASCAR backers of some sort. Besides Home Depot, the New York office was responsible for getting UPS, Nabisco, Outback Steakhouse, Dominos, and the U.S. Army into NASCAR, where they've all taken on a variety of sponsorship positions.

No doubt, though, the Nextel deal is by far the biggest in the history of the sport.

"We didn't go after the Nextel deal any differently than the others," Yormark explains. "The only issue was that we asked for more." Dollars aside, the deal for a title sponsor to the sport's top series was important. NASCAR officials set a few parameters for the next sponsor. They wanted a company that could market the sport on all levels, one that had a broad consumer base, and one that was an activator, meaning it searched for a variety of ways to land new buyers.

There were about six companies that fit the parameters, including such giants as Visa and McDonald's. As the record book shows, Nextel won out. Now, thanks to the Nextel deal, the spotlight has grown brighter on the NASCAR folks in New York.

"We started from nothing, in 1998," Yormark says. "The office didn't do anything. We've been able to generate a lot of enthusiasm and facilitate some deals. It's continued up to this point. Nextel was a great validation of what we do in New York. If there were any skeptics out there, they should be gone now."