Cool, Confident And Cashing In

Bill Elliott can look back to his successful run for the Winston Million in 1985 as a time of change during his racing career. The Elliott clan, Bill and brothers Ernie and Dan, claimed R.J. Reynolds’ million-dollar bonus that year by winning three of four designated races, but it wasn’t simply the money that changed the way the Elliotts operated. Unprecedented attention from the media began to cut deeply into Elliott’s time spent working on his car that season. The crush became so bad that Elliott needed armed guards in order to work on his record-setting Thunderbird.

You won’t find many Winston Cup drivers today who actually work on their cars, but even more attention is focused on the sport. Instead of preventing drivers from tuning their engines or crawling under their cars to adjust the suspension—as Elliott and a few drivers still did in the mid-’80s—the demands of the sport today might force a driver to be late for a personal appearance, a television interview, or a commercial shoot.

In a world of stock car racing where corporations once feared to tread, marketing terms like “demographics” and “target audience” are now part of the Sunday afternoon vernacular. And nowhere is marketing success more prevalent than in the wave of young drivers who have swept into the forefront of NASCAR.

“When we came into this deal we didn’t have any money,” Elliott says.”I don’t take that as being a negative. I learned what I had to learn during my era. I’ve been able to adapt throughout the years. I’m very happy today. That’s evolution. Guys are going to come in here and push you out. That’s part of it. That’s the part we’ve got to understand.”

Quick Kids

Their names—Dale Earnhardt Jr., Elliott Sadler, Kevin Harvick, Kurt Busch, Jimmie Johnson, Ryan Newman, Casey Atwood—have become familiar to even casual fans of the sport. The oldest of the group, Earnhardt Jr., will turn 28 in October, while Atwood, the youngest, is 22.

Tony Stewart redefined rookie success in 1999 when he won a record three races and finished fourth in Winston Cup points for Joe Gibbs Racing. The trend toward young, successful drivers goes back even further, though, to Jeff Gordon’s success as a 22-year-old in 1993, when he was Rookie of the Year. He won twice the next year and new fans began to flock to the sport because of Gordon. In terms of marketing and appeal to younger, never-before-reached markets, Earnhardt Jr. has picked up where Gordon left off and single-handedly redefined success in the marketplace.

Youthful vigor on the track hasn’t equated to positive PR off the track, however. Two of the most successful rookies ever in NASCAR, Stewart and Harvick, have been two of the most volatile drivers off the track. Harvick, who won twice, finished ninth in points, and was Cup Rookie of the Year in 2001, has had several well-documented flare-ups this season, as Stewart did in 2001. This season a young, articulate, well mannered driver has combined the best of both worlds. Jimmie Johnson is not only saying and doing the right things off the track, he’s winning on the track at a pace ahead of even Stewart’s rookie campaign. By the Pepsi 400 at Daytona, the midpoint of the season, Johnson had won two races and was in fourth in points.

Johnson personifies the young, aggressive, winning driver that teams have searched for since Gordon lowered the bar in terms of when to expect success in the sport. For his sponsor, Lowe’s, which joined Hendrick Motorsports at the beginning of this season, Johnson’s ability to win quickly has meant a reversal of fortunes. The company spent five seasons as a sponsor before reaching Victory Lane in a Cup point race with Richard Childress Racing and driver Robby Gordon in last season’s finale at New Hampshire. Lowe’s languished in the shadows of NASCAR success while rival Home Depot hit the jackpot in ’99 with Gibbs and Stewart, a combination that produced 12 wins in three seasons.

Getting Noticed

There are parallels between Johnson’s success this season and Stewart’s in ’99: Both drivers moved to the Cup series after having modest success in the Busch Series, both came from outside the NASCAR realm—Stewart, an Indiana native, came from open wheel racing, and Johnson, a Californian, came from off-road racing—and both landed with established Winston Cup teams. Their personalities, however, differ as much as the fiery orange and placid blue that make up the primary colors of their respective sponsors.

Home Depot’s Hugh Miskel, director of sales development, says Stewart’s occasional public relations problems are outweighed by the benefits of exposure gained by the company. “You sort of have the philosophy that if you finish in first or in flames, as long as they’re talking about you on Monday morning at the water cooler, you have to view it as a success,” says Miskel.

Earning exposure is the name of the game in marketing. When a company is shelling out $10 million or more per year in sponsorship money, getting noticed is of primary concern. Getting noticed in Victory Lane is the ultimate goal. Companies look for drivers who can perform on the track and behave like a gentleman away from it. Still, young drivers are largely unproven in the major leagues, sometimes with little or no success in a stock car, and even less experience facing a media swarm.

“First, you don’t know what they can really do in the Cup series, in the top series,” says Max Muhleman, president of IMG/Muhleman Marketing. “Then they have their own personal risks. Some of the risks are just like those we see in other major league sports, frankly, where a lot more money than they’ve ever had before comes their way, and they have ‘how-do-they-behave’ risks. The other risk, of course, is the one of not being able to do what you expect them to do.”

Stewart and Johnson did nothing to set themselves apart in the Busch Series, with Stewart going winless and Johnson winning just once, so both sponsors relied on other mechanisms of evaluation. In aligning with Joe Gibbs Racing and Stewart, Home Depot relied on Gibbs’ reputation for success and his ability to deal with people. Lowe’s used the same strategy with Hendrick Motorsports and Johnson, relying on Jeff Gordon’s assessment of Johnson.

While those two situations paid off quite well, with two of the top seasons ever by Winston Cup rookies, many risks remain in choosing unproven stock car drivers. For every Johnson there’s a Jason Leffler, who dropped back to the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series this year after spending an unsuccessful 2001 in Winston Cup with Ganassi Racing. For every Stewart, there’s a Scott Pruett, a road-racing veteran who was unsuccessful in his attempt to cross over to stock car racing with Cal Wells in 2000.

Miskel insists that Home Depot’s primary motivation to get involved in NASCAR came from the company’s employees, and the company has used its association with Gibbs and Stewart as a tool to boost morale internally while at the same time giving employees common ground with customers. The impact, buoyed by Stewart’s success, has been better than expected.

“I think there is some uncertainty going into any sponsorship as far as what the return is going to be,” says Miskel. “The early success of the program exceeded our expectations and has created a very positive umbrella effect over the entire program, which is going to allow it to do more both internally and externally, whether it’s (NASCAR) products in our stores or entertainment of customers. And that has and can have a very positive effect on our business overall. I think the outlook for us is very positive, because the on-track performance has been a bonus to everything else we’ve put in place. ... It has only enhanced everything we’ve done.”

Bucking Tradition

NASCAR drivers have traditionally been considered in their prime when they reach their mid-30s. So, how can a driver such as a Jimmie Johnson or a Tony Stewart not only win early but also be consistently competitive, while some of the sport’s top names didn’t find consistent success until later in their careers? Primarily, the new guys are getting into good equipment quicker than did their predecessors, who had to pay their dues before getting an opportunity in a top car. And with the number of quality sponsors involved today—sponsors who provide the money for successful ventures—there are simply more good cars out there.

Then there’s the Gordon factor. Gordon’s early success—he was Winston Cup champion soon after turning 24—changed the dynamics of the sport, paving the way for young guys who’ve followed. With more quality rides available, and with team owners more willing to take a chance on a young driver, due to Gordon’s success, the result is more young drivers in the limelight.

“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.”

The End Result

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.”

The driver leading the point race during much of the first half of the season was 45-year-old Sterling Marlin, a veteran in his 17th full season of competition. The point race by midseason produced an even mix of drivers in the Top 10—five were over 40 and five were 31 or younger, including relative youngsters Gordon, Johnson, Stewart, Kenseth, and Busch.

Busch compares it to being a high school student—which he was just six years ago. “You’re always going to have the elder statesmen and the younger statesmen,” he says. “It’s similar to high school where you’ve got freshmen coming in (and) they think they know everything; they’re going to get on the varsity football team and do their own deal. Then, of course, you’ve got the veterans there who know how things are and they’re going to put them in their place. You’re always going to have that confrontation between old and young, I guess, and it’s a fine balance all the time just getting along with everybody.”

Muhleman sees the sport going through a normal transition and not a profound, landscape-altering trend toward younger drivers, as Marlin, Dale Jarrett, Rusty Wallace, Terry Labonte, and other over-40 drivers near the end of their careers.

“It’s always going to come back to who can win,” says Muhleman. “The guy who’s got five or 10 years, but not 20, under his belt and has got real talent and a good team is always going to be dominant. They’re going to win with all things being anywhere near equal.

“It’s a cycle, really, that sometimes has not been as obvious as other times. Right now it’s a very obvious thing. These guys are going to get old. In five years, they’ll be five years older. I don’t mean to be facetious, but Jeff Gordon is 30 and he’s not included with the young guys anymore. I mean, it seems like yesterday (Dale) Earnhardt and everybody was calling him ‘Wonder Boy,’ and now, while he’s not ‘Pops’ yet, he’s not ever mentioned as a younger driver. Isn’t that amazing?”