[vincesanity82]

NASCAR?s Mexico City venture could be fizzling. The number of top drivers making the trip appears to be dwindling, and the two best NASCAR road racers - Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart - continue to snub the race. Adrian Fernandez agrees that there are questions. ?I?m not 100 percent sure,? he said. ?It feels like it?s more of a peak when it gets to Mexico because there?s a lot of good drivers from Mexico that compete. It gets well promoted. It?s a good event. It?s a good race. The fans have an opportunity to see a lot of the drivers that they don?t see through the year. ?Through the year, I still have my doubts. I don?t think it (NASCAR racing in general) is being followed as much as everybody would like it to, or NASCAR would like it to. ?And I think the key is that we really haven?t had a Mexican driver that represents NASCAR on a consistent basis that they can follow through the year. The real race fans, they follow it through the year. But for a lot of them, you need definitely the identity of somebody that they can follow.? -- Winston-Salem Journal

http://www.journalnow.com/servlet/Sa...=1037645509202

[Fireball]

Vince, the Mexico City NASCAR race is a Nationwide race. This is usually thought of as a "second grade" series. It is not NASCAR's top series. It is an experiment to see if NASCAR should schedule one of it Sprint Cup races there. Generally, logistics to get the teams to Mexico City is a problem for NASCAR teams. Mexico City is not just across the border. It's a long was down into Mexico. Oh yes, I know the drivers just fly their jets down there. But, the teams have to get all their cars and equipment down there.

Another important factor is the P&L for such a venture. There needs to be something into this other than the excitement of racing in Mexico City. You have to make money at it. If a sponsor is not willing to "chance" their investment to send a team and driver to Mexico City, which cost a lot more than sending them to Lowe's across town, that sponsor has to have customers in Mexico for the investment to give a payback.

I wouldn't connect the lack of Mexican drivers in NASCAR at the top level or second grade level with making a race in Mexico City profitable. It's going to be how the promoter markets the race.

[Bob Tanner]

It's a Cup Lite race, so that immediately narrows the field of Cup drivers to around thirty.

Then you factor it the sponsorship angle. International brands are about the only sponsors who would interested in putting their names on a car down there. For example, Renzi's sponsor of Bobby Hamilton Jr. is Smithfield Meats. They only sell in the east so what benefit would it be for them to pay for a team to go to Mexico City? The only reason Renzi is there this week is that he worked a deal with Boris Said and No Fear Drinks. Boris himself is furnishing the pit crew, not Renzi.

So, without big sponsors (of course this point is really moot because NA__AR keeps assuring us that these guy race because they just love to and they'd do it for free!!?? Guess they missed their chance to prove that this week, with Mexico, eh?) the rock star Cup drivers aren't interested.

Then you have the trip to Mexico City itself. I never heard it mentioned on any of the NA__AR programs but last Monday the U.S. State Department put out a warning against any American traveling to Mexico because of threats of terrorism by the Mexican drug cartel in protest against drug and illegal alien crackdowns on this side of the border.

I'm amazed that anyone goes down there. I'd like to know exactly who is making the money on this deal. I know the teams sure aren't.