[bears9]

Sirius Speedway has learned that UPS will move from Michael Waltrip Racing’s #44 Toyota to the quarterpanels of Clint Bowyer’s #07 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet in 2009, leaving Jack Daniels in search of a new driver. That driver will be Ryan Newman, who is set to sign-on with Stewart at Haas CNC.(Sirius NASCAR Radio's Sirius Speedway)(7-7-200

[Nevadastars]

Mikey has got to be worried a bit. I can't believe Napa still hangs with him.

[Measure]

I think Mikey saw this coming. What should have him worried is his inability to find a new sponsor for the 00. If that translates into an inability to also find a new sponsor for the 44, then he will be in trouble.

[LSC9901]

Originally Posted by Nevadastars

Mikey has got to be worried a bit. I can't believe Napa still hangs with him.

I'd suspect that the exposure they (NAPA) gets from him is worth far more than what they invest. The commercials are real attention getters.

[loco4pablo]

Didn't Richard Childers say on friday the Jack Daniels would be on the same car/driver in 09?
The story of UPS comming too RCR was broke 3 weeks ago. UPS also doesn't want to be associated with a team that also has a liquer sponsor.
Like I said..... it's like getting caught cheating on your spouse.....deny deny deny.
All these people are BS artist's!!

[loco4pablo]

Originally Posted by LSC9901

I'd suspect that the exposure they (NAPA) gets from him is worth far more than what they invest. The commercials are real attention getters.

I agree.... I'm not a big Mikey fan but he is one of the top all time spokesmen for a product. Who could NAPA get that could do what Mikey does? The guy will make a commercial making fun of his lack of performance..... And it still sells!

[Nevadastars]

Originally Posted by LSC9901

I'd suspect that the exposure they (NAPA) gets from him is worth far more than what they invest. The commercials are real attention getters.

Maybe so, but as a sponsor giving him millions of dollars, I would much rather have a car up towards the front at least once in a while. He is the laughing stock of the Toyotas floundering around mid-pack at best.

I do admit though, the commercials are playing on it, especially the one with the Cockatoo. I know one thing though, the local Napa I frequent pulled the big standup of Mickey out of the front because they got tired of hearing everyone laughing about him and making cracks about him driving a Toyota.

[Bob Tanner]

The date on this is 07 July? Childress has stated, as of Thursday, that, uninequitably, Jack Black will be on the 07 next season?

I'll believe UPS on the 07 when I see it.

[jks812]

Maybe UPS is going on his 4th car?

[bob101]

Because sponsorship money is NOT tied to where you place. NEVER has been and likely never will be.

I don't understand why that's so hard for people to understand.

Sponsorship money is tied to exposure, trust me as a past racer I know this very well.

Who else gets as much exposure as Mikey does? He is commonly interviewed on speed, used to co-host tradin paint, still co-host inside NASCAR once a week etc....

He flat gets his car and the name of his sponsor out there for people to see, and that's the name of the game.

If a sponsor could sponsor a car that finished 43rd every week for 75% of the price of a car that was in the top 10 each week but still wound up with the same amount of exposure - you can bet they would be all over that deal quicker than you could produce a pen for them to sign it.

The only tie that sponsorship has to performance is because typically cars that finish in the top 10 get a lot more TV time...but that's not always the case.

Not only does Mikey get a lot of attention by being on TV a lot, every year he gets double exposure at Daytona because he's a past winner - and Daytona goes on for 2 weeks nearly now. So far 2 weeks he's up there talking about winning Daytona, or Dale's death the whole time plugging NAPA.

I'm guessing NAPA gets a bargain for Mikey in pure terms of exposure compared to what it would cost them to sponsor a RCR, Hendrick, JGR, or Rousch team easily.

I mean it look at it this way, if Richard Petty came back and drove he would have sponsors falling all over him...and he would likely finish at the bottom of the heap. But it would be money well spent for exposure.

Sponsorship money is not a reward for running in the top 10 or whatever. Look how many sponsors are on the side of cars that finish in the top 20 in points yet you almost never see their driver on TV, interviewed on radio, written about in the paper. Waste of money.

Sponsors for the most part could care less where you finish as long as the reports come in (yes each week a sponsor will get a report from a company that tracks how often their logo - and only a "readable" logo was on air that last week/month - how often someone mentioned their product/company/service was seen/mentioned on TV/radio/newspaper and it's broken down by each media and how "prime" that media source is. That's why guys get out and drink a coke or whatever, not only do they get "coke points" with the sponsor that's a "prime" showing of their trademark (watch them turn the drink so you can see the logo or it doesn't count).

I've seen the reports, people who are seeking sponsorship shop them around to show potential sponsors how good a deal it is. Sponsors look at the report to see if they are getting their money's worth. Look at Aarons they got 10x their money's worth the week McDowell crashed at Texas - so much so they even feature pics of the crash in their ads on TV now. That's a terrible performance tied to good name exposure....

Look at the truck series. Ever notice how the announcers (and umm yeah Mikey is one of them again talking about the Aaron's Lucky dog plugging a sponsor again) will say "Soandso driver in the XXXX sponsored truck" nearly everytime they refer to a truck. "There's Kenny Schreader in the Fastenal Dodge".

Now compare that to how many times you hear the sponsor during the race of a cup race? There's a reason for that. The truck series sponsors need more bang for their buck and that's how they give it to them. Don't think for a second that's not planned and memo'd to every announcer. In cup it's not "Biffle in the 3M Ford Fusion passing whoever". It's "Biffle passes Gordon", or "The #16 passes the #24".

[LSC9901]

Thanks for the info bob101. I guess now I would ask is there a difference in the amount of sponsorship money given to Gordon versus a Dave Blaney type of driver ? Since exposure is what they want it would seem to e that there would be more of it on the 24 car. Who makes the decision as to how much money is available ? Does the sponsor say here is $40 million for 30 races or does the team say we'll put you on the car for 30 races for $40 million ? I would assume it is more of a mutual agreement, but since you've been in the business I'd just enjoy hearing your side of the story.

[Bob Tanner]

Originally Posted by bob101

Because sponsorship money is NOT tied to where you place. NEVER has been and likely never will be.

I don't understand why that's so hard for people to understand.

Sponsorship money is tied to exposure, trust me as a past racer I know this very well.

++++=++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Now compare that to how many times you hear the sponsor during the race of a cup race? There's a reason for that. The truck series sponsors need more bang for their buck and that's how they give it to them. Don't think for a second that's not planned and memo'd to every announcer. In cup it's not "Biffle in the 3M Ford Fusion passing whoever". It's "Biffle passes Gordon", or "The #16 passes the #24".

Thanks, bob101. All very valid points, but...

In the majority of the cases, isn't exposure and racing performance directly proportional?

[bob101]

There is a correlation, but it's not a direct correlation.

Standings in points/finishes come and go. Exposure is less up and down than standings...except for one time events like say McDowells wreck at Texas.

I'm not sure who decides what the sponsorship amount is in Cup. I imagine teams have a minimum they want/need to run a season or part of a season and shop that around - that's the ideal solution.

Look at drivers like Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr. Not only do they commonlyh get exposure (mostly positive) from winning races and finihsing in the top 10 etc...they are always interviewed at race tracks for their opinion on matters of the day.

Go up and ask a non NASCAR race fan to name as many NASCAR drivers as you can and you get answers from none to just Gordon, Earnhardt, and even Petty. That's the true "bluechip" people that owners/sponsorships dream about. Not only do they get the sponsors name out in the public for a few hours each weekend during the race, they might show up on TV/Radio/Newspaper about other things non-race related as well.

For example. Look what happens when you win the Daytona 500. You go on a national media tour for 2 days starting in New York and ending in LA. Ryan Newman is very well known to race fans and everyone on this board....however, how many times was he referred to as "little known NASCAR driver Ryan Newman". I heard that a lot. If Dave Blaney had won the 500 I think he would have gotten the same treatment, same for a lot of drivers like Martin Truex etc...if Gordon had won he wouldn't have been referred to like that.

Companies want someone who not only gets the name out, but they can promote.

Look at the cardboard cut outs they put in stores etc...someone mentioned the Mikey cut outs and taking them down. While people made fun of him they knew who he was and associated him with NAPA - thats the goal. Even people who don't follow NASCAR know the name and can associate him with NASCAR. Like in advertising you hear - even bad publicity is good publicity.

Stick a cardboard cut out of Travis Kvapil (who is higher in points than Mikey) and how many people would say "Oh yeah I know that guy" when they saw it? Even race fans?

Think about this as well. Not only are drivers sponsored now so are television personalities on TV before and after the race. Their sponsorship isn't tied to performance on the track since they don't race. It's 100% tied to exposure. Look at poeple like Darrel Waltrip, Jeff Hammond etc...they all wear sponsorship shirts/hats when they can get away with it on Speed/Fox etc...

We all laugh when driver XXX gets out after a horrible crash that he caused because of lack of ability or whatever and says "My Champion Cereal / Best Beer in the World / Emporium Widget sponsored Hudson Hawk was running well tonight". But those mentions actually mean an actual dollar amount and I guarantee a car owner can tell you exactly how much in real money each mention is worth to the penny most likely.

[saltysenior]

bob 101 ...you bring up things that i have recently began to question...the lack of mentioning sponsorship,ownership and car make of cars that are not front runners........''biffle passing gordon'' is a good example of what i'm trying to say.....another puzzle is the size of the lettering on the sides of the cars. during the last race i tried to read the sponsorship on the sides of the cars during the race....you could make out ''lowes'' and ''3m''. most others you needed a t.v. mag. glass to make them out...why are the letters so small???remember ''bud'',''kodak'',''tide'',''coors''.....i know these are short names, but ''havoline'', ''goodwrench'',&''valvoline'' where once on the side of a car and where written out so only a blind man could not read them...i know if i was a sponsor,i'd want my product name as visible as possible.......only two explanations ..my eyes ..or the infamous nacur ''rule book''......

[Bob Tanner]

Originally Posted by bob101

There is a correlation, but it's not a direct correlation.

Standings in points/finishes come and go. Exposure is less up and down than standings...except for one time events like say McDowells wreck at Texas.
================================================== ====
We all laugh when driver XXX gets out after a horrible crash that he caused because of lack of ability or whatever and says "My Champion Cereal / Best Beer in the World / Emporium Widget sponsored Hudson Hawk was running well tonight". But those mentions actually mean an actual dollar amount and I guarantee a car owner can tell you exactly how much in real money each mention is worth to the penny most likely.

I think we're basically on the same page, except I still maintain that in the majority, but not all, of the cases, exposure is directly proportional to performance, somewhere down the line.

The best example I can give is the clown who is probably the most loved but lowest performing driver in Cup today, Mikey Waltrip. The guy oozes charisma like a social worker oozes a need to fix people. NAPA sure isn't staying with him because of his winning record!

However, Mikey could easily be on a similar grease rack as others who have famous and ultra-successful relatives who preceded them. Without DW's success Mike might be just another well-liked driver out there with only slightly above average talent but with a gift of gab.

But I see your point. The high-rollers want someone who can pitch and represent their produce. Having a winning record is just a plus. This is the reason so many of the winning drivers of the 50's and 60's could never dream of being successful in today's NA__AR. Can you, for a nanosecond, picture Junior Johnson, Herb Thomas or David Pearson putting on a big smile, getting in front of a camera and jumping through the hoops Carl Edwards, Jeffy-Pooh or even Smoke jump through today?

You do make some very good points which are undeniable.