Published: Friday, September 22, 2006
Unfortunately, Earnhardt's death helped sport's growth
When stock car racing was in danger in the 1970s, the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company stepped to the plate.
WINSTON-SALEM JOURNAL
Dale Earnhardt was one of a kind, a man who went from humble beginnings to the top of his profession, and his successes enriched his profession as much as they did him.
His profession was stock-car racing, his company NASCAR.
And he died on the job.
Earnhardt's death on the last lap of the 2001 Daytona 500 has been one of the most significant happenings in the 58-year history of NASCAR. It was a devastating blow to the sport, but it triggered a remarkable reaction throughout the nation. It was a seminal event, one in which NASCAR discovered its place in the national consciousness and began to capitalize on that stature.
Expanded
NASCAR was already a lucrative sports business. A lot of people were getting rich playing its game, but it still considered itself the quintessential Southern redneck sport. What it discovered through Earnhardt's death was that the rest of the nation cared about it and its people.
And beyond that, they would pay to watch the show.
Since 2001, NASCAR has become such a profitable business that its top stars, Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr., make an estimated $20 million a year, from salaries, endorsements and souvenir sales. Other popular racers — Tony Stewart and Dale Jarrett, among others — make an estimated $10 million or more.
Every one of NASCAR's 36 top-tier races — the Nextel Cup races — is televised, and the rights cost the networks upwards of $4 billion. Its season is the longest in professional sports. It plays at 22 tracks across the country and it's hard to name a company or product that doesn't have a decal or sticker on one of the cars.
It wasn't always this way.
Looking back
NASCAR was on the ropes and in danger of collapse in the early 1970s when racer Junior Johnson and race promoter Ralph Seagraves got together and made a sponsorship pitch to Bill France Jr., the president of NASCAR. Tracks were going bankrupt. Ford and Chrysler had withdrawn their key factory support, so engine parts and pieces were scarce. And Richard Petty had the only full-time team running on the tour.
What Johnson and Seagraves had come up with was a championship points fund and what has become known today as a "title sponsor." And the sponsor they had in mind was the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.
"The keys were Reynolds' sponsorship of the spring race at Talladega, sponsorship of the season-opener at Riverside, Calif., and a championship points fund — to ensure teams would have to run the full series," said long-time NASCAR public relations executive Roger Bear. "We had to have more than just Richard Petty and James Hylton running for the championship. So we asked Reynolds for a $100,000 point fund, to get the attention of these top guys. And it did."
Reynolds also brought professional-marketing techniques to the sport, techniques it had learned selling cigarettes products but could no longer use because of government restrictions. NASCAR, with its Winston Cup, was also one of Reynolds' advertising outlets.
The growth and vigor of NASCAR can be traced through the opening and closing of certain tracks, and the promotion of those tracks. Daytona International Speedway opened in 1959 and remains the sport's mecca. But Lowe's Motor Speedway in Charlotte, Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama and Bristol Motor Speedway in Tennessee hold positions of similar prominence with drivers and fans.
Nationwide expansion hasn't come without a price to NASCAR's fans, and, some would say, to NASCAR's soul.
Two tracks in the heart of NASCAR country, North Wilkesboro Speedway and North Carolina Motor Speedway, got caught up in the power struggles that expansion brought, mostly for race dates, and lost their spots on the NASCAR schedule.
Hard feelings
Darlington Raceway's venerable Southern 500 was moved from Labor Day weekend to NCMS' spring date, and California Speedway got the Labor Day race.
The hard feelings caused by those maneuvers will never die. But this is a new NASCAR, and it is a business.
Still, the heritage of the people in the Southeast, where it all began, is at the core of NASCAR's success, even today, according to H.A. "Humpy" Wheeler, who runs Charlotte's Lowe's Motor Speedway,.
"It started as a workingman's sport, and it's still a workingman's sport," he said. "There is nothing elite about what we do."
Friday, September 22, 2006
When stock car racing was in danger in the 1970s, the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company stepped to the plate.
WINSTON-SALEM JOURNAL
Dale Earnhardt was one of a kind, a man who went from humble beginnings to the top of his profession, and his successes enriched his profession as much as they did him.
His profession was stock-car racing, his company NASCAR.
And he died on the job.
Earnhardt's death on the last lap of the 2001 Daytona 500 has been one of the most significant happenings in the 58-year history of NASCAR. It was a devastating blow to the sport, but it triggered a remarkable reaction throughout the nation. It was a seminal event, one in which NASCAR discovered its place in the national consciousness and began to capitalize on that stature.
Expanded
NASCAR was already a lucrative sports business. A lot of people were getting rich playing its game, but it still considered itself the quintessential Southern redneck sport. What it discovered through Earnhardt's death was that the rest of the nation cared about it and its people.
And beyond that, they would pay to watch the show.
Since 2001, NASCAR has become such a profitable business that its top stars, Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr., make an estimated $20 million a year, from salaries, endorsements and souvenir sales. Other popular racers — Tony Stewart and Dale Jarrett, among others — make an estimated $10 million or more.
Every one of NASCAR's 36 top-tier races — the Nextel Cup races — is televised, and the rights cost the networks upwards of $4 billion. Its season is the longest in professional sports. It plays at 22 tracks across the country and it's hard to name a company or product that doesn't have a decal or sticker on one of the cars.
It wasn't always this way.
Looking back
NASCAR was on the ropes and in danger of collapse in the early 1970s when racer Junior Johnson and race promoter Ralph Seagraves got together and made a sponsorship pitch to Bill France Jr., the president of NASCAR. Tracks were going bankrupt. Ford and Chrysler had withdrawn their key factory support, so engine parts and pieces were scarce. And Richard Petty had the only full-time team running on the tour.
What Johnson and Seagraves had come up with was a championship points fund and what has become known today as a "title sponsor." And the sponsor they had in mind was the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.
"The keys were Reynolds' sponsorship of the spring race at Talladega, sponsorship of the season-opener at Riverside, Calif., and a championship points fund — to ensure teams would have to run the full series," said long-time NASCAR public relations executive Roger Bear. "We had to have more than just Richard Petty and James Hylton running for the championship. So we asked Reynolds for a $100,000 point fund, to get the attention of these top guys. And it did."
Reynolds also brought professional-marketing techniques to the sport, techniques it had learned selling cigarettes products but could no longer use because of government restrictions. NASCAR, with its Winston Cup, was also one of Reynolds' advertising outlets.
The growth and vigor of NASCAR can be traced through the opening and closing of certain tracks, and the promotion of those tracks. Daytona International Speedway opened in 1959 and remains the sport's mecca. But Lowe's Motor Speedway in Charlotte, Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama and Bristol Motor Speedway in Tennessee hold positions of similar prominence with drivers and fans.
Nationwide expansion hasn't come without a price to NASCAR's fans, and, some would say, to NASCAR's soul.
Two tracks in the heart of NASCAR country, North Wilkesboro Speedway and North Carolina Motor Speedway, got caught up in the power struggles that expansion brought, mostly for race dates, and lost their spots on the NASCAR schedule.
Hard feelings
Darlington Raceway's venerable Southern 500 was moved from Labor Day weekend to NCMS' spring date, and California Speedway got the Labor Day race.
The hard feelings caused by those maneuvers will never die. But this is a new NASCAR, and it is a business.
Still, the heritage of the people in the Southeast, where it all began, is at the core of NASCAR's success, even today, according to H.A. "Humpy" Wheeler, who runs Charlotte's Lowe's Motor Speedway,.
"It started as a workingman's sport, and it's still a workingman's sport," he said. "There is nothing elite about what we do."
Friday, September 22, 2006
Tony Stewart and Dale Jarrett, among others — make an estimated $10 million or more.
Every one of NASCAR's 36...
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