NASCAR Teams Should Do More To Promote the Sport

When it comes to the talk about NASCAR’s ratings drop, there is one thing that people don’t mention. That is how NASCAR teams don’t do anything to actually help promote the sport and instead expect drivers to bring sponsors to them. That is bad for the sport for more than one reason.

NASCAR Needs To Market Itself Like Before

Brian France, as NASCAR CEO, was terrible. That is an opinion many agree with, and it is one that I share. But not many people know that he was head of marketing in the 90s and 2000s. That was a role he excelled in. He brought in large companies like Turner Broadcasting and Nextel to sponsor the series. Both were sponsors that, in the decade prior, never would’ve thought of joining the sport. During that time, it didn’t matter what network you were watching or what you were watching; you likely saw NASCAR in some way.

Whether it was highlights of NASCAR, a promo for an upcoming race, or drivers promoting their products in commercials. If you weren’t following the sport, you were aware of who the biggest stars were and what their cars looked like. Some of that is in NASCAR’s hands, but the teams can take matters into their own hands when it comes to things like highlights or getting their drivers to promote their own sponsors.

Blown Opportunities

If teams and drivers were more active in promoting the brands that pay them, it would help grow the sport. It would make sponsors way more likely to stay loyal to the drivers and/or teams they signed. Business loyalty means more money. The more people who see NASCAR drivers alongside their favorite brands, the more new fans will start to give NASCAR a chance.

With social media, there is now more chance than ever for teams to promote the brands that pay them for promotion and use that to get closer to fans. But teams don’t use it, and it’s helping NASCAR slip out of the cultural conversation. It is the same thing with the drivers as well. While it is becoming much more common for drivers to use social media now, it is still not the rule among drivers. That makes brands much less likely to stay loyal to them or sponsor them for more races, let alone a full season!

Why Are NASCAR Teams So Complacent?

Part of that goes back to those ’90s days I brought up earlier. With NASCAR and the drivers doing so much to bring in sponsors to their teams, it gave the teams the idea that sponsors would come to them. That is an attitude that’s partly responsible for the rise of pay drivers. Rich kids born into sponsorship go hand-in-hand with this attitude. That makes teams even less likely to be proactive and find sponsorship themselves. But then teams say that being a pay driver is a needed evil.

Solving NASCAR’s Pay Driver Problem

While there is no way pay drivers will ever go away, it is really hard for millionaires or for anyone to turn away free money after all. If teams tried to pitch themselves and their drivers to sponsors more often, it would make it easier for them to fund a talented but lower-budgeted driver through the ranks and even into the cup. This would improve the racing standards of the lower series dramatically. It would also make it easier for lower series teams to find sponsorship and be profitable for once.

This has been a well-known issue for a while, especially in trucks. Cup teams in Xfinity and Trucks should be as proactive as possible in finding sponsorship and using social media to attract more of it.