Does winning win over the fans in NASCAR?
Quote selected text Published March 21st, 2008 in NASCAR News
Winning NASCAR races isn’t necessary in winning over fans.
Millsport, a motor sports-oriented sports marketing agency in Charlotte, thinks it has proved that by classifying 36 Sprint Cup drivers with the Davie Brown Index, which quantifies an athlete’s charisma, relevance and influence on consumer behavior.
In a nationwide online survey of 300 avid fans, Dale Earnhardt Jr. ranked first, followed by Jeff Gordon and Jeff Burton. But two drivers known more for their boardroom savvy than their racing success rounded out the top five: Michael Waltrip, who has four victories (all between 2001-03) in 694 starts, and Kyle Petty, who has eight wins but none since 1995.
Mike Bartelli, senior vice president for Millsport, said the results prove personality can outweigh performance when sponsors are making multimillion-dollar decisions on funding a driver’s car.
“We’ve espoused this for years,” Bartelli said. “It’s about aligning with the right guy. It’s not necessarily about winning races.”
Other results of the survey, taken before the Daytona 500:
•Earnhardt, voted NASCAR’s most popular driver the past five years, ranked first in all eight categories (awareness, appeal, notice, trendsetter, influence, trust, endorsement and aspiration).
“Some of that is natural for the publicity he receives, but the magnitude of the difference is surprising,” said Bill Glenn, who developed the DBI as vice president for insights and analytics at The Marketing Arm, the parent company of Millsport.
•Open-wheel drivers who have migrated to NASCAR are struggling to make an impression on stock-car fans. Juan Pablo Montoya is ranked 27th in awareness and last in appeal, trust and endorsement. Dario Franchitti (30th) and Sam Hornish Jr. (35th) lag in awareness despite being former IRL IndyCar and Indianapolis 500 champions.
“It’s a bit surprising,” Bartelli said. “But the NASCAR fan is just that: a NASCAR fan.”
Bartelli said the data are valuable to corporations and teams as sponsorships become harder to find in a weakening economy.
“Most of the decisions around sponsorship are still made too often through intuition and availability,” he said. “It’s amazing that tens of millions can be invested on whether a company likes somebody.”
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hmmm..i agree that winning does not always win over fans, but i found it odd that Waltrip and Petty are 4th and 5th. However, if you notice, they both have one hell of a racing pedigree before them. Waltrip has brother Darrel, and Petty..well if i need to comtinue you should just stop reading this now. BUT, i do think winning races early on in your career will help with fans alot, nobody wants to cheer on a crappy driver. But who you are as a person says alot, who your sponsor is says alot, and the manufacturer of your car has alot to do with your fan base.
Matt I think you hit the nail on the head as far as Mikey and Kyle, and well lots of other drivers, heck even Jr. Drivers that are related to another driver who had a notable career will always have that advantage with attracting fans, more so then Joe Blow will.
I also think that Location has a part in this. For instance I live in the Poconos, there are a lot of fans in this area who pulled for Steve Park, and Jimmy Spencer, The Bodines, and now Martin Truex Jr For the simple fact that on a Friday or Saturday night they could go to one of the short tracks here in PA, or in NJ/NY and see them race, and now for those drivers they grew up watching to make it to the big leagues, you are going to follow them and be a fan of them in some fashion.
And to expand on what you said about winning races early in your career. It’s not just early on in your “Cup Career” or whatever series you are in, its winning races in lower series, and winning races in other top series before you get to Cup.
Operative words, “300 Fans”. And in a sport where numbers reach the hundreds of thousands, the facts from this survey are hardly valid, let alone worth reporting. Sorry folks but a member of the scientific forensic community and when conducting such to obtain findings, it just requires more than this to be considered valid. Amazing what people will follow - as it all explodes right before us. Racing is such a wonderful sport to me and yet no fool like an ole fool who allows fools like this.
for the record, not talking about the fan - that’s the heartbeat. I’m talking about industry banking on whims just like this. Nascar is a fool for NOT listening, let alone seeing what’s out there. They can’t understand it because they live in their community, while we live in ours.
I think people follow drivers for various reasons and it cant be painted with 1 brush. Jr. is popular because of alot of reasons , alot because of his Dad , alot because of his regular guy personality and so on. Jeff Gordon , I believe because of his driving skill , winning alot , and in the early days because he was the first of a long list of young guns that came to Nascar in their early 20″s. Jimmie Johnson falls into a simular pattern. Jeff Burton is Mr. no-nonsense and is a real honest “clean” driver , kinda the same for Mark Martin. Now Kyle has become hughly popular due to his likable personality , and his big heart and all the great things he has done with Victory Junction. I believe Kenny Wallace , Schrader and Mikey have become popular due to thier funny personalities and I would be willing to bet if Elliott Sadler was on tv every race weekend , like Mikey , then elliott would be in that group , because he is one funny guy. So for this article to think you can pinpoint 1 reason for a drivers popularity , is just crazy. they all have thier different plus and minus qualities and noone is liked by everyone. some more than others.
Actually i think it has more to do with growing up in the sport as in Dale Jr and Kyle Petty. With these two everyone knew them before they ever strapped on a helmet so it’s sort of like rooting for one of your home town hero’s. When Kyle was driving the mello yellow 42 he was as popular as dale jr is now.
As for the rest, people found some sort of deep connection with them somehow. If you dont make some sort of connection with the nascar fans your doomed to fail. The good thing about making this connection is that once you have it you wont lose it.
Matt wrote:
idk about winning the first races making a difference. Mcmurray won his second nextel cup start a while back and, well, from race chatter where i come from, he’s as good as dirt.
Does anyone have the full list, I wonder where Mark Martin scored?
if you look at the fans every weekend like i do the most popular drivers are Dale Jr. , Jeff Gordon , Dale Sr, Tony Stewart, Jimmy Johnson, Kasey Kahne, Kevin Harvick, Carl Edwards, Michael Waltrip, Clint Bowyer, and Matt Kenseth. and the souvenir trailers will show that with Dale being 51% of Actions yearly Revenue
nobody likes a winning team thats why u hear the jeff gordon crap and jimmie and so on when they always win…U ALL KNOW ITS TRUE!!! NO LIE.
This story is about winning? why is michael waltrips picture up there lol.
I grew up a Dale Earnhardt fan because thats who my mom pulled for and it rubbed off on me. Now I am a Jr fan. But for different reasons. I watched Jr. race at short tracks here in North Carolina and South Carolina. I liked him then and I still pull for him today. I think fans need to stay loyal to there drivers no matter what team or make they drive for. I don’t like hendrick, Gordon, or Johnson. But now I find myself pulling for them because they are teammates of Jr.