By Josh Stewart-The No. 01 DEI Chevrolet of Regan Smith may be short on sponsorship, but don’t expect a blank car to show up at the track resembling Yates Racing entries.
Instead of running a plain scheme to highlight the need to find more sponsorship, DEI Vice President of Motorsports Operations John Story said the team has decided instead to “sweeten” its deal with Principal Financial Group, who initially just signed as a full-season associate sponsor with a handful of races as the primary.
“We’ve discussed, do you leave the car blank, do you do what Yates has done and say, ‘SponsorYates.com and call us,’ and we believe it can actually work against you in many ways,” Story told the Press.
“If you left the car white, a sponsor may in fact say, ‘Hey, that’s a great car and they’ve got space available, let’s call.’ Or they may say, ‘Nobody else is sponsoring that car. Why should we? Is there something wrong with them?’”
Recently, the car has run with the DEI logo on the hood, but with the Principal signage on the rear quarterpanels and back. In addition, Smith has worn the Principal firesuit and referred to the company in interviews as if it’s any other primary sponsor.
Story doesn’t believe that DEI is devaluing the sponsorship long-term by giving Principal more than it’s paying for. He also doesn’t think the No. 01 is missing out on the opportunity to attract new sponsors by not running a blank car, saying that DEI is in discussions with companies about sponsorship for this year and beyond.
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this will be an on going problem with small teams like DEI , BDR and PETTY , as the economy gets worst the sponsorship will dry up because big companies will not spend the 20 million on a driver that cannot post wins in NASCAR. they will spend that money elsewhere. you can get some good advertising spots on the networks right now that will probably provide more coverage than the 01 car on the track. the talk of ARMY pulling out at the end of the season has to have DEI wondering what will happen after Mark Martin leaves. i think Bass Pro just stays on the car simply because of the relationship Johnny Morris had with SR. but if times get tough Bass Pro as a retailer might cut down their spending too. NASCAR is goin to have this problem in all 3 series and as the gas goes up another 30 cents in the next 30 days you are goin to see alot of empty seats at the tracks. we are seeing it already. the COT has done nothing in the way of saving any money for the teams or for cutting that big sponsorship down. its totally out of hand.
Howie motorsports photography wrote:
I think NASCAR should have handled the COT situation differently, and by that I mean this;
During Daytona coverage it was mentioned that so far NASCAR has certified a few hundred COT Chassis. Now If I was NASCAR I would have put a limit saying a team can only have 3 COT Chassis registered per car number at a time, and when they want to register a 4th Chassis they have to turn one of their chassis into NASCAR so that way they still only have 3.
Now I know that wouldn’t really Solve the problem, but I think it’d cut down on teams building outrageous amounts of extra cars, and teams thinking they need 10-15 cars per Car Number.
Now I know a lot of people may not agree with what I say next, but I think it’d be best for the sport in the long run. I hope with the Nationwide COT NASCAR moves towards more Spec parts. Not only will it save teams money, but look at the Majority of Completely and Mostly Spec series in the world and they have better racing then what is considered the Top racing series in the world.
And I also want to see them try something in the Truck series and see how it works and the possibly bring it up to Nationwide, and that is Sealed Crate Engines.
Fisha695, what you would get then is like the old CR series. 50 cars built by a seperate company (NASCAR) and like the Goodyear tires, bought and used for each track and each week drivers would draw for a car and then put their logo’s on it to race. It would be cheaper as the owners would not have to build a shop, develope engines, etc. No trucks to haul the cars, wouldn’t need to pay for crews for 7 days a week, just show up at the track, draw a number, get the car, put on logo’s and run the car and see who wins. Turn in the car, in what ever condition, as it is just a rental, and go home. DON’T THINK SO. There would be no personal input from mechanics, crew chief’s or owner’s and it would be the luck of the draw as to who would get the “best” car. Of course if you really wanted better racing, I still say that NASCAR should impose a point system that awards points for each position for each lap, and if you would do the numbers by any system, a person could not run in the back for 3/4 of the race and still come out on top of the points as some drivers do each week. I would rather see drivers giving 110 % each lap, so as to get the most or least points each race, (depending on the format) than watch them run around for 175 laps of a 200 lap race, and then all of a sudden, they find the problem and scream to the front and win the race and get the most points towards the championship. Also, make everyone qualify for each race. NO GIVE ME’s. It should be go fast, or go home. Fans and sponsers want the fastest cars on the track, not somebody who wants to fiddle around and play tiddle winks and still race on Sunday or Saturday night, without putting the best car on the track. Yes I know, everyone quals for pit position, but really, the top 35 in points don’t really have to run fast, their in, only the EXTRA’s have to worry about getting in the show. Let’s just say that 60 cars show up to qualify, i.e. Daytona, and the last 25 are the fastest on the track, they’ve prepared their cars, got the setup right, ran the fastest, but because they are not in the top 35, 18 go home. That ain’t right. Go fast or Go home. bottom line.
sorry for the long winded response!
Mother wrote:
No not at all and that is not what I even implied.
NASCAR has to certify Every COT chassis (which are Spec Chassis), and they should have made a rule that says each registered car number can only have 3 registered chassis at a time. If you want to register another chassis, you have to turn one of your other ones into NASCAR, and you will not get it back. Also if you show up at the track with an unregistered chassis, you are DQ’d and sent home for that weekend, no If’s, And’s, or But’s about.
Now when I mentioned Spec parts maybe you misunderstood and thought I mean NASCAR handing out the parts, and that is not what a Spec part is. What I am saying is instead of being able to pick from 5 or 6 different transmission companies, you have to run ‘X’ transmission, and instead of doing testing with different brakes to see which one you like best, you have to run ‘X’ Brand of brake, etc….
As far as the Crate Motor, once again I think you misunderstood. I’m not talking about random luck of the draw Generic motor from NASCAR. I’m talking about the GM teams running the Chevy ZZ 572/720R, or Dodge teams running a Dodge Crate engine (sorry only know Chevy ones off the top of my head), Ford running a Ford Crate engine and so on…. Just running Crate Motors alone would save the teams Millions of dollars a year.
As far as the points thing you suggested, I like it, but I think a system like F1 uses would be better. In F1 22 cars start, only the top 8 (i think) get points. Winner gets 10 points, the driver that leads the most laps gets an extra bonus Point.