Dear Brian France:
It's time to retool NASCAR. While your family guided the franchise through good times, there's no denying that times have changed. The economic crisis means the bottom is falling out of pricey sponsorship deals that fueled the NASCAR machine for years. With corporate sponsors accounting for roughly 80 percent of the typical NASCAR team's budget, the $30 million in fees that drivers such as Jimmie Johnson command are a thing of the past.
Americans are waking up with hangovers from our energy addictions. We're feeling queasy at the sight of NASCAR drivers circling the track burning colossal amounts of precious fuel. Yet, we still love cars. So there remains an opportunity here and it includes the sport doing its part to deliver a return on investment to its most generous sponsors--the Big Three automakers.
It's time for NASCAR to pull a U-turn. Leadership needs to get on board the green express and point NASCAR in the direction of sustainable, renewable auto sports. Why not create races for hybrids and alternative fuel vehicles? Make it about low emissions, speed and duration. This would be a boon for American auto makers who could use it as a platform to innovate and create excitement for the alternative vehicles they are feverishly bringing to market. Imagine that, NASCAR could help save jobs and keep the Big Three relevant, while perhaps saving tax payers from having to pick up the tab on another costly bailout.
And it's not just about being green, it's also about being trustworthy. The NASCAR smoke machine that would have us believe auto racing appeals to a large swath of college-educated women is kaput. Companies bought into the myth to justify paying outrageous sponsorship fees while passing the costs along to suburban female shoppers in the price of goods. It was a fable that made putting Dale Earnhardt's picture on a box of children's cereal seem like a no-brainer. And it was, more or less.
Turns out the NASCAR audience is a beefy niche, albeit a loyal, beefy niche. The hard cold fact of the matter is that grocery store managers are some of NASCAR's most adoring fans. They willingly grant NASCAR sponsors more shelf space in exchange for all manner of freebies.
NASCAR has earned a rightful place in American popular culture. But as we fall deeper into this downward spiral, it will be important for the people who create the culture, whether that be the France family with its NASCAR juggernaut, or Robert Redford with Sundance, or Oprah Winfrey with her media empire, to lead the way to a more enlightened way of life. It won't happen by looking in the rear view mirror. We all need to look up from the ditch we've dug and conjure a new society--one that is more environmentally sound, more inspiring and more innovative.
Yours truly,
Patricia Martin
Follow Patricia Martin on Twitter: www.twitter.com/PatriciaMartin
Me I think Going Green is a joke. you might mean well but at the end of the day the damage is done. you cant fix broken. I also suggest that you go to a race. Being in the press you can get just about anywhere.
I love Nascar. I am female. I have a college degree.
The NASCAR smoke machine that would have us believe auto racing appeals to a large swath of college-educated women is kaput. Companies bought into the myth to justify paying outrageous sponsorship fees while passing the costs along to suburban female shoppers in the price of goods.
I don't really understand what being a woman or college educated has do with NASCAR, and I've never heard one time anyone promoting that idea. And I'm pretty sure NASCAR sponsors are well aware of the demographic that does follow the sport. Look at the sponsors, you've got beer, home improvement, car parts, tools. Seems like stuff NASCAR followers are buying. But I am sure that if Home Depot or Budweiser found out college educated women were not watching, they would pull their sponsorships.
"The hard cold fact of the matter is that grocery store managers are some of NASCAR's most adoring fans." Where did this information from? Can i get a reference to these "facts" please
I'm not a NASCAR fan, I prefer F1, but I think there is something to the theory of race fans going to see crashes or, as the drivers and fans quaintly put it, incidents.
I see no need to waste huge amounts of jet fuel doing F-22 and Stealth flyovers to the National Anthem just so good 'ol boys an' girls can feel that patriotic swell that we all end up paying for in our Defense Department-bound taxes.
If by "we" you mean one eco-activist, then okay.
NASCAR is boring to me, but c'mon, it is such a small part of the problem it is like a fly speck in a ten acre wheatfield. Have a sense of proportion or risk looking like an over-reaching dork.
A better strategy would be calling on NASCAR and its considerable technological know how (as well as that of a goodly segment of its audience) to help us solve our energy and transportation problems. That would be a win-win. You look like pals with them and thus don't alienate working class racing fans and they don't feel like they are under attack by politically correct environmentalists. It's called diplomacy. Look into it. .
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=grass-makes-better-ethanol-than-corn