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Unfortunately This Is Your Grandmother’s NASCAR

by Steve Wronkowicz

I am co-host of the syndicated radio show: ON PIT ROW. Over ten years on the air and three on the net; see what can happen when I don't let the facts get in the way of my opinions.

March 24, 2011 6:34 am UTC 1 Comment

NASCAR’s Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series teams head back to the west coast for their now once a year trip to Auto Club Speedway in Fontana California.

This race track like no other has mirrored what has become of the sport we love so much. Like the trip to the grandmothers house that is too clean, too organized and too filled with treasures; the trip to many of NASCAR’s venues just isn’t very comfortable.

Places like Fontana, Kansas City, Iowa and Chicago have all the amenities that a fan would seem to want. Everyone expects to have plenty of clean restrooms and lots of concession stands. Those are givens. Race tracks that don’t cater to those two basic needs will eventually fail. But some tracks do a better job of making race fans feel welcome and a part of the action.

Unlike the grandmother’s house that is too clean and organized; race tracks that give the feeling of gramma’s house where the kids are on the floor, the toys are everywhere and the aunts and uncles are hanging around in the back yard, makes you want to stay and come back.

NASCAR has done a good job over the last couple of decades of making their racing seem more like a trip to grandmother’s house than a trip to gramma’s. Going to grandmothers just isn’t as comfortable and fun as the trip to grammas.

Growing pains are always uncomfortable and NASCAR has had their share. Some say they lost sight of their roots and abandoned their core fans for the glitz and glamor of big numbers and questionable venues. What NASCAR lost as it’s fan base exploded was the comfort and intimacy that its long time fans had grown up with; a comfort and intimacy that gramma knew how to cultivate.

NASCAR has so wanted their product to be eaten on the good china with the good silver; but all the fans want is a damn good dog on a fresh bun served on a paper plate with a cold one to wash it down. NASCAR was ment to have some mustard dripped on the deck and hosed off; not worried about gravy on the table cloth.

Many reasons have been given for NASCAR’s decline in attendance and TV viewership over the past half-dozen years; but the most alarming sight was the lack of campers and the empty seats at Bristol this past week and the reason for it is quite simple. NASCAR fans want to feel a part of the racing event. They want to feel a connection to the sport and its participants; but that can’t happen as long as NASCAR continues to serve its product in a sanitized form.

The “good old days” have a short memory. Nobody really wants to go back to the days of two or three lap lead finishes or 2×10 pine plank seats; just like no one would want gramma’s to have an outhouse. What fans want is a connection with their sport and their heros that they feel they lost when NASCAR got rid of the back deck and built the dining room.

Lost somewhere in the growth of our sport was the realization that while the fans like to watch cars race and experience the on track show; what they really love more than anything else is their connection with their driver. Today’s driver has been so marketed by their sponsors and PR companies that they have lost the ability to get down on the floor and play with the kids.

Making sure the sponsors are mentioned in every interview has become more important than sitting on the pit wall signing autographs and having your pictures taken with fans. How did fans know in the seventies and eighties that Richard Petty was sponsored by STP? There are thousands–maybe millions of pictures in fans homes of him in his STP firesuit signing autographs for everyone.

Those pictures, whether they be on paper and displayed, or just in a fans memory was what was right with NASCAR and was what made new fans fall in love with the sport. Those memories of being down on the floor playing with the kids supercede polite conversation, using the proper fork and thanking a dizzying array of sponsors.

Sorry Grandmother–we’d rather hang out at Gramma’s this week.

Filed under: Auto Club Speedway, Chicagoland Speedway, How to fix NASCAR, Iowa Speedway, NASCAR, Nascar Legends, Nationwide Series, Richard Petty Motorsports, The King

Tagged with: Auto Club Speedway, NASCAR, Richard Petty

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Plan 9 from Level Cross

by Charlie Turner

Thanks for stopping by OnPitRow.com and the Bench Racing with Steve and Charlie blog. The best NASCAR and IndyCar news and opinion, exclusive pictures and video. I'm Charlie Turner. Follow me on Twitter @onpitrow

August 17, 2010 1:35 pm UTC No Comments

Richard Petty Motorsports’ 2011 driver line-up got a bit clearer today. Marcos Ambrose will join A J Allmendinger in the stable of The King. Ambrose will drive the #9 car sponsored by Stanley Tools.

The move had been rumored since Ambrose announced he was leaving JTG Racing a few weeks ago. At the time, Ambrose said that the JTG ride had become comfortable, and that comfortable wasn’t necessarily fast enough. Not sure exactly what that says about the Petty ride. Here are some quotes from the press release.

“We are very happy to have Marcos Ambrose join our team,” said NASCAR Hall of Famer and team owner Richard Petty. “He’s a very talented and passionate driver and will be a great addition to our team.”
“We knew once Marcos became available that we wanted him to be a part of the RPM family,” said Foster Gillett, managing partner and team owner. “He’s a fan favorite and he’s proven to be a tough competitor on track. We’re thrilled to have Stanley continue their partnership with our team and believe that Marcos is a great fit for the Stanley Racing program.”

“Stanley is pleased to partner with Marcos,” said Scott Bannell, Vice President Brand Management and Licensing, Stanley Black & Decker. “We look forward to carrying the winning tradition of the No. 9 car into the 2011 season.”

So now we know the drivers who are tasked with saving RPM. And I don’t think that “saving” is too strong a word. With Best Buy and Stanley Tools on the quarter panels of the #43 and #9, RPM seems solidly sponsored. Dinger and Kangaroo Meat are plenty talented too. Can Foster Gillett, Richard Petty and Ford Racing give them what they need to succeed? We’ll see.

Photo credit: BethAnne Heisler for OnPitRow.com

Filed under: A J Allmendinger, Marcos Ambrose, NASCAR, NASCAR Rumors, Richard Petty Motorsports, The King, The Pettys

Tagged with: Foster Gillett, Richard Petty Motorsports

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How Does Andretti-Petty Motorsports Sound to You?

by Charlie Turner

April 2, 2010 7:16 am UTC No Comments

Name the truly legendary racing families in American motor sports history.

NASCAR fans will name the Earnhardts. Probably the Allisons and Labontes. Open wheelers could throw out the Kinsers, Mears, Vukovichs and maybe the Foyts. My memory isn’t that great, so if I’ve left some out, beat me up in the comment section.

But I’ll argue with you if you tell me there are two families that have had a bigger impact on the racing world than the Pettys and Andrettis. And they are teaming up to go IndyCar Racing in 2010 at Kansas Speedway and the Indianapolis 500. John Andretti will drive and Richard Petty Motorsports NASCAR sponsor Window World will foot the bill.

Back in 2007, when Sam Hornish Jr was pondering his move from the IRL to NASCAR, I was scratching my head about why the Andretti’s didn’t give NASCAR a shot too. Click here to read the post. This new partnership makes me wonder more.

IndyCar is struggling. I know there is an advantage to being the big dog in the room, as Andretti Autosport is, in the North American open wheel racing world. But I sure would love to see the two regal families of American racing take a shot at stock cars together.

I mean no offense, but who would you rather see in a stock car; Nelson Piquet Jr or Marco Andretti?

Photo credit: BethAnne Heisler for OnPitRow.com

Filed under: Indy Cars, John Andretti, NASCAR, NASCAR Rumors, Richard Petty Motorsports, The Pettys

Tagged with: Andretti Autosport, IndyCar

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A Potential Renaissance for the Blue Oval in 2010

by Chris Leone, Special To NASCAR commentary and driver pictures, 2012 NASCAR schedule, video, Bench Racing With Steve and Charlie

I do weekly Fantasy Pick'Em columns here at OPR, as well as the occasional opinion and analysis piece. I also provide the IZOD IndyCar Series coverage. For more on that, head to my site, OpenWheelAmerica.com. My Twitter handle is @christopherlion.

January 12, 2010 11:40 am UTC No Comments

After years of Roush Fenway Racing being its only reasonably competitive entry in the Sprint Cup Series, the Ford brand will see a renaissance come the start of the 2010 season.

With the merger of Yates Racing and Richard Petty Motorsports, and that new organization’s decision to campaign Fords, the make gained three cars on the grid, those of A.J. Allmendinger, Elliott Sadler, and former Ford development driver Kasey Kahne.

Combine that with the recent additions of Front Row Motorsports (two full-time cars, and potentially a third for John Andretti) and Furniture Row Racing (resuming full-time competition for 2010), and the Wood Brothers’ limited schedule, and there may be 13 Fords on the grid – the largest number of Fords that could run the Daytona 500 since the 2002 season, when there were 15.

In 2009, only seven Fords competed full-time – five in the Roush stable, one for Yates, and one for Hall of Fame Racing that ran out of the Yates shop. Another Yates car attempted the first five races of the year, and the Wood Brothers ran a limited schedule with former champion Bill Elliott.

With the states of General Motors and Chrysler (and thus their motorsports budgets) still somewhat in flux, however, Ford and its “open communication” strategy became most attractive to the fringe teams on the grid, teams that would in the past campaign Chevrolets or Toyotas because they were the most readily available. Given the opportunity to use information developed in Jack Roush’s shops, as opposed to working on their own and struggling to remain in the top 35, these teams are making the obvious choice to ally.

This “open communication” strategy came out of the fall of what used to be one of the sport’s most powerful teams. Over the past few years, the once-mighty Robert Yates Racing evolved into Yates Racing, which became, in effect, a satellite team for Roush. Former Roush employee Max Jones joined Doug Yates to run the team, which relied on Roush sponsorship contacts to campaign former Roush driver Travis Kvapil in its No. 28 car.

Roush and Yates had already merged their engine departments, which were two of the best in the sport, and began supplying to the Wood Brothers early in the decade. While NASCAR had set a team cap, this system in effect allowed Jack Roush to run nearly ten cars.

Now, by attracting teams that would not have received any support at all from Chevrolet, which has been cutting back on its motorsports spending, and plucking one of the only two major Dodge teams, Roush can effectively run nearly a dozen on any given weekend.

The biggest question that comes from this near-doubling of Ford’s presence, however, is whether or not the right drivers are in place to win the brand a manufacturer’s championship. Most of the teams have solid personnel – Front Row and Furniture Row have benefitted from the big teams downsizing, adding personnel that would not have been available to them in a better economy, but the men behind the wheel are just as important.

The three new drivers joining the brand are Kvapil, Kevin Conway, and Regan Smith. Kvapil and Smith only competed in limited schedules in 2009, and Conway is a rookie with less than 30 combined starts in Nationwide and the Truck Series. As solid as Kvapil was in 2008, and Smith’s near-win at Talladega of that year and no-DNF streak notwithstanding, none of the three will likely contend to win races.

By running a limited schedule, the Wood Brothers are reasonably competitive in the 13 or so races a year that they attempt, but 1985 champion Bill Elliott can’t race forever.

At Petty, Allmendinger is improving, but Sadler is no longer the same driver who made the Chase in 2004. Paul Menard regressed last season, with no strong finishes to show for his efforts. And the reunification of Kahne and Richard Petty with the Ford brand feels awkward and forced, given Petty’s history with Dodge and Ford’s lawsuit against Kahne when he left the brand to go Cup racing.

Even Roush has its questions. Which David Ragan will we see in 2010 – the near-Chase driver of 2008, or the “arrow without feathers” that returned in 2009? Will Greg Biffle and Matt Kenseth return to victory lane after struggling last season? What the heck happened to Carl Edwards last year, and will he be fully recovered from the broken ankle he suffered playing Frisbee?

This is an important season for the Ford brand in the Sprint Cup Series. It’s been years since this many Fords have showed up on the grid with plans for full-time schedules, and these teams want to establish Ford as the top make in the series. They’re finally on par with Chevrolet and Toyota in terms of car count. The goal is to establish the new teams as contenders. If the new Ford teams can even knock on the top 20, we may see an end to the run of Chevrolet dominance.

Filed under: NASCAR, Richard Petty Motorsports, Roush Racing

Tagged with: Ford, Front Row Motorsports, Furniture Row Racing, Richard Petty Motorsports, Roush-Fenway Racing, Wood Brothers Racing

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Richard Petty Motorsports Further Solidifies 2010 Plans

by Chris Leone, Special To NASCAR commentary and driver pictures, 2012 NASCAR schedule, video, Bench Racing With Steve and Charlie

October 28, 2009 7:50 pm UTC No Comments

An Associated Press report published today suggests that Best Buy, Elliott Sadler’s sponsor on the No. 19 Richard Petty Motorsports car for the past couple of years, will move to its teammate, the No. 43 car, which A.J. Allmendinger will drive for the 2010 season.

Best Buy began its relationship with Allmendinger this season at Darlington, when they sponsored his No. 44 car as he finished 17th. Allmendinger also finished 7th at Sonoma and 23rd two weeks ago at Charlotte with Best Buy on the hood.

Best Buy sponsored Sadler in 19 races this season, including the Sprint All-Star Challenge, the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte, and the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard. Sadler’s best finish this season was a 5th place in the Daytona 500.

The move is one of marginal elevation for the Richfield, MN-based company: Allmendinger sits one spot ahead of Sadler in points, although their records this season are virtually identical: 32 starts, no wins, a top-5 and four top-10s apiece.

The move leaves the No. 19 with one primary sponsor, Stanley Tools, which has covered 22 races over the course of this season (19 with Sadler and 3 with Allmendinger).

However, the move also strengthens Richard Petty Motorsports as a whole; instead of putting together a multi-million dollar sponsorship package for Allmendinger, they only need to patch holes for both Sadler and Allmendinger, a much easier task. RPM also has experience with this method, having utilized it all year with Allmendinger’s car and the No. 43 of Reed Sorenson.

Thus far, the biggest supporters of those two teams have been McDonald’s and Valvoline, with 10 races apiece. Hunt Brothers Pizza sponsored eight races for Allmendinger this season, with the last one this weekend at Talladega. Charter Communications covered seven races, but none since Phoenix in April. Super 8 Motels, the Air Force, and PVA.org have also sponsored RPM cars this year.

Ideally, RPM will fill its sponsorship gaps with the companies that have already appeared on its cars this year, giving them three fully sponsored and factory supported teams for next year. Pending the potential addition of Paul Menard and his family sponsorship, RPM could finally have a financially stable four-car team for the 2010 season.

Filed under: A J Allmendinger, Elliott Sadler, Richard Petty Motorsports

Tagged with: A.J. Allmendinger, Elliott Sadler, Richard Petty Motorsports

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