DUST SETTLING SOON IN HUNT FOR NATIONWIDE REPLACEMENT:
In his Midseason State of the Sport address on Saturday afternoon at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway, NASCAR’s Chairman and CEO Brian France seemed confident that the sport’s second-tier series, known now as the NASCAR Nationwide Series will have a replacement sponsor for the 2015 season and beyond.
While France would not elaborate further on a potential candidate, recent reports suggest that NASCAR is in heavy discussions with Comcast Xfinity about becoming title sponsor, replacing Nationwide, who will depart it’s role following the Ford 300 at Homestead-Miami (Fla.) Speedway in November.
“Very good interest,” offered France on the subject. “I think in the coming weeks we’ll be getting to the end of that process, and we will be in very good shape when the dust settles there.”
NASCAR is reportedly asking between $12 and $15 million annually in rights fee for title sponsorship of the sport’s No. 2 national division. Other activation necessities could escalate total cost of the deal to reportedly more than $25 million a year.
Currently, Nationwide Insurance has been rumored to be spending approximately $10 million in right fees, but it’s total budget, which includes activation on all fronts, is in excess of $20 million annually.
The Ohio-based company has opted to discontinue its’ seven-year sponsorship of the second-tier national touring division in order to back Hendrick Motorsports’ Dale Earnhardt Jr. starting in 2015. The company has signed a three-year agreement with HMS, increasing their presence to 13 races for 2016 and 2017 respectively. The partnership investment is estimated at $30 million dollars yearly.
In addition to their support of title placement in the NASCAR Nationwide Series, the 88-year old company has sponsored Ricky Stenhouse Jr. in five races thus far this season, with a best finish of second at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway in March. Nationwide also sponsored the Roush Fenway Racing driver in his rookie Sprint Cup season in 2013 for three races.
SAFE AND SOUND:
Despite a number of questions surrounding its plunge with television ratings, recent layoffs, the 2015 schedule and more, NASCAR’s Brian France reassured the media and the NASCAR community that “the business is sound.”
“It’s always difficult when you change things around and you combine some things, departments or you change direction a little bit, and that’s kind of where we are with what happened recently,” France explained. “But we’re on a nice, steady ground, and sponsorship is coming back for us thankfully. That was obviously a hard hit in the recession. The business is sound, and we’re going forward.
“They’re (ratings) down for obvious reasons. You have a very low number at Daytona simply because of running the entire day and not finishing in the evening and then lots of rain and lots of World Cup competition and other things. But when you go around and really look at it and look at all the digital interests that we have today on devices, and that’s not obviously scored currently, we’re real pleased with that. When you combine it all up, we’re actually we’re not off that much even with our challenges. We’re still not off that much, and we’ve carried, I think, either one or two almost every weekend that we go in, I think seven or eight times we were No. 1 coming in and out of the weekend on television, 7 million viewers a week on average.
“We’re never pleased when our ratings aren’t growing at the rate we would like, but we understand that circumstances will always have us going one way or the other from time to time.”
Even with the lingering questions about some of the sport’s direction, France’s words are stern and non-negotiable. Sure, it may be reasons out of their control, but much of the hype in NASCAR this year has been centered on the event’s final 10 races. Could fans be waiting until then to tune in? It’s possible, but only time will tell.
The race for the 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship won’t really start unraveling until Chicagoland Speedway in September. Then, and only then if the ratings continue to plummet, ‘cause for concern is more warranted than ever before.
ROOM FOR MORE…. MAYBE:
It’s always been said in NASCAR, the more the merrier. But, when it comes down to manufacturers in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series or their other national divisions for that matter, Chevrolet, Ford and Toyota remain the top-three horns.
With Dodge’s exit from the top-tier series at the conclusion of the 2012 season, no other manufacturer has stepped up to the plate to take their place, let alone the Detroit, Michigan-based company given any indication of a potential comeback, but from France’s point of view, the door is open, but nothing new to report, at least anytime soon.
“There is interest, always a manufacturer or two taking a look at us simply because we’re the largest form of motorsports in North America, and this is a big car market,” France sounded. “Nothing certainly imminent there.”
THE SCHEDULE SHUFFLE:
The on-going reports that the 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup schedule will shuffle tremendously is growing in strength, and France refused to hide behind the subject that changes are imminent.
“Well’s it’s a unique time because we’re starting with a new television partner coming obviously next year,” said France. “There’s been some weather issues, as you well know, in the last several years at Bristol as an example, and then some other things that we would naturally look at as we go along in the schedule, and now that the Chase format is changed, there’s additional interest to move from one place to another.”
A tweet fired off by FOX’s Chris Myers suggested that Darlington (S.C.) Raceway could be the second race of the season in 2015, a spot now held by Phoenix (Ariz.) International Raceway.
“So there will be a robust discussion that will be for those reasons a more comprehensive look at what the best schedule will look like. I don’t have any of the details today,” France mentioned. “We’ll be releasing that in September, but it’s fair to say that there’s a robust discussion within the stakeholders to come up with the best schedule that we can for 2015 and beyond.”
While traditional events such as the season-opening event at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway for the Daytona 500, the Memorial Day tradition, the Coca-Cola 600 from Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway and the season finale, Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami (Fla.) Speedway are likely to remain untouched, everything else may be fair game.
Significant changes in the Cup schedule are likely to dwindle down to the other two divisions as well. How much their seasons will be impacted? That remains to be seen.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
