The Indiana Business Journal reported this week that Crown Royal may be in negotiations with Indianapolis Motor Speedway to become the title sponsor of the Brickyard 400 weekend. According to their report the deal could be the richest title sponsorship in NASCAR at around $1.5 million annually. The multi-year deal could be announced in as soon as two weeks at the upcoming 400. If true, it would make the recent moves made by IMS make a lot more sense.
It was announced officially last week that the Nationwide Series would not return to Lucas Oil Raceway Park in 2012, and instead would shift over to IMS as part of the Brickyard 400 weekend. Also a part of the event, IMS has added a GRAND-AM Series race on the track’s road course. Both moves now appear to be an effort by IMS to sweeten the deal for Crown Royal. With waning attendance in recent years, the track had to do something to justify a price tag north of $1 million.
This report comes just two weeks after Crown Royal announced it would not return to Roush Fenway Racing next season as sponsor of Matt Kenseth’s #17 Ford. Along with their team sponsorship, Crown Royal had also been a title sponsor at Richmond with their “Your Name Here” 400 program. The announcement had some interesting phrasing regarding the future of this part of their NASCAR program:
The changes are made to allow Diageo to shift resources toward its annual “Your Name Here” program, in which Crown Royal awards naming rights to a Sprint Cup event to an adult fan, recently with a military background. “We look forward to elevating this program as well as continuing our presence in the sport through an experience that our fans have grown to love,” Briese said. Details about next year’s race sponsorship will be announced at a later date, she added. The “Your Name Here” event has traditionally been held at Richmond International Raceway, but there was no information immediately available Tuesday as to what track would host the race in 2012 and beyond.
The changes are made to allow Diageo to shift resources toward its annual “Your Name Here” program, in which Crown Royal awards naming rights to a Sprint Cup event to an adult fan, recently with a military background. “We look forward to elevating this program as well as continuing our presence in the sport through an experience that our fans have grown to love,” Briese said.
Details about next year’s race sponsorship will be announced at a later date, she added. The “Your Name Here” event has traditionally been held at Richmond International Raceway, but there was no information immediately available Tuesday as to what track would host the race in 2012 and beyond.
Knowing what we know now, it would appear that Crown Royal may be preparing to use the Brickyard sponsorship to escalate the “Your Name Here” program.
The loss of the NNS and Truck events from LORP has been an unpopular move (we wrote about it here and here). Initially, the move appeared to just be IMS attempting to boost fading ticket sales. But now, the changes make a lot more sense. While the track certainly hopes to see a boost at the gates, the added races make the sponsorship deal much more valuable for Crown Royal.
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Indianapolis Motor Speedway is home to one of the greatest traditions in all of motorsports. The prestige of the place and the events surrounding it made it a perfect fit for the up-and-coming NASCAR Winston Cup Series in 1994. 200,000 spectators showed up that first year – in 2007 the number was 270,000.
17 years later NASCAR at Indy is struggling to find the magic it once had. The racing has never been that good, and attendance has been on the decline – down to 140,000 last year, still reeling from the tire debacle in 2008. With that in mind officials with IMS and NASCAR have been looking for ways to add value to the event.
In recent weeks that talk has centered around the addition of a Grand-Am Rolex Series event and potentially the Nationwide Series at the big track. The idea being, the more events, the bigger draw. Helping the case too is a guaranteed $700,000 payday for the Nationwide event.
Adding the Grand Am Series to Indy is, at least on the surface, a good fit – there is a great road course at IMS used for years by F1 and MotoGP. For the Nationwide cars though, the idea of a shift from Lucas Oil Raceway Park is a little cringe worthy.
The Nationwide cars have been at LROP every year since 1982. The short track always provides great races and great racing. While it would certainly be a novelty to see the cars at IMS, the racing is sure to be lacking.
With the Brickyard just a few weeks away, it’s interesting to think about not just whether or not the Nationwide cars should be there, but whether or not the Cup cars should be there. Certainly even in the worst year the Brickyard has produced attendance numbers any sport would envy. Still, with limited passing ability, the racing has always been lacking.
I think it important for a sanctioning body to occasionally evaluate the quality of its events. When those events reach a point that fan interest is clearly waning, perhaps it comes time to reconsider them. Perhaps, just perhaps, NASCAR is reaching that point with the Brickyard.
Sometimes it’s better to admit when things aren’t working and look for successful solutions than it is beat a dead horse – I’m not sure which they’re doing here.
Filed under: Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick, Sprint Cup, Richard Childress Racing, NASCAR
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Motorsports fans are going to need to find a good NASCAR ticket broker for all of the great upcoming races. The Sprint Cup Series will return to Daytona Motorspeedway this weekend for the Coke Zero 400 on Saturday. Kevin Harvick is right now is the only man keeping Jimmie Johnson from his fifth consecutive Sprint Cup title. The #48 car has already won 5 times already this year and doesn’t appear to be slowing down anytime soon. The next race is The LifeLock.com 400 in Chicago where Mark Martin will try to defend his title. Then NASCAR head to Indianapolis for the Brickyard 400 where an expected crowd of 250,000 will watch the world’s best stock car drivers compete. Jimmie Johnson has won the race the two previous years, but former winner Tony Stewart could prove a stiff test. This truly is turning out to be an exciting summer for NASCAR maniacs!