You know that old saying, “money doesn’t grow on trees”? Well the same can be said for sponsorships. And in a tough economic environment that’s never been more true.
We get questions around here every now and then about why a team isn’t able to find sponsorship. This question has popped up recently with the difficulty the Wood Brothers have had securing All Star Race sponsorship for Trevor Bayne. People are asking, “he won the Daytona 500, why can’t they find sponsorship?”
There is often a sort of paradox on the business development side of motorsports where competitiveness (or even wins) doesn’t always lead to success in finding sponsorship. Look at RCR and Kevin Harvick – they were closing gaps in their sponsorship right up to the start of the season. Or how about Earnhardt Ganassi Racing and Jamie McMurray last season – they closed the gap with sponsorship from McDonalds the week after he won the 500.
The important lesson from the above cases though is that these deals came to fruition through months of effort and relationship building, not a few weeks of fleeting success and/or wishful thinking. Remember Cup Series sponsorships for a whole season run upwards of $20 million and beyond. Single races can run anywhere from $600,000 to $1 million. Neither figure is chump change and spending that kind of money, even for a Fortune 500 company, requires a vetting process that can take a considerable amount of time.
No real sponsorship deal (and I’m talking about those that are actually valuable, not a partnership with the Days Inn Martinsville) is born over night, or even over the course of just a few weeks.
In the case of Trevor Bayne consider that the Wood Brothers entered this season with the intention of running the young driver in just a handful of races. No one would have guessed he would pull a great upset and win the Daytona 500. They just weren’t prepared to find sponsorship to run Bayne in additional races, and didn’t have that nice lead time enjoyed by others doing the same thing.
The Wood Brothers and I would imagine their friends at Roush Fenway Racing are doing all they can to secure funding for Bayne. The fact is though, these things take time. And as much as we like instant gratification, it just doesn’t fit the reality here.
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