NASCAR driver Ryan Blaney yesterday responded to driver Kyle Busch criticizing NASCAR’s marketing emphasis on younger drivers, saying that Busch "might be out of the promotional spotlight by choice," according to Mike Hembree of USA TODAY. Blaney said, “I can tell you personally (Busch) doesn’t like doing a lot of stuff. That’s why they don’t ask him to do a lot of stuff. It made me upset how he bashed that part of it, but to each his own. If he doesn’t want to do anything, so be it. I think it’s really important to have not only young drivers but all NASCAR drivers to be pushing to get to new demographics.” NASCAR Exec VP & Chief Global Sales & Marketing Officer Steve Phelps said, “Our marketing has traditionally been kind of a combination of deference to the younger drivers, probably a little more emphasis on the veteran drivers just because we haven’t had a crop of young drivers previously that we’ve had in the last couple years.” Phelps admitted that NASCAR "did not provide heavy publicity boosts to young drivers during Busch’s early years." Phelps: “It was a miss on our part. Until four or five years ago, most of our marketing was about the racing itself and pretty pictures around the racing.” Phelps also said that NASCAR "began talking more about young drivers" after 20-year-old relative unknown Trevor Bayne won the '11 Daytona 500 (USA TODAY, 1/25). ESPN.com's Bob Pockrass noted Busch is among 15 Monster Energy Cup Series drivers "participating in some marketing initiatives this year." Phelps said, "Kyle does a lot for our sport. I think we expose Kyle in a good, meaningful way and Toyota does as well and (his sponsor) M&Ms does working with [his] Gibbs guys, and that's important for us" (ESPN.com, 1/24).
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| France appears at driver meetings on select weekends but not the majority of them |
TAKE ME TO YOUR LEADER: Driver Brad Keselowski said, "If I could make one change it would be that the leader of the sport is at the race track every weekend." ESPN.com's Pockrass wrote Keselowski's comment "shows just how controversial" NASCAR Chair & CEO Brian France's leadership style is as the sport "continues to face challenges." Tony Stewart "similarly criticized France two years ago" and the issue has "hounded France for years since he took over" in '03. France "appears at prerace driver meetings on select race weekends but not the majority of them." Keselowski: "It's important for any company that relies so heavily on outside partners to have a direct interface -- this is such a big ship with so much going on week to week" (ESPN.com, 1/24). In Charlotte, Brendan Marks notes Keselowski "acknowledged the sport has its issues and doesn’t hold the same standing it used to." Keselowski said, “We’d be arrogant to think there aren’t some spots that can use some work. The sport’s not going away tomorrow. ... We’re still on the airplane, we just might not be sitting in first-class seats.” Keselowski "didn’t say the sport is doomed," but Marks writes his "candidness about the future of NASCAR was a breath of fresh air" (CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, 1/25).
