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This Weeks Issue

Spotlight bright for drivers on the ‘bubble’

NASCAR’s inaugural Chase for the Nextel Cup provided additional exposure to team sponsors at what traditionally had been a slow point in the season in terms of attention and media coverage, particularly for those who in years past would have been afterthoughts in the championship standings.

Kurt Busch (left) and Ryan Newman are two of the 10 drivers who are part of the Chase.
The Chase, which was implemented at the beginning of this season, pits the top 10 drivers in a 10-race “postseason” that started Sunday. The benefits sponsors will receive from the “playoff” are yet to be determined, but the additional attention and coverage that the “bubble” teams received during the race to the Chase has already added value to a sponsorship that costs between $10 million and $15 million.

Geoff Smith, president of Roush Racing, said the unexpected secondary bubble story added value for sponsors whose drivers were ranked seventh through 15th in the standings leading up to the season’s 26th, or “regular-season” cutoff, race. Those sponsors’ teams were in a close fight for the last four spots available.

“A new story has unfolded over the last six weeks or so, and all of those sponsors are getting more play than the others,” said Smith, whose Roush team includes Kurt Busch and Mark Martin, two of the bubble participants who secured spots in the Chase during the final regular-season race on Sept. 11.

That race, in Richmond, Va., earned a 4.3 cable coverage-area rating and a 3.5 national rating, a 13.2 percent increase over last year’s 3.8/3.1. Keith Green, Richmond International Raceway spokesman, said that in addition to being the highest-rated and most-watched fall Richmond race of the 12 that Turner has televised, it also broke three-day track attendance records and required the track to issue about 500 media credentials, roughly 100 more than usual.

It wasn’t just the final race that did well down the stretch. TNT coverage of the Sirius at the Glen on Aug. 15 and the GFS Marketplace 400 on Aug. 22 were the most-watched shows on cable for their respective weeks.

Motorsports executives peg much of that increased attention on the evolving story of which drivers were going to secure the final Chase spots.

George Pyne, NASCAR COO, said more has been written on “the seven through 15 guys this year” than in any year previous.

Ardy Arani, president and CEO of Atlanta-based Championship Group, a promotional services agency whose clients include Georgia Pacific Racing, Pennzoil Racing and Advance Auto Parts, agreed that the bubble teams were the biggest beneficiaries of the added attention.

“The Chase has been good in that it has added awareness and exposure for all the teams, especially the ones fighting to get in,” Arani said.

Sue Seagland, motorsports manager for General Motors Service Parts and Operation, which sponsors Kevin Harvick and was among those brands on the Chase bubble during the last several weeks, said that even though the GM Goodwrench team is on the outside looking in, she is confident the added interest in the sport will equate to increased exposure for all NASCAR sponsors.

“I’ve got friends talking about the 29 car [Harvick] being in NASCAR,” Seagland said. “The Chase has generated additional exposure for all of us.”

Greg Towles, director of racing programs for Caterpillar, which sponsors rookie Scott Wimmer, likes the idea of the Chase even though his team consistently has ranked between 20th and 30th in the standings this year.

“You are going to have people tuning in to these final 10 races that wouldn’t have watched in the past,” Towles said.

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