Why does NASCAR bar so many potential sponsors from this sport? Kyle Busch raises the issue

    Sprint adds a lot to this sport, including Miss Sprint. But 'exclusivity' keeps out rivals who want to market here too, like AT&T and Verizon. (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)


  

By Mike Mulhern
  
mikemulhern.net
  
  
LOUDON, N.H.
  

  The sponsorship crisis for NASCAR team owners is becoming acute, and Kyle Busch laid it all out quite clearly here Friday morning.
   Consider: Verizon.
   A company with an $89 Billion market cap.
   It wants to use NASCAR's Cup tour to market it's products.
   However NASCAR's 'exclusivity' sponsorship contract with rival Sprint bars Verizon from doing any at-track marketing or promotions.
   Such NASCAR exclusivity has have long been a major aggravation for team owners, because it keeps team owners from going after a number of potential sponsoring companies.
   AT&T is another company essentially barred from NASCAR's Cup series.
   And NASCAR's contracts with Sunoco keep Shell and other oil companies from doing all they might want to do in this sport. NASCAR's contract with Goodyear likewise bars rival tire companies from this game.
   So Verizon, after trying to do an 'end-run' around that exclusivity roadblock, by sponsoring Roger Penske's Nationwide team, is giving up on NASCAR and taking its sponsorship dollars elsewhere.
   That means driver Justin Allgaier is likely out of a ride, and what happens to that team is uncertain too.
   A number of NASCAR teams – even stars like four-time champ Jeff Gordon and two-time champ Tony Stewart – still don't have firm sponsorship in place for 2011.
  
  

    The 'official' fuel of NASCAR: Sunoco. With some 'exclusivity' rights that keep rivals at bay (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
  

   And Busch says he'll probably have to shut down his NASCAR Truck team at the end of the season for lack of adequate sponsorship.
   Is it time for NASCAR executives to scrap this 'exclusivity' thing and open the sport up to any companies that want to bring in sponsorship dollars?
   That would seem to be a no-brainer.
    

   But Mike Helton, the NASCAR president, points out that 'exclusivity' is limited to a very few categories:
   "In a very, very, very select few categories," Helton says. "Like series sponsor (Sprint), fuel (Sunoco), tires (Goodyear).
   "The rest of it, look how open it really is.
   "Yes, there are some exclusive categories, which are for the good of the sport. Sprint pays a lot of money for the point fund, Nationwide pays a lot of money....and Sunoco.
   "They deserve that protection.
   "On fuel, we have worked with Sunoco to make that as flexible as we can make it.
   "Goodyear tires....
   "Sprint is our series sponsor; they are the ones who stepped up and said 'We want to be your series' sponsor.'
     "Those areas of exclusivity are very limited, very small in the scheme of things.
   "There is a lot of openness out there. There are a lot of opportunities still out there."
  
   Justin Allgaier: losing Verizon as sponsor may hurt his Nationwide driving deal with Roger Penske (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)

  Busch says if he's forced to shut down his Truck operation, "I think it's going to be pretty detrimental, to not have me in the series."
   Busch after all is the most prominent Truck racer.
   The Truck series Busch says is struggling: "There's a lot of guys struggling to find funding.
   "I know a couple guys out there that put sponsors on their trucks for almost a whole year for (only) $250,000 to $300,000."
   Running a top-notch Truck team is typically a $1.5 million venture. Some top Nationwide teams have $10 million a year budgets. And top Cup teams have budgets of $25 million to $30 million a year.
   Maybe it's just American capitalism at work, but Busch says teams that are trying to run the national Truck tour for $300,000 or so isn't good for the sport: "That's just killing the Truck series. You can't do that. (and survive.)
   "For me, it's hard, it's very hard.
  
"And look at Tony Stewart – he's got to find half of a (Cup) sponsor for next year.
   "Jeff Gordon has got to find something for next year. (DuPont is cutting back on its sponsorship, and Wal-mart has rejected sponsorship overtures.)
  
"Mark Martin -- they have 'hendrickcars.com' (on the quarterpanel). That's not a sponsor; that's Rick Hendrick putting his money on that car.
   "You look at a bunch of the Nationwide cars....(without sufficient sponsorship).
   "It's all across the board.
   "Kevin Harvick has been struggling trying to find (sponsorship) stuff for his Truck program too.
   "It's unfortunate the way the economy is.
   "It's going to be difficult for us race teams to stay in business without sponsors on our Trucks or our cars.
   "It's bad for the race teams to have to work through so many hoops in order to get a sponsor.
   "For instance: I can't thank Sprint enough. They do a great job for what they do for the Sprint Cup Series...but it locks out Verizon. It locks out AT&T. It locks out any other telecommunication company that you could try to get in.
   "The tobacco debacle now with the United States government, that's locked out people that have the money to do it.
   "The people that have the money to do it, can't or don't want to do it.
   "The guys that want to do it don't have the money to do it.
   "You're fighting two avenues there, and being an owner and being able to talk to all these guys, I'm finding that out."
  
  

    Kyle Busch has a new good bud here -- Warren Buffett (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
  

   And Gordon's own view of his personal sponsorship dilemma: "I certainly would like to see us with a sponsor that could be really good for our organization...good for the sport, and good marketing, and wants to be a part of our program and get behind it.
   "But right now my focus is on driving, and trying to be as good as we can be in the chase. That is pretty much the message that has been sent to me through Rick (Hendrick) – Don't worry about it.
   "We have got a lot of people working hard on it, and it'll come together.
    "The Wal-Mart thing was a little disappointing, because I feel everybody was wanting to see that company in this sport for a long time, and we would have loved to have represented them.
   "But I'm so excited to be involved with DuPont and Pepsi and sponsors that we have had for a number of years.
   "I think we still have some things that are going to come together."
  
  

    Shell, Kevin Harvick's sponsor the last three seasons, and moving to Roger Penske's team next year, has to walk a fine line in its NASCAR marketing because of NASCAR's 'exclusivity' contracts with Sunoco (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)