NASCAR's full-court press: Will it jump-start the new Sprint Cup season?

By Mike Mulhern
mikemulhern.net

  
   Kyle Petty may not have a full-time ride, or even a part-time ride, and apparently no job at all anymore at whatever remains of once-proud Petty Enterprises.

   But the third-generation North Carolina racer -- prepping for what looks like a part-time run this season in NASCAR's new sports car series, including a run in the 24 Hours of Daytona, and a continuing TV career -- is part of the full-court press NASCAR's marketing wizards are throwing at stock car fans across the country to boost interest in the upcoming Sprint Cup season, which kicks off at Daytona International Speedway with the Feb. 5th Media Madness interview marathon, leading up to Saturday night's Bud Shootout Feb. 7th.
   And SpeedWeeks this season promises to be filled with more questions than answers.

   With ticket sales apparently sagging, because of the uncertain U.S. economy, NASCAR men are wide-open this month. They opened in Nashville a few days ago with a Sound-and-Speed festival, and they're following with a series of driver meets around the country, including a Friday-and-Saturday 'fan fest' at Daytona.

   But so far nothing has matched the impact of the once-annual NASCAR Preview shindig in Winston-Salem that the late T. Wayne Robertson created. The R. J. Reynolds sports marketing boss developed what was typically a jam-packed Saturday-long affair, with 25,000 people getting a chance to see not only every single NASCAR Cup driver, big stars as well as the small ones, but also all the new cars and paint schemes.

Kyle Petty in Nashville for NASCAR's Sound and Speed fan fest (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)