By Caleb Whisler, Staff Writer
In NASCAR, sponsorship is everything.
Just ask Walt Czarnecki of Team Penske, Joe Garone of Furniture Row Racing, Joe Gibbs of Joe Gibbs Racing and Tony Stewart of Stewart-Haas Racing know exactly what it means when it comes to the situation.
What is the consensus amongst all four? Partnerships in NASCAR work!
During Ford Championship Weekend, Team Penske hosted their annual sponsor partner summit with over 100 people representing 40 organizations with 45 of them being new partners. At least 15 of those partners have been added to the organization in the last 18 months.
For partnerships, it is all about delivering value.
“There’s an appetite out there as long as you’re delivering the value. And as long as we can deliver the value as teams ‑‑ now, the ground rules have changed a little bit. We understand that,” Czarnecki stated Friday morning.
“We are in a situation where as an organization we have 40 different companies that work with us as sponsor partners, business partners, strategic partners on very many different levels. I think it’s indicative of the strength of the sport that there’s still an appetite to get involved.
Despite Furniture Row Racing shuttering operations after Homestead due to their complicated and unique situation, Garone still believes NASCAR is the place to be for sponsors.
NASCAR is still a place to be for corporate sponsorship. There’s no question about it. When you look at where else corporate sponsorship can be, it can’t be in stick‑and‑ball sports, and we’re still drawing enormous crowds,” Garone stated.
“It’s got to fit their business model, and some of the sponsors have been around as many years like the one we lost, they flatten out, the economy changes, and sometimes they need to look for something different, and that was a unique situation.”
Echoing the sentiments of Garone and Czarnecki, Gibbs knows that he has some of the biggest and best sponsors. Over the last year and a half, the organization has added nine new partners to their 11 cars over four different series.
“NASCAR works, and I think the fact that we have a window of 38 weekends, and I think last year in 22 of those we were first or second, in TV and attention on the weekends. And everybody today wants content, and so that works. But I think also it’s B‑to‑B. It’s social and digital. It’s become a huge deal. NASCAR works, and I can say it works for us, and I just want to say that I think that was a great point that Walt made.”
Despite mentioning new partnerships, Gibbs understands that there has been a downturn in sponsorship dollars coming in at an alarming rate. However, Gibbs is confident with the leadership of the sport to make this sport viable.
“I think NASCAR is working extremely hard. Our meeting yesterday, all the things that we’re talking about doing, what’s the ways we can strengthen our sport, some of the things we’ve done on the racetrack, segment racing and things that’s got the excitement going, I think this weekend,” he continued.
“I think we’re certainly working hard, and I know from Jim France on down, for us, to be quite truthful, it’s exciting. And it’s kind of exciting where we are.”
As an owner who has varying interests and ownership in other forms of motorsports, Stewart has seen how society and the way people are getting their content has changed over the years.
Stewart believes that companies are just being more strategic with how they are spending their dollars.
“It’s not necessarily like it was in the old days where it just was the thing to do. Now organizations and companies are more strategic about where they spend their advertising dollars, and the fact that you see so many new partners that come into the series are proof that it’s still a very, very valuable asset to corporate America,” Stewart stated.
At the end of the day, owners hope and believe the sanctioning body will choose what is best for the sport to move forward.