I think some of you are missing the point regarding A-B (and now InBev) and Bernstein.
First, no one, and I mean no one, has ever come close to Kenny's marketing and public relations abilities and successes. Winning races is one thing, but what happens away from the track continues to be far more important than what happens on it.
Relatively small TV ratings (whether we like facing that or not), minimal print coverage and spectator turnouts that, while seemingly good, don't knock the socks off of corporate types, all combine to continue to make drag racing a tough sell. Bernstein overcame all of that and has enjoyed a 30 year relationship with one single entity. Nobody else in motorsports can make that claim.
To give you but a small inkling of Kenny's professionalism, AFTER the announcement was made that there wouldn't be a renewal, his team put out a detailed release outlining all of the positive things that they'd accomplished WITH Budweiser, not FOR Budweiser.
In terms of race victories and personal honors, few can match Kenny's championships, his breaking of the 300 mph barrier, his having been named not only Person of the Year on the old Car Craft All-Star Drag Racing Team, but he and Dale Armstrong were the first to be paired with the Ollie Award, the most prestigious honor in drag racing.
Brandon has also performed admirably, and has won numerous national events.
Please don't forget that his father went for years without winning, often failing to even qualify. He had to LEARN how to race and then LEARN how to win, and Brandon is following that same path.
The other thing that has been widely noted in various beverage industry publications is that InBev does not appear to understand or know how to market beer to the American marketplace. We are not Europe or South America, and people choose and stick with brands here for different reasons than they do in other countries. InBev apparently doesn't understand that, and their cutbacks and executive dismissals have left them without the internal expertise to provide recommendations to overcome their declining sales. All they seem to know is that they're losing market share, and rather than aggressively market those products and fight for market share, they prefer to make more and more cutbacks. Eventually you become self-defeating by following that path, but that's for someone else to prove, not me.
Lastly, concerning other teams and other sponsorships, I think much of what's been talked about in this thread is without credibility. If you consider, for example, that it takes at least $2.5M to be really competitive for a T/F championship, that does not happen with one-off sponsorships from regional dealerships -- unless you're naive enough to believe that those dealerships were forking over at least $100,000 for a single weekend's exposure, and that there are deals in place for all 24 races. The ROI - Return On Investment -- for a regional dealership is simply not there at $100,000. It might be at $50K for a weekend, and is more likely at $25K.
Just something to keep in mind.
Jon Asher
