Here we go again, another opportunity for you to bring in the 1000ft talk. Well, I got news for you buddy - Miller were gone before the 1000ft deal came into play. Looking at the grandstands of the fall Vegas race, the Maple Grove crowd and a few others, I think the fans are still interested. I for one am still interested. Oh, and I don't watch Nascar - so I guess not everybody watches that crap. 1000ft TF > Nascar
No need to get hostile Mike, we're all on the same side of the issue, but let's face reality here.
I was standing at the starting line when a pissed off Shirley beat Lucielle in Columbus after she swapped engines with Jeb.
I watched Big take down Indy several times.
I watched the Bud King race when Dale was developing the most weird sounding fuel engine of all time.
I saw Tim Grose and his crew of one win at Maple Grove while blowing off the blower in the lights, and I saw Dan Pastorini race and win with a bucket of rusty old bolts.
Been there, and done a lot more than that over 30 years of watching
greatness unfold, while watching people flood in after walking over a mile from their cars because parking anywhere near the track was impossible.
Now, having offered a thin slice of what I have seen over the years, I'm here to point out the obvious, and that is the quality of the NHRA looks like the used up dish water circling the drain.
Does my comment add to the postitive feel that you are looking for, no, but maybe Miller and Bud corporate advertisers saw this unfolding years ago, and thats a nationwide growing disinterest in this product that isn't worthy of a piece of the budget. Can you see Miller Brewing following up the great Ed "the Ace" McCullough with someone like Courtney Force who may get a little oil on her Juicy Couture purse?
I don't see beer drinkers relating to that.
Want to attract sponsorship? Then show me something that's exciting. IMO, it isn't the atmosphere created when you have a sweedish model doing a three second nothing blurb race against someone financed from an oil rich nation, while your fans are struggling to fill up their 20 gallon tank to get to the track from 200 miles away.
Please, no disrespect intended, but you have to put yourself in the broad American spectators minds to know how they think, and ultimately how they spend their time and money. That is what attracts the life blood of motorsports, and that's corporate sponsorship my friend.
Yeah, there will always be the oil wars, and Geico paired themselves up with the Lucas name, and not the NHRA IMO, but if you think for one second that this garbage that we see on the track today will attract corporate mainstream sponsorship, or fans hard earned money in a tough economy, you need a history lesson on what made this sport such an awesome spectacle in it's prime, and what it has become today.
Who does the NHRA have to compare with the personalities of Nascar in order to compete for that piece of sponsorship pie?
Force and his totally used up and worn out act, when the public knows he collects exotic cars and cuts team members pay at the same time? Austin Coil comes to mind.
I bet the racing world holds it's bated breath to hear from Shawn Langston or Spencer Massey (no disrespect to either), but the average American racing public collectively says "WHO?
Ask anybody, I mean anybody on the street who Jeff Gordon or Tony Stewart is... Hell, ask who anybody who races Sprint cup is, and you'll get an answer.
Remember, were not comparing racing, were comparing sellability.
Lots has gone wrong, with nothing changing direction. Look for the stands to show even more wood this year.
stand before a pass
