Overheard at Mid-Ohio – 1
As we said below in this original rumor, sure Las Vegas would be a nice venue to close out the IndyCar season and host the season ending banquet. However, Las Vegas is a NASCAR town. The IRL failed miserably on the Vegas oval as did Champ Car. The latest example was the Truck/Champ Car doubleheader. There was a good crowd for the truck race. When it ended, the Champ Car race started and was putting on a better show, but the fans kept leaving until at the end of the race there was perhaps 1/3 to 50% of people in the grandstands as for the truck race. The fans just have no interest in open wheel racing. And except for Danica Patrick, what would keep them there next time? The last point is simple – Vegas has massive grandstands to support their Sprint Cup race. The IndyCars will draw a fraction of the people and the empty grandstands will make IndyCar look like a loser to anyone watching on TV.
With all that said, part of us hopes they give Vegas a try again as we love the city.
The 2009 schedule to be announced on July 31st is rumored to look like:
- St. Petersburg 1.78 Mile Street
- Long Beach 1.97 Mile Street
- Motegi, Japan Sat 1.549 Oval
- Queensland, Au 2.795 Mi Street
- Kansas City 1.5 M Oval
- Indianapolis, IN 2.5 mile Oval
- West Allis, WI 1.032 Mile Oval
- Ft Worth, TX (Sat. Nite)
- Newton, IA 0.875 Mile Oval
- Richmond, VA (Sat. Night)
- Watkins Glen 3.37 Mile RC
- Lexington, OH 2.258 Mile RC
- Toronto, CN 1.721 Mile Street
- Edmonton CN 1.96 Mi Airport
- Sparta, KY (Sat Nite) 1.5 Mile Oval
- Sonoma, CA RC
- Detroit, MI 2.096 Mi. RC
- Joliet, Ill. 1.5 Mile Oval
- Las Vegas 1.5 Mile oval
Mark C. reporting from Mid-Ohio.
07/18/08 Subway restaurants won’t be the last NASCAR sponsor racing to the Indy Racing League, according to motorsports marketing experts.
An idea that seemed laughable a year or two ago is now reality. Subway, a big-time NASCAR sponsor, this week announced it would sponsor an IRL car driven by Paul Tracy. The deal, league insiders said, was brokered by IRL boss Tony George to let Subway take a test drive in the IRL. League sources said Subway is thinking hard about becoming a bigger sponsor in IRL next year. They added that Subway is one of five finalists to become the league’s title sponsor. For more on that, come back to this blog on Monday.
Sure, the Subway-Paul Tracy agreement is a one-off deal. And Subway isn’t paying more than a couple lunch meat sandwiches to put its name and logo on the car for the upcoming race in Edmonton. But it’s a sign of things to come.
“There are a lot of NASCAR sponsors who are suddenly taking a hard look at the numbers," said Larry DeGaris, a sports marketing professor at the University of Indianapolis. “It’s no joke. Sponsorship in NASCAR has gotten so expensive, it has a lot of sponsors there crunching the numbers and looking at alternative ways to get their messages out. And they realize the cost per million in the IRL is looking much better."
Zak Brown, president of locally based Just Marketing International, has also heard from NASCAR sponsors looking at the IRL. He should know. Brown, who counts Subway as one of his clients, got rich in the last decade matching corporate entities with NASCAR teams. A little more than a year ago, he was hired by the IRL to help sell its title sponsorship.
Brown claims it’s not necessarily an either/or proposition.
“The demographics of the two series are different," Brown said. “For many companies, they’re complimentary. But one thing’s for certain. The momentum of the IndyCar series has sponsors’ attention." IBJ.com
07/18/08 Talk in the Mid-Ohio paddock is that a Mexico City race probably will not make it on the 2009 calendar but there is still interest in future years. We still hear 18 or 19 races for 2009 with the most likely ones being:
- St. Petersburg 1.78 Mile Street
- Long Beach 1.97 Mile Street
- Motegi, Japan Sat 1.549 Oval
- Queensland, Au 2.795 Mi Street
- Kansas City 1.5 M Oval
- Indianapolis, IN 2.5 mile Oval
- West Allis, WI 1.032 Mile Oval
- Ft Worth, TX (Sat. Nite)
- Newton, IA 0.875 Mile Oval
- Richmond, VA (Sat. Night)
- Watkins Glen 3.37 Mile RC
- Lexington, OH 2.258 Mile RC
- Toronto, CN 1.721 Mile Street
- Edmonton CN 1.96 Mi Airport
- Sparta, KY (Sat Nite) 1.5 Mile Oval
- Sonoma, CA RC
- Detroit, MI 2.096 Mi. RC
- Joliet, Ill. 1.5 Mile Oval
- TBA – If Las Vegas, Phoenix or New Hampshire they will absolutely fail….again.
We hear that the PCM is working on adding a 2nd car for 2009. They realize you need at least two drivers to help hone in on the right car setup on race weekends……..And who might drive that 2nd car? Ryan Dalziel is definitely one driver under consideration…….We hear that Keith Wiggins is looking to add a 2nd car to his HVM stable and we hear the driver is not American……..We hear that some NASCAR sponsors are now taking a long hard look at Indy Car. The thinking being once you have been in front of the same fans for umpteen years you no longer get the return on investment from your sponsorship. The IRL races in some different markets than NASCAR, which is why adding an IRL race in Las Vegas, New Hampshire or Phoenix makes absolutely no sense whatsoever because those markets have already seen those products via NASCAR……..We also hear some teams may be dropping out of NASCAR because it has become too expensive to compete, and may take a look at IndyCar. Half the races and a lot less money needed to field a competitive team……..We are still hearing that the next IndyCar engine will indeed be turbocharged…….Did you know that Tony Stewart gets paid $1 million per race to get beaten by his superior teammate Kyle Busch week in and week out? Talk about an overpaid, overweight, obnoxious athlete. Mark C. reporting from Mid-Ohio