Forum: HoseHeads Sprint Car General Forum (go)
Moderators: dirtonly  /  dmantx  /  hosehead

Nice to see a company with no ties to teams or involved in the sport already becoming title sponsor of the Nationals.  We need to see more of this IMO. 

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/sports/motor/auto-racing/2016/05/10/knoxville-nationals-agrees-sponsorship-5-hour-energy/84162952/

Phenomenal news for not only Knoxville, the Nationals but Sprint Car Racing in general.  Kendra's presence (and netowrk) paying dividends.  This is a HUGE deal from a larger Energy Drink Company. 

My brother pointed out a lot of empty billboards at the races last weekend along the walls and infield. I assume rather than it being lack of sponsership it was in preparation of the new sponser advertisement. 

hearing more announcements in the weeks to come as well regarding sponsors for prelim nights and Late Model Nationals.

I think the hope was to get some of the paperwork done before the season was this far along (I think original plan was announcement the week after the season opener from what I have heard).

I agree.   She's so cute I'd be hard pressed to tell her no on anything.   She's a big asset to Knoxville and this is major.

Who remembers when they were literally handing out free packets of Vivarin at the '97 Nationals. All you could grab. I think it helped alot of people get to work on Monday morning after Sunday, Dave Blaney victory with Vivarin sponsorship. It helped my friend have a mild heart attack. I'm kidding about the heart attack, but I couldn't imagine in current times, someone handing out caffeine pills to everyone who walked on, and off of the fairgrounds. Instead they hand out seat belt violations.

I remember getting the same packets at the Sharon Nationals.  I was like 10

My guess is everyone will be getting their free fill of 5 Hour Energy during Nationals Week, which is basically liquid caffeine...

Too funny. Dangerous, but funny. 10 beers and 4 Vivarin could be a "shocking" experience.

I love this story.  I hope this is a sign of things to come.

Hopefully she can show the fairboard the light and get them to reconsider a partnership with Iowa Speedway and NASCAR to bring a Trucks race to Knoxville.  She has broad vision and big world business sense unfortunately these small town board members don't have. 

I actually spoke at the Chili Bowl one year with 3 board members who will remain un-named.  Two of which I grew up around in Knoxville and the other a family member.  I remember asking them after Tony's success the first year of the MudSummer Classic when Knoxville was going to pursue something and they all 3 scoffed at the idea.  Said it would be too expensive.  Too much trouble.  Could never make money doing it.  I couldn't believe the arrogance and lack of vision.  Actually, I could believe it...  Because that sounds like Knoxville leadership historically.  Almost no business sense.

Truth is going back to 2014, NASCAR opened the door in an interview.  Could you imagine how much exposure to your track you could get by trying to organize some sort of major motor-sports weekend with NASCAR at the two tracks.  The exposure you could get of having NASCAR fans come to Knoxville and witness sprint cars.  AND NASCAR would jump at the chance to broaden their exposure and actually sell out a few races.

Thursday night Trucks at Knoxville, Friday night Xfinity at Iowa Speedway, Saturday night WoO at Knoxville, Sunday Cup at Iowa Speedway.  Sure it would cost a lot, and sure it would take a lot of work to make the track "NASCAR safe", but I think you would sell out both nights, easily get event sponsors, sell out camping and hotels all over the area, and bring a considerable amount of revenue to Knoxville and Newton areas.  I think you could even get FoxSports to air the sprint show as part of a weekend package.

Hopefully this is a long-term agreement. Dirt oval racing doesnt need anymore sponsors that come onboard with big ideas then are gone after a year or two. Looking at you Stacker 2, Clean-O, etc. 

Interesting ideas for sure, but I doubt it could happen the way you're proposing.   I think if having the Cup series at Iowa was a possibility at all it would have happened already.    I agree that a package deal with trucks at Knoxville and Xfinity at Iowa could work on some level.   Overall though, I wonder if ship has already sailed on the "NASCAR fans attending sprint car races" thing.   The dirt tracks at Charlotte and Texas were built on that premise.   Charlotte has the World Finals, but the TMS dirt track is hardly used.   And the WoO never goes there any more.    Of course, we're talking Knoxville here and not D/FW where sprint car racing sucks.   If anyone can help make it happen, it would be Kendra.   

At BEST the soonest a Cup Race will be in Newton would be in 2021 (after the current 5 year sanction agreements expire).  Same goes for Trucks and Xfinity anywhere except the tracks they currently have sanction agreements with (barring a track closing it's doors).

I could careless about NASCAR fans at dirt races.

Most of them have no grasp on dirt track etiquette, ie: sit your ass down when the cars are racing.

They seem to believe you have to stand all the time.

Sure there's a portion of NASCAR fans that are just race fans in general, but a large majority of them just like NASCAR and enjoy nothing about grass roots dirt racing.

"Gimme fuel, Gimme fire, Gimme that which I desire!"

You're missing the point, more fans in the seat means more money for $$$. It doesn't matter if you dont' like them there, no offense.

I would love to see trucks @ Knoxville at some point in time, it would be great for a town that's population is dwindling and economy isn't as good. A little boost is always nice!

Don't care if they're standing or sitting, as long as they're there spending $$$ at our track!

I believe you've made clear your agenda.

This is still one of the biggest bone-head statements made by sprint car fans. 

1.  ANYONE at a sprint car track is a sprint car fan or they wouldn't be there--regardless of what other interests they have outside of the sprint car race.  And, as previously mentioned, you need butts in seats to pay these purses that everyone keeps whining are too small because there are no butts in the seats.  (Kinda goes in a circle doesn't it?)

2.  "Most of them have no grasp on dirt track etiquette"  Can you please site your sources for this?  Every year, I attend sprint car races.  Every year a large group of people are still standing after 1 or 2 laps are completed.  And every year, about 200 people are yelling pissed when they don't sit right away.  I see very few nascar shirts amongst these standers.  I see 10:1 ratio of sprint car shirts vs. nascar shirts.  Can you please (and anyone else that wants to chime in) tell me where you have made this correlation between standing race fans and Nascar?  I have made it a point to observe this at sprint car, dirt late model races, and pavement races and have seen no difference in the way the crowd reacts to any situation.  I think you want to be pissed, you see one or two guys with a Jimmie Johnson shirt on, and automatically that becomes the cannon fodder.

3. "they seem to believe you have to stand all of the time"--Please site your sources--other than the couple of fans you observed in point 2

4.  "a large majority of them just like NASCAR..."--stop yourself--if they just like NASCAR, why are they at a sprint car race?  (I'll give you a hint--they don't just like NASCAR)  "and enjoy nothing about grass roots dirt racing"---I enjoy nothing about Bed Bath and Beyond and Yankee Candle so I don't go into those places.  I am assuming if they didn't enjoy grass roots racing..............THEY WOULDN'T BE THERE!

Please see one of my earlier posts about how die-hard fans are going to help the sport die hard.  You are a perfect example.  I would assume you hate NASCAR?  Do you go?  I would bet not.  Why would you assume anyone attending your precious sprint car racew would hate grass roots racing?

Dumb

You are exactly right. There's not an issue of not being sponsored...we're just "under construction" while we move some billboards around and renovate others. Every race week you will see more new billboards being put up around the property! Please let your brother know. Thank you!

totally agree, we need whoever is willing to pony up the $$ to attend to be there in person.

I too haven't ran across people that "have to stand the entire race".  Even during the Nationals, at most it's one to two laps and then eveyrone is sitting down.   I think the announcers do a good job of telling the crowd that "we ask you to sit so everyone is able to see the race" without coming of as "preaching" or telling people what to do.  Most fans (of all racing) know that we need the youngsters to keep racing alive.

I didn't know there was a "dirt track etiquette", maybe I'm one of those people.

Anyone at a sprint car race (unless they were dragged along by a friend for the first time) knows what they are getting into IMO.

Although you and I don't always see eye to eye, your opinion is one that I value quite a bit--so I appreciate the fact that you agree with me on this and I am not the only one who was unaware of "dirt track etiquette"!

As far as the "I don't want the NASCAR crowd" people go, let me give this example. 

I attended Nascar races religiously.  And then one day, in August  of 2002, my buddy took me to the Nationals for the first time.  I had seen a couple of IRA races years back and I was not impressed.  (Not the fault of the IRA mind you--our track sucked!)  After that trip to the Nationals in 2002, I never have attended another Nascar race and I have attended sprint car races every chance I get:  WOO, All-stars, IRA/MOWA, Invaders, and of course my yearly trip to the Nationals.  I have since taken dozens of friends who were die-hard Nascar fans.  You know what happened?  YOu guessed it:  They too have attended their last ever Nascar race and now refuse to spend their money on anything but the dirt track.

I still watch it on TV, but will not spend my vacation money attending them with all of the great sprint car racing out there.  So, get as many of these Nascar fans in the stands as possible.  Not saying all are going to like it but you are likely to convert a ton of them and 14 years later, they will be on Hoseheads being a snarky, sarcastic a-hole like me! 

do not remember what year, but free packets of chewing tobacco.  I tried it, got dizzy and sick feeling, never again.  This was at about 1990 Nationals.