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

(SEE EDIT BELOW) Saw on Twitter (LiveDirtUpdates) that Great Clips is ending their partnership/sponsorship with KKR after this season.  Wonder if they can convince NAPA to come on board fulltime and keep Ollie's to keep two cars on tour next year...not sure iRacing has the funds to go fulltime with KKR either.

***EDIT: Now I see that Great Clips is ending their partnership with Hendrick/Kasey.  No info yet on how/if this affects KKR...LiveDirtUpdates maybe jumped the gun on that aspect as they directly said KKR. Again, nothing released today said anything about KKR...yet... ***

Pittman May be looking next year. He has fallen off the last few years.

Per an article on Ya-scroo news, the sponsorship with the WoO team is ending in 2017 as well. It said the November race in NC will be the last race carrying the sponsorship. 

Attempting to be a voice of reason in a world full of
irrationality. 

Ouch hate to see KKR lose a big time sponsor like great clips. That yahoo article does confirm it.

Unfortunately, I don't see Kasey landing another premier ride if and when his time comes to an end at Hendrick Motorsports.  I also don't see him landing another premier sponsor to remain at Hendrick Motorsports.  Historically, to keep a job with Hendrick, you either need to perform OR have the last name Earnhardt.  Last I checked, neither applied to him over the last 5 years.  

One would assume Great Clips contributed a significant amount of money to KKR.  Sadly, Kasey will likely not land another sponsor like that to field both a Cup team and fund a sprint car team.

(JMO and speculation)

Thanks for the update re: Yahoo article, which looks like it was updated or went live with additional quotes from Great Clips late afternoon yesterday. 

Kasey has hinted the last few years (in person) that he was growing weary of the "Nascar scene" per se (my words, not his).  I'm sure Hendrick isn't pleased with the no winning thing either, so maybe it's mutual. 

Hmmm...will be interesting to see what path Kasey chooses and what occurs with KKR.  My guess is they're hitting the phones right now talking to existing sponsors (mainly Ollie's and NAPA and maybe iRacing) to set things up for next year. 

Hendrick has been ok with zero wins so far from Chase Elliott and only a handful from Dale Jr and Kahne. Lucky that they have Jimmy Johnson to carry the banner for the team.

Losing Great Clips may be a by product of Dale Jr retiring. Hendrick realizes that he won't get the same amount of cash from Nationwide, Mountain Dew, etc, if Alex Bowman is wheeling the car in place of Dale Jr. If Hendrick started asking for more from his current sponsors Great Clips may have looked at the reuqest for more cash combined with Kahne's subpar performance as a good time to get out of Nascar sponsorship.

Given the downtrend in ratings and attendance, Great Clips won't be the last sponsor to exit the sport either. Aside from all of their ridiculous rule changes to fabricate "competition", they really need to do something to help the teams financially. Otherwise, there will be 30 car fields in a few years.

I would be ok with 30 car fields. Then you wouldn't have Jeffrey Earnhardt's trash out there ruining drivers days.

How many are actually competative anyway? top 20 maybe?

Fox should switch to Saturday night live Sprint car races

I would say there are 25 teams capable of winning any weekend

Barring one of those "Even a blind chicken finds a sunflower seed now and then" moments, it can't be more than 12; 15 tops!

I am lucky enough to work at one of the best tracks 
anywhere.

I've often wondered over the past several years (and beyond) if the lifestyles of the Team owners and Drivers might also be a catalyst for the loss of sponsorships. As the market place has change and fluctuated, major companies have had to find ways to be more thrifty and efficient with their dollars. Of course, they too, meaning the CEO's and business owners sure don't want to see a change in their life styles, either.  Bottom line is it all gets pushed on to the consumer's wallet to support racing and buy the products and goods of the sponsors and business' in general. The NASCAR stands may indeed be a reflection of the pinch the American consumer is feeling on their budgets, not just what many see as the current lack of entertainment.  NASCAR, the Team Owners, Drivers AND Sponsors have had a good thing for a long time. Maybe it has been too good.

Here's what I got:

SHR-3

penske-2

Hendrick-3

Gibbs-4

furniture row-2

wood brothers-1

ganassi-2

RCR-2

roush-1

And thats off top of my head

so, i get my hair cut monthly ar the local chico great clips.  the salon here has a  huge picture of Kahne in the window.  so, i asked the stylist, "i see your company is a Kasey Kahne fan".  answer, "who is Kasey Kahne'.  end of story!

Ascot was the greatest of all time..

West Capital wasn't half bad either..

Life is good...

Not discounting the disconnect with internal company marketing (even if we're talking a stylist at a single Great Clips location) but you as the customer knows who he is and care at least a little about the partnership GC has with him? So the branding works there. 

Helping the teams financially is what killed NASCAR in the first place............the Car of Tomorrow or COT.  

That killed Nascar.  Not Earnhardt's death, but the COT.   Helped owners save money.  Take the car from Bristol, load it on the trailer and take it to Daytona.  Turned out they would have been better off letting them drive bulldozers the way they pushed when they try to pull up behind a car and pass.  They eliminated the COT in 2012 but alas, it was too late.  Too many years of no passing and no action and POOF...............your fans are gone.  

Wanna know how to fix Nascar?  Invent the flux-capacitor, install it in a Delorean, go back to 2007 and inform the France family the COT will be the worst decision ever made in racing.  

I just looked it up.  9 have won already.  Those who haven't won yet, but have won in the past:

Kevin Harvick

Kyle Busch

Jamie Mac

Clint Bowyer

Denny Hamlin

Matt Kenseth

Kasey Kahne

Jr.

Paul Menard

David Ragan

AJ. Dinger

That's 20.  Those expected to win in the very near future:

Chase

Blaney

Erik Jones

I'd say 20-25 is accurate.

(I left Trevor Bayne and Chris Buescher out on purpose)

This is a fun debate, but I think your list is a bit of a stretch.  Sure any of these, or any other drivers CAN win any weekend on a fluke (rain delay, fuel mileage crap, one off races like restrictor plate tracks or road coarses) but these are the ones I think have a realistic shot at winning any weekend there's a race.

SHR-2 or 3

Penske-2

Hendrick-1 or 2

Gibbs-3

Furniture Row-1

Wood Brothers-1

Ganassi-1

RCR-0

Roush-0

As far as the differences between our lists: In the SHR team, I think Bowyer is a good driver but that team has not been competitive over the last few years, they've been getting better but it doesn't seem like they're consistient every week.  As far as Hendrick, Kasey Kahne has been non-existent the last few years, I never see him running up front, I'm a fan of Dale Jr but it seems like all the stars have to line up for him to be competitive (But he can win any restrictor plate race), Chase Elliot is fast but not consistent, I'm sure he will win a race this year but I don't consider him a threat week to week.  Gibbs, I haven't seen Suarez do anything to give me any reason to think he's going to be competitve anywhere this year.  Furniture Row, Eric Jones is a rookie with a new team and I don't think he has a realistic chance of winning this year.  Ganassi, McMurry has been running better but still not up to the level of Larson.  RCR and Roush, this might sound stupid since both of these teams have won this year but I think these were both kind of fluke wins, Stenhouse might win the rest of the restrictor plate races this year but that's it.

And to the person blaming the COT for the lack of ratings I have to disagree.  I do agree however that the COT was garbage.  I hated everything about that car other than the safety factor.  But I think what's wrong with NASCAR is dollars plain and simple.  Rarely do drivers make it on talent anymore, they make it by coming from money or having a big sponsor.  There are only three exceptions I can think of over the past fifteen years that come to mind: Carl Edwards, Denny Hamlin and Brad Keselowski and even with them, I don't think any of them ever wondered where their next meal was coming from.  Otherwise there are drivers like Danica, Paul Menard, Austin Dillon, Daniel Suarez, Dale Jr and Kasey Kahne who in my opinion are in high profile rides but haven't shown the results to deserve to be there.  I think a bit of it was Dale Earnheardt dying.  To see a high school dropout with basically nothing to offer other than talent turn into one of the most successful drivers ever, and the richest at the time of his death gave anyone a reason to cheer for him.  Will there ever be another story like his?  I'm guessing no, but every year there is in the NFL and I'm sure countless other sports too, where it's about performance and not your name.  Not trying to argue, just give you my point of view.

I agree......that driver that comes along with a fat wallet can sure help a team owner offset the loss of lost sponsrship monies. Back in '95 Smokey Yunick was talking about Tony Stewart making it on his ability, and not a huge personal bank roll. He said...."There are 99 more Tony Stewarts out there but they aren't going to get a damn chance 'cause they can't buy their way in to a ride and that's a damn shame". (that's close to word for word) He was referring to Stewart's overall driving ability specifically, and Indy rather than NASCAR.....Tony didn't get in to NASCAR until '99 I believe, with Joe Gibbs, but Smokey saw the trend coming and nearly always knew what he was talking about. That was over 20 years ago, and here we are today when a fat wallet buys way too many rides in most forms of auto racing. Smokey also made the remark that when race cars became driveable ," AJ Foyt lost his advantage.....he didn't know what to do with the damn things."  The driving ability and the driver making the car go was no longer needed. "Up until then we couldn't beat the s.....o.......b....!"

That's interesting, I heard Doug Wolfgang say something similar too.  1995 was about when I started watching NASCAR, I guess I didn't see it that way at the time.  I agree though I believe that there probably is at least 99 other drivers with Tony Stewart's ability that will never get the chance and I think that has taken some of the excitement out of all racing for me.  Also because of the dollars, I don't see any of the drivers who speak their mind anymore because it might upset a sponsor, I can understand it but it sure makes it boring.  Unfortunately, like you said I think all other forms of racing are following this trend.