Forum: HoseHeads Sprint Car General Forum (go)
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I just saw on instagram that Rico is co owner with Sides for Jason's WoO tour.

Anyone have any details? I am wonder what's Rico up to. Sounds like he owns 1 and a half teams but drives for a 3rd team. What is the logistics of that?  Maybe not my business to ask, but I am curious to know if he has a lot of family money to do this??

Even though I may not know you, I 
care what most of you think!

It's a head- scratcher that's for sure

Rico's dad is very successful Napa Valley wine guy. He is an expert in harvesting the grapes used for wine making and looks to be loaded. So it's probably fair to say Rico has some family money.

That said, he's built a pretty successful team and sells a ton of merchandise but he might be tired of being owner/driver and might want to separate the owner and driver parts. 

The thought had crossed my mind it was partially to sell more merchandise with new t-shirts hats Etc.. can a guy actually sell enough merchandise the profit while ensuring those extra expenses

Even though I may not know you, I 
care what most of you think!

Steve Kinser won a lot of prize money in his day but I bet that prize money doesn't hold a candle to the ammount of money he made out if his t-shirt trailer. 20,000 shirts at @$20 a shirt and thats just a year at the nationals...

I would bet Rico sells as much merchandise as any driver due to being a fan favorite plus his style of driving.Without sponsorship not many teams can break even on purse money alone. Most team owners made their money elsewhere except for the few Nascar drivers who are giving back to their roots

It' ALL about 1 of 2 things:  

1.  The sponsor on the wing

or

2.  How much money is backing the operation.

One will drive themselves mad trying to pencil out purse money and merchandise money vs. costs.  It doesn't work out.  You either have a great start from the owner, or a solid financial backing from a sponsor.  (or solid backing from an anonymous source)  That's the only ways it works out to be competitive.  Sure, there are a few guys out there nickel and diming it out on the road----but they are also running at the back of the pack.  I know----Shark Racing is one of those teams.  But they also picked up some big sponsor dollars for the last few years.  

Rico can now sell his and Haud Sr's merch at every Outlaw show. $$$

DING DING DING $$$$$$

But if I understand the rules correctly he can't sell Rico merch at an Outlaw show. I remember that being an issue with Tony Stewart a few years ago. 

If I remember correctly it wasn't about selling stuff but he couldn't park his trailer on the front row with the Platinum drivers. I could be wrong I have slept since then. 

Gary Allbuagh

Smart play for Rico. 2021 is going to be a good one!

As an owner on the woo with a platinum member team he can sell his merchandise and and Jacs bringing in the jack he is no dummy! I bet you Larsen made as much if not more on his tshirts and merchandise sales then the winnings he brought home this year heck he may brought in a milion on sales!    

Have heard that Rico brings  in over $90k from merch during PA Speedweek. I can only imagine what Larson did, everywhere he went they had a line at his van.

20,000 sales would mean that just about everyone at the Nationals buys one.  I have been to two Nationals and have not checked off that box.  The merch costs money, I'm sure they're not making 100% profit on the $20 per shit.  What do blank shirts, artwork, printing and shipping cost?  Maybe as much as 1/3 of what they charge for them.

There were always a lot more Kinser shirts at Nationals than any other driver but using 20,000 as approximate Nationals attendance if 5% are Kinser shirts with the other 95% spread out among the remaining 100 or so drivers that would be an estimated 5% or 1000 wearing Kinser shirts.  The question is how many would have purchased a new one?  I doubt that it would have been anywhere close to 20,000.

Lets see some more realistic numbers for the sake of discussion.   

Stan Meissner

I think that it's great that he's supporting Jason Sides. I really hope that it helps improve his performances. I think that Sides has the ability to be a consistent top 10 finisher, but as we all know, he runs the whole thing by himself. Bravo to Rico for helping a very cool and deserving guy.

Fair point Stan, Steve is an outlier in this as his popularity is and was way above and beyond other drivers. I do know for a fact from people that I know that worked on the Kinser team that the nationals week brought in hundreds of thousands of dollars through the vending trailer for SK. 

For discussion sake say Steve sold 5000 shirts at $20 each and the cost for shirts, artwork, printing and shipping is $5.00 each. $75,000 is a solid number. 

For comparison sakes. Several years ago, Kyle Larson sold out his entire inventory during a Pa speedweeks race at Path Valley Speedway (even before the Larson Mania of today) He even commented on Twitter that he made more that night than he was making from the sale of his mercandise from NASCAR. Estimates were he sold $13,000 worth of stuff in one night. 

Larson sold all 10,000 of the late model t shirts he had at port royal

I have one !