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

One would think as strong as winged-410 racing seems to be at the national scene, this would be a great time for someone like a  Budweiser or Penzoil to come back on board with one of the series.  However, I cannot imagine it would be with the High Limit.  Tuning into Flo on a Tuesday night, and seeing 500 people in the stands is not what someone like Budweiser is looking for.  I had no reason to go to a High Limit race in my area due to the large draw of both series cars at Knoxville WoO events.  Maybe someone can confirm for me---did Kubota setup a display for marketing, etc. at each of the shows?  Tractors?  Equipment?  If so, it wouldn't be too hard to figure out why they lost interest.  Or did they just rely on their name on the series?  It's nice to give a big check to a series to headline your name.  It's another to drag your brand all over the country and have almost no one walk by the display at many of the shows.  Having the Kubota name does nothing if they can't showcase their product to live people.  Yes, I know many HL shows had good crowds, but there were far too many shows I watched where it looked like no one showed up. 

One would think as strong as winged-410 racing seems to be at the national scene, this would be a great time for someone like a  Budweiser or Penzoil to come back on board with one of the series.  However, I cannot imagine it would be with the High Limit.  Tuning into Flo on a Tuesday night, and seeing 500 people in the stands is not what someone like Budweiser is looking for.  I had no reason to go to a High Limit race in my area due to the large draw of both series cars at Knoxville WoO events.  Maybe someone can confirm for me---did Kubota setup a display for marketing, etc. at each of the shows?  Tractors?  Equipment?  If so, it wouldn't be too hard to figure out why they lost interest.  Or did they just rely on their name on the series?  It's nice to give a big check to a series to headline your name.  It's another to drag your brand all over the country and have almost no one walk by the display at many of the shows.  Having the Kubota name does nothing if they can't showcase their product to live people.  Yes, I know many HL shows had good crowds, but there were far too many shows I watched where it looked like no one showed up. 

I think Kubota leaving High Limit has more to do with an executive leadership change in North America that happened towards the end of October. From what I saw, they are pulling out of motorsports all together, at least all of the things that have sponsorship contracts ending. Podcasts, tracks, everything included. 

It does not look good seeing stands partly full with some exceptions like some of the bigger stands that may make 8000people look small. The couple races that I went to, of course I live in a sprintcar hotbed, they did have displays, people working them, some promotional lists, dealer info, etc. I did not do too big of a deep dive yet into the schedules of everyone outside of my area, but wonder if HL is being a little more choosy with where they go and when. The first year I understood them going to some areas with fans and population in general being limited. Getting booked at that point and proving to some promoters that they were serious about being around was needed and I think these next couple of years they have been able to get into some better locations.  

As for a new sponsor, who knows. Depends on the price to get the naming rights. For the right price, you could see Hendrickcars.com as a sponsor. WoO went years without a series sponsor and has been fortunate with NOS all these years