Help Me: What Can NASCAR Do To Attract More Minority Fans and Minority Racers?

ladyspartan16

ladyspartan16

Team Owner
Joined
Feb 11, 2015
Messages
1,404
Points
343
Thoughts? Working on something for a marketing proposal and this what I chose for my thesis.

And by minorities I meant:
> Women
> Minority Races
> Other countries
> Upper Class Audiences (not minority)

Pretty much what NASCAR currently has a lack of.

What I have so far

> Putting money into or creating STEM programs geared towards girls and young women. There's been a huge push for this in the past few years, but I don't see where NASCAR or any teams have made an effort to do this.

> Pushing or putting emphasis on Kyle Larson, Bubba Wallace Jr, and Daniel Suarez. Bubba was named one of the most influential up comers by Ebony Magazine, and for the most part radio silence from NASCAR when it happened.
>>> More emphasis on the D4D program. I have a classmate who recently tried out for the pit crew combine. I thought that was super cool. I didn't hear if she got picked up by a team but it was still cool.

> A race at Rockingham. Rockingham UK that is. Did you all know there is a Rockingham Motor Speedway in England? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockingham_Motor_Speedway Can you imagine the International Reach IF NASCAR could pull off a race here? Even if it's just an exhibition race.

> I've got nothing on how to appeal to upper class audiences, but a benefit is more sponsor dollars.
 
I think you have some good ideas. I've always thought simply more and better advertising would go a long way. The ads, in the overall scheme of things, are sorely lacking in quantity and quality.
 
I don't have links to stats and demographics, but I recall the trend over the last two decades has been an increase in women, minorities, and upper class audiences.

I can tell you that just based on my own 20 year of following the sport, there are definitely more women in the stands now. I'd say around 25 to 35 percent of the fans I see are women these days, compared to less than 10% at the first race I attended in '95. The increase in the percentage of non-white attendees is noticeable but definitely smaller than the number of women, and it's still a bit of a surprise to see African-Americans, Asians, or Hispanics (a pleasant surprise, to be sure).

How to continue these increases into the shop, pits, and ****pits? Sorry, I'm not a marketing agent or a social scientist. I don't know that an emphasis on STEM will lead to an appreciation of motorsports. Part of the problem is that this isn't a cheap sport to get into. Last time I checked, a good entry-level go-cart will run a few thousand, and a 'Legends' car will be in the high four-figure range. The next Bubba-wannabes also have to live near a facility that will let develop their skills. No car and no track equals no entry, regardless of your race, gender, diabetic status, etc.

D4D is a good program, but I understand its focus to be on minority drivers who have already entered the sport and showed some degree of success and potential. If an aspiring driver's family can't afford to get him started, or don't live where she can develop some skills, young people will turn to cheaper options with facilities more readily available to them. Let's face it, compared to racing even so-called 'elitist' sports like golf or tennis are cheaper, with courts and courses everywhere.

Sorry to be such a negative Nelly.
 
I think what they has now demographically is working pretty good. NASCAR is becoming more and more diverse. It's never going to be 60% female and 50% "not white". When I look in the stands, I see diversity, as it is. They should be focused on gaining fans in general, not minority fans especially.

If they truly want to attract "upper class" citizens(and again fans in general) they'll drop the DW and Etc southern schtick for once and for all, and stop delegitimizing the sport with every new gimmick in every new season.

JMO



BTW, someone put Bubba Wallace in a cup car. Fkn love that dude. Did you know he fux with the drums with Blaney in their own 2 piece metal band?
 
I'm an 18 year old Hispanic and I'm the biggest racing fan that I know. More successful minority drivers would be a great start. When Montoya was racing my mother would sit down and watch the races with me, especially if he was contending for the win.

Another step would be to allow more room for engineering in NASCAR. Young people in general are enthralled by engineering and cars, it is simply way too expensive to actually do anything with them.

If NASCAR racing was international other countries would be interested. People aren't going to be interested in something irrelevant in their own regions. An international exhibition event or two like the ones in Japan a few years ago would go a long way.
 
WhiningSmoke said:
I'm an 18 year old Hispanic and I'm the biggest racing fan that I know. More successful minority drivers would be a great start. When Montoya was racing my mother would sit down and watch the races with me, especially if he was contending for the win.

Another step would be to allow more room for engineering in NASCAR. Young people in general are enthralled by engineering and cars, it is simply way too expensive to actually do anything with them.

If NASCAR racing was international other countries would be interested. People aren't going to be interested in something irrelevant in their own regions. An international exhibition event or two like the ones in Japan a few years ago would go a long way.
Click to expand...

International drivers are a HUGE benefit, for sure.
 
WhiningSmoke said:
I'm an 18 year old Hispanic and I'm the biggest racing fan that I know. More successful minority drivers would be a great start. When Montoya was racing my mother would sit down and watch the races with me, especially if he was contending for the win.

Another step would be to allow more room for engineering in NASCAR. Young people in general are enthralled by engineering and cars, it is simply way too expensive to actually do anything with them.

If NASCAR racing was international other countries would be interested. People aren't going to be interested in something irrelevant in their own regions. An international exhibition event or two like the ones in Japan a few years ago would go a long way.
Click to expand...
Not a bad idea you have there
 
sdj said:
Why should Nascar do anything?
Click to expand...
DUN24 said:
Exactly.
Click to expand...

So very clearly you all missed what I said.

Thoughts? Working on something for a marketing proposal and this what I chose for my thesis.
Click to expand...

I didn't say NASCAR had to implement this. I'm doing a project to better my chances to get into a marketing grad program.... this is what I chose to do it on
 
ladyspartan16 said:
So very clearly you all missed what I said.



I didn't say NASCAR had to implement this. I'm doing a project to better my chances to get into a marketing grad program.... this is what I chose to do it on
Click to expand...

Lol I read it but then went on a tangent. Oops.


Alright., international drivers.. They are the ****. Montoya did a lot for the sport down south when he entered. compare to Americans who have started paying attention to F1 due to HAAS F1 entering the sport. Suarez is doing great and his background brought him full ride sponsorship.(I wish it was the same for Bubba but he's alright)

Racing in Europe would be great, it would show those elitist European racing fans how badass this sport actually is. "High class" and international attention. Two birds, one stone.
 
Tough subject matter.

Something for item 4 ... maybe look at the geographical areas not currently served by the series. Are the demographics and socio/economic factors favorable?

I'm thinking of the NYC / New Jersey area and the Pacific Northwest where I live.
 
ladyspartan16 said:
So very clearly you all missed what I said.



I didn't say NASCAR had to implement this. I'm doing a project to better my chances to get into a marketing grad program.... this is what I chose to do it on
Click to expand...
My bad. Well, cable companies have the ability to and do market certain tv commercials to specific areas. My suggestion would be to target demographic areas of the city with NASCAR advertisement, especially when a race is local to that area.
 
be9ak7ts16 said:
To get back to the subject at hand........... In the last couple 3 weeks we had 3 young ladies join up here. I started a welcome thread in hopes that they would feel welcome and stick around. Guess what, they never came back.
Click to expand...

:(
 
DUN24 said:
LMAO. What say you on the subject?
Click to expand...
It's a good question and I'm not sure I really know the answer. The only time I've gotten friends to come with me to a track is the GP of St. Pete where we got free tickets to Friday's activities from a friend of a friend, who happened to be volunteering for the race. The Friday crowd was surprisingly large and once they saw some of the stuff going on (practice sessions for IndyCar and the Road to Indy ladder series, and a PWC race) they were amazed at how it surpassed their expectations. We also got to go into the Road to Indy/PWC paddock area for free (it was free the whole weekend) and they got to see all of the engineers, mechanics, cars, drivers, etc. up close and thought it was badass. We even managed to grab some Cooper tires used in the practice sessions earlier for $10/each (proceeds donated to charity). They already had plans for the rest of race weekend so they didn't catch most of the actual races but they said they definitely want to go next year. So I think getting their foot in the door and providing a solid first experience is really key. But I can't say I'd know how NASCAR should go about that.
 
FLRacingFan said:
It's a good question and I'm not sure I really know the answer. The only time I've gotten friends to come with me to a track is the GP of St. Pete where we got free tickets to Friday's activities from a friend of a friend, who happened to be volunteering for the race. The Friday crowd was surprisingly large and once they saw some of the stuff going on (practice sessions for IndyCar and the Road to Indy ladder series, and a PWC race) they were amazed at how it surpassed their expectations. We also got to go into the Road to Indy/PWC paddock area for free (it was free the whole weekend) and they got to see all of the engineers, mechanics, cars, drivers, etc. up close and thought it was badass. We even managed to grab some Cooper tires used in the practice sessions earlier for $10/each (proceeds donated to charity). They already had plans for the rest of race weekend so they didn't catch most of the actual races but they said they definitely want to go next year. So I think getting their foot in the door and providing a solid first experience is really key. But I can't say I'd know how NASCAR should go about that.
Click to expand...

An open paddock would make a world of difference, probably pretty damn hard to pull off in a NASCAR oval weekend. If you brought those folks to the track, good on you.
 
DUN24 said:
An open paddock would make a world of difference, probably pretty damn hard to pull off in a NASCAR oval weekend. If you brought those folks to the track, good on you.
Click to expand...
I think at the very least they could look at making Friday admission less than $25 or $35 or whatever ISC and SMI are charging these days. Or putting in some youth discounts or something. Students get into Lightning games here well below face value even during the Stanley Cup Playoffs with a valid student ID. I'm sure the franchise loses out on a good bit of revenue but at they same time they're building the fan base of the future. I mean, I got into Game 7 against the Red Wings last year for $20 while everyone else was probably paying out the ass.
 
Also, I don't know how often they organize this but apparently NASCAR has some sort of tour before the Daytona 500 where a bunch of drivers go out and promote the race in a bunch of different places and whatnot. I didn't know this until a few hours after it happened (and missed out on the troll opportunity of a lifetime) but Matt Kenseth and Joie Chitwood came to my school and talked to a few classes in the college of business about sponsorship, marketing, fan experience, etc. and then went to go visit the Formula SAE team to talk about the engineering side of things. I've only heard of this really being done on a large scale during Speedweeks but it sounded like a cool experience so maybe they could do some more **** like that.
 
DUN24 said:
When I went to school in NC, we got discounts on tickets to Hickory, Charlotte, Bristol, and M'ville(didn't go to Bristol or M'ville because I'm a moron), and a few other area tracks, it was a good program but I didn't feel like they advertised it very well. Most trade schools and college students in the Charlotte area were offered nice ticket prices IIRC. A surprising amount of Iredell/Cabarrus County residents don't give a sh!t about stock car racing though so.....
Click to expand...

A lot of sports teams do this. Athletes come to school, teams do "Student Night" at the ballpark or game, teams give free tickets to schools, teams sell tickets for $5 to schools. Actually, NASCAR is becoming pretty exclusive in NOT doing this.

One racetrack I worked at, the elementary school did a field trip at the racetrack and a bunch of drivers came out for it. Local newspaper came out and said it was the first time it had ever been done in that county.
 
ChexOrWrex said:
Go to a race, theres much more diversity than youd think. Dont let the broad brush stereotype cloud your research.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I gotta go with COW on this one.

@ladyspartan, I recall you've never been to a race and said you likely wouldn't attend one. Sidestepping your main question, I'm not sure how you can write a good paper on attracting people to an activity when you've never actually seen the activity yourself. All the research in the world doesn't compensate for actually participating (or at least attending).

Maybe things have really changed between my generation and yours as to how we consume entertainment. In other discussions here, other young people have commented how they prefer sports on the tube as opposed to live. For my age group, live entertainment was almost always considered a superior form. I think this is particularly true in racing, where TV coverage often focuses only a handful of participants (plate races excluded). It doesn't give you the option to watch who you want to watch, only who producer wants to show.

Maybe you're asking the wrong crowd? After all, almost everyone here is already a fan. While most members here who live outside the US make that clear immediately, many don't declare their gender clearly, and fewer identify by ethnicity or minority group.

And at a race, you could ask actual real live women and minority fans what drew them to the sport, and how to attract others.
 
Acs said:
Well sh!t, I was going to make a lengthy post about this topic any maybe help a gal out, especially considering I'm new to the sport and maybe fit into one of the categories... but nope. Carry on.
Click to expand...
@Acs, ignore the sidebar stuff and individual catfights. You're closer to the target demographic than most of us; POST, gosh-darn it!
 
AndyMarquisLive said:
It'd be very hard if they were racing at short tracks, like they should be. Not sure why they couldn't pull this off at the brobdingnagians though.
Click to expand...
Probably because the tracks view infield access as a source of revenue, at least for NASCAR events. Other forms of motorsports treat it as you and DUN24 suggest, as a tool for attracting fans.
 
FLRacingFan said:
I'm sure some tracks have good deals but I don't know for sure. I'm just thinking out loud.
Click to expand...
Many have great deals for kids for Truck and X races, and there used to be group discounts although I haven't looked into that lately. Some have deals for Cup races; I paid about 66% of face value for my Coke 600 tickets. Many offer military / veteran discounts, and we're sure as heck a minority these days. ;)
 
be9ak7ts16 said:
To get back to the subject at hand........... In the last couple 3 weeks we had 3 young ladies join up here. I started a welcome thread in hopes that they would feel welcome and stick around. Guess what, they never came back.
Click to expand...
I can tell you why they haven't returned --- after they joined, they edited their email addys with non-existing addresses and couldn't validate them.
No validation --- no entry.
 
They already tried that and it failed. All they ended up doing was driving away a lot of the base. Moving the race start times to 3 moving classic races away just so tracks like california can get a second race. And letting Danica drive around in the back while hyping her up as if she has talent. None of that worked. They might want to try advertising on something other than their own races. People watching nascar do not need to see commercials for nascar since they are already fans. Also maybe get some drivers that are not so annoying. So many of the top drivers are such fakes and nerds its pretty funny. Guys that are actually cool and you would want to hang out with are very rare no a days in nascar. The only drivers I can think of that I would actually want to talk with would be maybe Junior,Truex and maybe Ryan newman. Everyone else is basically a kid or nerd or entitled cry baby.
 
Halbert said:
They already tried that and it failed. All they ended up doing was driving away a lot of the base. Moving the race start times to 3 moving classic races away just so tracks like california can get a second race. And letting Danica drive around in the back while hyping her up as if she has talent. None of that worked. They might want to try advertising on something other than their own races. People watching nascar do not need to see commercials for nascar since they are already fans. Also maybe get some drivers that are not so annoying. So many of the top drivers are such fakes and nerds its pretty funny. Guys that are actually cool and you would want to hang out with are very rare no a days in nascar. The only drivers I can think of that I would actually want to talk with would be maybe Junior,Truex and maybe Ryan newman. Everyone else is basically a kid or nerd or entitled cry baby.
Click to expand...

hanging out with Chase or Blaney or Danica or Denny or Harvick or...or...the list goes on would be cool, IMHO
 
I would love to see a race in England, would absolutely love it. Rockingham is made for that type of racing and it even hosted a Bubba Wallace NASCAR experience for a while but imagine the cost to NASCAR and the teams though. Shipping everything over for the 1 weekend. I know NFL and NBA play games over here a couple times a year and they are hugely popular but they don't have to ship across haulers, cars etc.

Incidently the NASCAR Euro Series hits England next week so I am heading down to Brands Hatch to check me some V8 beauties. They host an event called the American Speedfest. A full weeken of American muscle cars and the NASCAR racing so should be a good one.

Over here NASCAR has no TV coverage at all unless you pay around £12-£15 per month for a rather unknown sports channel called Premier Sports. It is a real shame but how popular would it be I wonder. I get the usual comments from all my mates about cars driving in circles blah blah etc.
 
Halbert said:
They already tried that and it failed. All they ended up doing was driving away a lot of the base. Moving the race start times to 3 moving classic races away just so tracks like california can get a second race. And letting Danica drive around in the back while hyping her up as if she has talent. None of that worked. They might want to try advertising on something other than their own races. People watching nascar do not need to see commercials for nascar since they are already fans. Also maybe get some drivers that are not so annoying. So many of the top drivers are such fakes and nerds its pretty funny. Guys that are actually cool and you would want to hang out with are very rare no a days in nascar. The only drivers I can think of that I would actually want to talk with would be maybe Junior,Truex and maybe Ryan newman. Everyone else is basically a kid or nerd or entitled cry baby.
Click to expand...
I guess it wouldn't be politically correct to comment on this one .
 
Halbert said:
They already tried that and it failed. All they ended up doing was driving away a lot of the base. Moving the race start times to 3 moving classic races away just so tracks like california can get a second race. And letting Danica drive around in the back while hyping her up as if she has talent. None of that worked. They might want to try advertising on something other than their own races. People watching nascar do not need to see commercials for nascar since they are already fans. Also maybe get some drivers that are not so annoying. So many of the top drivers are such fakes and nerds its pretty funny. Guys that are actually cool and you would want to hang out with are very rare no a days in nascar. The only drivers I can think of that I would actually want to talk with would be maybe Junior,Truex and maybe Ryan newman. Everyone else is basically a kid or nerd or entitled cry baby.
Click to expand...
What does any of this have to do with the topic?

There are whining and crying threads all over the board. Try one of those.
 
Posted this earlier but it got lost in the shuffle.

Back on topic ... in the current racing culture, children learn to drive and race karts in an organized, structured environment. Funding is a problem across the board. Look into golf's First Tee programs for ideas.
Click to expand...
 
aunty dive said:
What does any of this have to do with the topic?

There are whining and crying threads all over the board. Try one of those.
Click to expand...
Some folks have to show their bias every day or they will feel less important
 
I'm not sure what NASCAR can do to enhance minority participation.
I became a racing fan back in the late 60s because my boyfriend(soon to be husband) worked on a car with
his brother -- mainly drag racing. In the 70s, we moved to short-track dirt racing --- late models.
After several years, it was too expensive to race.
From then on, it was just working on cars for friends. I was usually the "gopher" and assistant part holder.
NASCAR caught my eye in 1979 and I've been a fan ever since.

I've seen loads of women at the tracks I've been to. Lots of them in the stands --- even more, dressed to the nines, headed
up to the suites. Although I doubt many of those are race fans.

As for actual racing --- as someone pointed out, it's damned expensive to even start with go-carts. Kids may like to race, but until someone can pony up the money they don't have a chance to get a foot in the door.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom