T
TonyB
Guest
I'm on the Petty PR list and I got this is my email tonight...
THIS IS THE OP-ED PIECE WRITTEN BY NASCAR CUP DRIVER KYLE PETTY, DRIVER OF THE #45 GEORGIA-PACIFIC/BRAWNY DODGE, AS IT APPEARS IN PRINT EDITIONS OF THE NEW YORK TIMES, SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 15.
PETTY IS THE FIRST NASCAR DRIVER TO HAVE AN OP-ED PIECE APPEAR IN THE PRESTIGIOUS NEWSPAPER.
It's That Time of Year for Nascar, With Something New
By KYLE PETTY
Published: February 15, 2004
if you have a thing for the smell of burning rubber and your heart starts pumping at the thought of fast cars, this is your time of year. For stock car racing fans, this is Christmas and New Year's all rolled into one. Speed Week at Daytona — the tradition, the heritage, the history and just the plain excitement of the biggest race of the year with the Daytona 500 — gets everybody's blood racing.
Things are changing, but most of it has been good change. This used to be the Super Bowl of stock car racing. It's getting closer to the time when the Super Bowl will be the Daytona 500 of professional football. Even the president of the United States will be there today. I didn't see him at the Super Bowl.
I have been part of this sport since the day I was born. Well, I've been part of it since even before I was born. As a driver, I've been involved for 25 years. My grandfather, Lee Petty, helped build this sport, and I watched my father, Richard Petty, define it.
Over the last 12 months, however, Nascar has gone through some of the most dramatic and exciting changes that I, or anyone else for that matter, has ever seen. Three names that have been major in our sport — Winston, Unocal and Bill France — have moved to the background.
Nextel is our new series sponsor after nearly 30 years of Winston; Sunoco is our new official fuel after 50 years of Unocal; and Brian France is the new chief executive of Nascar after 50 years of Bill Frances, senior and junior.
My grandfather's Nascar and my dad's Nascar have moved to the wayside.
We're not moving in a new direction, but we are moving at a faster speed and at a higher level. There is a natural tendency to resist change but, for the most part, these are positive changes. One of the most positive new aspects is Nextel coming into our sport. From a marketing standpoint, Nextel has the capability to greatly help our sport to grow and to take us to even more of a national audience.
Our sport was born and developed primarily in the Southeastern United States. The fans were mostly blue-collar white men. The initial sponsors in the sport, and they were rare in the early days, were aimed at that demographic. But as more general consumer-oriented sponsors became involved, the fan demographic changed, too. I can't say for sure which changed first, but companies like Goody's and STP were looking for a broader fan base, and they found it in Nascar. We have a diverse demographic now and have gone from that initial audience to a high percentage of white-collar women and men of every ethnic group.
More and more consumer-oriented sponsors joined us, and national television followed them and the new fans into the sport. What were single-event deals with CBS and ESPN grew into major-league-style series deals with FOX and NBC, and that helped us to grow even more.
The addition of Nextel gives us an even greater boost. It can market the sport without the restrictions that Winston faced as a cigarette company. What companies like General Mills and Georgia-Pacific have been able to do sponsoring racecars with everyday family products like Cheerios and Brawny, Nextel will now be able to do with our sport as a whole.
As for the new points system, if there was going to be a change, this was the time to make it. It won't change how the game is played, but the new system sure tweaks it. I'm waiting to see what happens and trying not to resist just to resist.
Not everybody thought the 3-point line in basketball was a great idea, but it turned into a key component of the game. It changed the way the game was played, spread the defenses and introduced an exciting new element to the game. Major League Baseball added divisions and extended its playoffs, just as the National Football League had done for broader appeal. There was resistance at first, but all of those changes were positive ones.
The new points system in Nascar can now be looked at the same way. If you were 400 points behind with 10 races to go in the past, it was going to be hard to win the championship. Now it's a 26-race season, followed by a 10-race season, and the 10th-place guy is back in it.
That is going to be exciting for the fans. The jury is still out on how the competitors deal with it, but we are in the fan business, so anything we do to make races better for the fans is better for all of us.
Brian France has a vision for our sport that encompasses marketing and licensing, as well as competition. The bold move with the points system is a part of it. Any time you bring in a new leader at any company, and you make a bold move, it says a lot for the future.
We're all praying that the new points system works out, but with every change made in this sport you have to do that. We are all trying to move forward and continue to grow the sport. Thirty years from now, people will look back at the 2004 season and the changes made and the things we tried and see it was a crucial time in the growth of Nascar racing.
Kyle Petty is the driver of the No. 45 Georgia-Pacific/Brawny Dodge on the Nascar Nextel Cup circuit, and is the chief executive of Petty Enterprises.
THIS IS THE OP-ED PIECE WRITTEN BY NASCAR CUP DRIVER KYLE PETTY, DRIVER OF THE #45 GEORGIA-PACIFIC/BRAWNY DODGE, AS IT APPEARS IN PRINT EDITIONS OF THE NEW YORK TIMES, SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 15.
PETTY IS THE FIRST NASCAR DRIVER TO HAVE AN OP-ED PIECE APPEAR IN THE PRESTIGIOUS NEWSPAPER.
It's That Time of Year for Nascar, With Something New
By KYLE PETTY
Published: February 15, 2004
if you have a thing for the smell of burning rubber and your heart starts pumping at the thought of fast cars, this is your time of year. For stock car racing fans, this is Christmas and New Year's all rolled into one. Speed Week at Daytona — the tradition, the heritage, the history and just the plain excitement of the biggest race of the year with the Daytona 500 — gets everybody's blood racing.
Things are changing, but most of it has been good change. This used to be the Super Bowl of stock car racing. It's getting closer to the time when the Super Bowl will be the Daytona 500 of professional football. Even the president of the United States will be there today. I didn't see him at the Super Bowl.
I have been part of this sport since the day I was born. Well, I've been part of it since even before I was born. As a driver, I've been involved for 25 years. My grandfather, Lee Petty, helped build this sport, and I watched my father, Richard Petty, define it.
Over the last 12 months, however, Nascar has gone through some of the most dramatic and exciting changes that I, or anyone else for that matter, has ever seen. Three names that have been major in our sport — Winston, Unocal and Bill France — have moved to the background.
Nextel is our new series sponsor after nearly 30 years of Winston; Sunoco is our new official fuel after 50 years of Unocal; and Brian France is the new chief executive of Nascar after 50 years of Bill Frances, senior and junior.
My grandfather's Nascar and my dad's Nascar have moved to the wayside.
We're not moving in a new direction, but we are moving at a faster speed and at a higher level. There is a natural tendency to resist change but, for the most part, these are positive changes. One of the most positive new aspects is Nextel coming into our sport. From a marketing standpoint, Nextel has the capability to greatly help our sport to grow and to take us to even more of a national audience.
Our sport was born and developed primarily in the Southeastern United States. The fans were mostly blue-collar white men. The initial sponsors in the sport, and they were rare in the early days, were aimed at that demographic. But as more general consumer-oriented sponsors became involved, the fan demographic changed, too. I can't say for sure which changed first, but companies like Goody's and STP were looking for a broader fan base, and they found it in Nascar. We have a diverse demographic now and have gone from that initial audience to a high percentage of white-collar women and men of every ethnic group.
More and more consumer-oriented sponsors joined us, and national television followed them and the new fans into the sport. What were single-event deals with CBS and ESPN grew into major-league-style series deals with FOX and NBC, and that helped us to grow even more.
The addition of Nextel gives us an even greater boost. It can market the sport without the restrictions that Winston faced as a cigarette company. What companies like General Mills and Georgia-Pacific have been able to do sponsoring racecars with everyday family products like Cheerios and Brawny, Nextel will now be able to do with our sport as a whole.
As for the new points system, if there was going to be a change, this was the time to make it. It won't change how the game is played, but the new system sure tweaks it. I'm waiting to see what happens and trying not to resist just to resist.
Not everybody thought the 3-point line in basketball was a great idea, but it turned into a key component of the game. It changed the way the game was played, spread the defenses and introduced an exciting new element to the game. Major League Baseball added divisions and extended its playoffs, just as the National Football League had done for broader appeal. There was resistance at first, but all of those changes were positive ones.
The new points system in Nascar can now be looked at the same way. If you were 400 points behind with 10 races to go in the past, it was going to be hard to win the championship. Now it's a 26-race season, followed by a 10-race season, and the 10th-place guy is back in it.
That is going to be exciting for the fans. The jury is still out on how the competitors deal with it, but we are in the fan business, so anything we do to make races better for the fans is better for all of us.
Brian France has a vision for our sport that encompasses marketing and licensing, as well as competition. The bold move with the points system is a part of it. Any time you bring in a new leader at any company, and you make a bold move, it says a lot for the future.
We're all praying that the new points system works out, but with every change made in this sport you have to do that. We are all trying to move forward and continue to grow the sport. Thirty years from now, people will look back at the 2004 season and the changes made and the things we tried and see it was a crucial time in the growth of Nascar racing.
Kyle Petty is the driver of the No. 45 Georgia-Pacific/Brawny Dodge on the Nascar Nextel Cup circuit, and is the chief executive of Petty Enterprises.
