Smithfield Foods Leaving Petty Motorsports

There are so many things that can go wrong between a verbal meeting of the minds and actually cashing the checks. Common sense says you have nothing until the contracts are signed.

I happen to know Go FAS Racing had a handshake agreement with their sponsor for four plate races in 2016, with Bobby Labonte driving. Then the CEO died suddenly before the spring Talladega race. Next thing that happened was, the sponsor's attorney is calling Go FAS offering pennies on the dollar to walk away. Go FAS thought they had that $600,000 in the bank, but it is tough to litigate a verbal contract. They got about 10 cents / dollar. (Incidentally, it is flat out amazing how little the attorneys knew - or cared - about how Nascar sponsorship works.)
 
Towmater said:
What fire? Do you think anyone at SHR cares if they did or didn't have a "handshake" agreement? Is Kevin Harvick going to say something negative about Smithfield on his radio show? Nope. They care that they have a signed contract and checks being cut next year.
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The only way to be SURE there is no backlash is to dispute what was said. It may not seem like a big deal to most people, but they're going to defend their company and actions regardless of whether it's a big deal or not. That's what I was trying to say.

For for record, never said there was a fire
"fire gets put out before it begins."
 
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From Rubbins Racing, ElvisOnFire: "Worst kept secret in the garage area lol. The only reason Smithfield held out from signing this late was they were hoping Petty would come up with a solution (IE a step up from Aric and a guarantee they'd fix their performance), but they felt Bubba was not the answer. Aric has proven he can be a decent driver, and Haas is still considered a top team despite being behind the Toyotas at the moment. Funny part is they have Childress freaking out too because they had a lot of eggs already in the basket thinking it was a done deal lol."
 
Pockrass article about #10 replacement drivers.

"I don't really think the 10 [of Patrick] is an option - it hasn't seemed to be throughout," Kahne said Wednesday during the NASCAR playoffs media day. "I've talked to them and things, but they've obviously been working in other areas.

"[Patrick's replacement] is not me -- I can tell you that, it's not me," said Kenseth, the 2003 NASCAR Cup champion.

http://www.espn.com/racing/nascar/c...eplacement-danica-patrick-stewart-haas-racing
 
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darlingtonfan said:
Seems like only yesterday we had the UPS car racing the Fed Ex car,Kellogg's vs Cheerios cars and all the beer company cars.While I hope RPM can find a sponsor,it's not looking good.
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When you sit down and think about all the billion dollar national and multi-national companies that have exited Nascar it is a real eye opener.
 
Skoalbandit33 said:
When you sit down and think about all the billion dollar national and multi-national companies that have exited Nascar it is a real eye opener.
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But, to be fair, we still have FedEx, as well as Miller and Busch (on a smaller scale). One of the problems of the beer business, (and business in general) is that business isn't that good, and with all of the mergers, there are far fewer companies to work with.
 
Formerjackman said:
But, to be fair, we still have FedEx, as well as Miller and Busch (on a smaller scale). One of the problems of the beer business, (and business in general) is that business isn't that good, and with all of the mergers, there are far fewer companies to work with.
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I think your comments are true to a point but when you think about companies like Kellogg's, UPS, General Mills, Pfizer, Molson-Coors, Quaker State, Seagrams, Interstate Batteries (all but gone), Home Depot, Dollar General, GoDaddy, Kraft-Heinz, Dupont-Axalta, Texaco-Havoline, Proctor and Gamble, Target (next year), STP, Schneider Electric/Square D and a bunch more that I know have slipped my mind. Those are some heavy hitters, IMO.
 
Well, Quaker state is part of the Shell Pennzoil empire, so some money is being spent there, Interstate isn't all that big of a company, so I think they got priced out. Axalta, being spun off from DuPont, isn't nearly as big as a company as it was, and their spend next year is still going to be significant. Texaco was bought by Chevron, STP has been sold multiple times, yet keeps a small presence in the sport, P&G still dabbles some, I think Schneider electric is probably another one that got priced out.
 
Yeah there's been a ton of big time mergers over the last couple decades. I bet if you look at all the NASCAR sponsors from the 80s and 90s, many of them are no longer around because they either went out of business or joined forces with a competitor.

I'm still pissed that GM got rid of Mr. Goodwrench for "Certified Service" or whatever boring name they use nowadays.
 
Lovitz-Flanagan.png
 
TexasRaceLady said:
Is there some point to this picture of an actor? How does it relate to the topic?
Or am I missing something?
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I was having fun with Nascarapolgist dude for saying that most of the Fortune 500 companies are involved with Nascar. I know he is just joking so I posted a picture of Tommy Flanagan from SNL. He was a hoot like Joe Isuzu was.
 
NASCAR Apologist said:
Plenty of big sponsors are involved in NASCAR. Most of the Fortune 500.
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I would amend that to "most of the NASCAR sponsors are fortune 500 companies." One of the issues with that is that most of the companies that made up the backbone of NASCAR sponsorship got priced out of the market and left. The fortune 500 companies are the only ones that can afford to spend that much, and even THEY are trying to cut that back.
 
Formerjackman said:
I would amend that to "most of the NASCAR sponsors are fortune 500 companies." One of the issues with that is that most of the companies that made up the backbone of NASCAR sponsorship got priced out of the market and left. The fortune 500 companies are the only ones that can afford to spend that much, and even THEY are trying to cut that back.
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Cost wise the door may be opening back up for smaller companies as the market resets what sponsorships, drivers salaries and other things are actually worth. On the other hand the market is resetting due to the lack of interest and the poor demographic Nascar has so a lot of those companies may want to sit out entirely.

I DVR all the races so IDK what companies advertise on Nascar broadcasts but you would think there would be many products that aging baby boomers would be interested in. I am way out of the preferred demo and even though I won't be swayed on certain products I am wide open to hearing about other things I may need or want now or in the future.
 
Formerjackman said:
It hurts to say it, but the Petty legacy has been living off the past since about 1981. Richard got old and stayed on FAR too long as a driver, and they got behind in engineering, technology and people. They stayed in Level Cross too long in an outdated facility and Richard was notoriously tight with the money bag. Move into the 2000's and the loss of Adam, (I know it's heresy to say it, but I never bought Adam as the savior of Petty Enterprises anyway. He may have been reasonably talented, but I'm not sure he was a superstar in the making.) sticking with Kyle for far too long, and the whole Evernham/Gillett fiasco pretty much sucked what life there could have been out of the deal. The current team is just living off the past with nothing new to really offer. Probably the best thing that could happen would be to close the doors and have Richard become a global ambassador for NASCAR.
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Adam's passing cost so much more than a driver. Dodge was going to do a major renovation of PE. TRD just copied a plan already conceived. You might say most of the Dodges on track could have been considered "Dodge by Petty" based on what was under the hood. Dodge Dealers was originally to have been one of Adam's primary sponsors.
 
Formerjackman said:
Axalta, being spun off from DuPont,.
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It has took place, Dupont sold Axalta to the Carlyle Group in 2013, and then Axalta went public in 2014 , becoming a independent company.
 
Robert J Sublett said:
Adam's passing cost so much more than a driver. Dodge was going to do a major renovation of PE. TRD just copied a plan already conceived. You might say most of the Dodges on track could have been considered "Dodge by Petty" based on what was under the hood. Dodge Dealers was originally to have been one of Adam's primary sponsors.
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Hilarious.

At that point, Petty Enterprises was barely able to manage itself, much less execute a plan conceived by Dodge for the success of a fleet of teams.
 
Robert J Sublett said:
Adam's passing cost so much more than a driver. Dodge was going to do a major renovation of PE. TRD just copied a plan already conceived. You might say most of the Dodges on track could have been considered "Dodge by Petty" based on what was under the hood. Dodge Dealers was originally to have been one of Adam's primary sponsors.
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And none of this took place simply because Adam died? Why would they invest so much money in PE, when they had already spent a boatload to set Evernham up in business? Just for curiosity, I looked up Adam's career Xfinity stats. 7 top tens over 43 starts (ironic) and an average finish worse than Danica's Cup record.
 
I recall Richard saying Adam was to young to ever know how things would materialize.
As in being Great, Average, or Mediocre, and regardless of the candidate becoming one of the greats is a rare event.

Adam Pettys death was tragic, but the biggest part of that was a lost life, and breaking Kyles heart, imo.
 
A tragedy, and a terrible loss no doubt. From all accounts, a truly nice kid. I guess I have just gotten tired of the often repeated mantra that he was the next Jeff Gordon, and that if only he had lived, Petty Enterprises would today be on equal footing with Hendrick, Gibbs and Penske. One interesting thing I learned over the years is that VERY FEW of the race teams and owners that are from the old era ever successfully transitioned to the modern era. It's my contention that even if you gave some of the old timers an unlimited budget, they wouldn't know what to do with it. Childress is one of the exceptions, but he had the once in lifetime good fortune of pairing up with Earnhardt. I love and respect the Wood Brothers, but let's be honest. Without being a Penske support team, and a Roush one before that, would they even be fielding a car? I'm not sure Petty Enterprises could have EVER made the transition to one of the modern super teams.
 
I think Dale had a better business plan than Richard ever did. It wasn't long after that he sold
a part of his business and we have no way of knowing what influence that partner has.
 
Team Penske said:
I think Dale had a better business plan than Richard ever did. It wasn't long after that he sold
a part of his business and we have no way of knowing what influence that partner has.
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Richard was making a LOT of money off of Dale, money that pretty much dried up when he died. Once Dale was gone, Richard was just another lower tier one car owner, and it can be argued that even BEFORE Dale's death, RCR had started to fall behind the mega teams. I imagine Richard was forced to go to outside money to try to replace what he lost in Dale in an effort to keep up. It's also possible that he had gotten to the point in his life where he wanted to liquidate a little bit and actually be able to enjoy some of the money he made.
 
Stacy said:
Smithfield Foods isn't the problem -- they are remaining in the NASCAR family.

Sponsors switching dance partners is just part of the business...
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True enough.

The level of outrage depends on who loses it and who gains it.

I don't recall a lot of pearl clutching over 3M dumping Roush for HMS.
 
The thing we are headed for now is two car teams will be the big teams as the stars retire. As Harvick, Johnson, Hamlin slide toward retirement, a lot of them won't be replaced team will just drop cars.
 
Perhaps, but the reason they had four cars in the first place was for the economy of scale. If you cut back to two cars, it just makes running those two more expensive. That's the point Gene Haas was trying to make.
 
Robert J Sublett said:
The thing we are headed for now is two car teams will be the big teams as the stars retire. As Harvick, Johnson, Hamlin slide toward retirement, a lot of them won't be replaced team will just drop cars.
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Do Joe Gibbs and Rick Hendrick know about this?
 
Formerjackman said:
Perhaps, but the reason they had four cars in the first place was for the economy of scale. If you cut back to two cars, it just makes running those two more expensive. That's the point Gene Haas was trying to make.
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Gene's theory may be applicable to his team but most owners are not going to run un-sponsored teams because they can break even or take a loss. Barney Visser is not going to run the 77 with even partial sponsorship next year and will be content with the 78 and the alliance with TRD/JGR. Chip Ganassi is not falling all over himself to add to his 2 car team as what he has now and the alliance with HMS seems to be working well.
 
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