NASCAR Daily News Headlines * December 22, 2008

Bill Davis Sells Company

Triad Racing Technologies, owned by Held and Gaunt, will continue Triad’s business of supplying engines, chassis and bodies for NASCAR Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Camping World Truck series teams.

An announcement concerning the team’s racing program in Cup and Trucks will be made in mid-January, Gaunt and Held said. They talked Monday about their plans for Triad Racing Technologies.

“We feel there will be a greater need in the future for Triad chassis development and engine programs,” Gaunt said in an interview. “We do firmly believe in the future you won’t see all these Cup teams with in-house engine programs or chassis programs, and we look forward to picking that business up in the future.”

Gaunt and Held both have experience as NASCAR team owners, and Gaunt most recently was vice president at BDR. Held also owns Co-Pilott LLC, a marketing company that services a number of clients in the motorsports arena such as Sony and Menards.

Gaunt, a former owner of Red Horse Racing, worked with Held and his marketing company while an executive at Penske Racing and Red Bull Racing.

“Everything comes full circle,” Held said. “It used to be that everybody got their chassis from [suppliers]. … With the lack of sponsorship out there, teams have less revenue, so they’re going to be forced to look at the bottom line and where they can go out and [obtain] contract service work. Our goal is to be one of the top contract service providers.”

Triad already has a strong business of being a provider of chassis and engines in the Trucks as well as engines in the Nationwide and Cup series.

“We’ve known Marty and Mike for many years and wish them all the best in this new endeavor,” said Lee White, president and general manager of Toyota Racing Development. “Of course, we’ve had a very good relationship with Bill Davis and everyone at Triad and we expect that relationship to continue with TRT.”

Triad, started by Bill Davis and Toyota to help Toyota prepare for its 2004 entry into the Truck series, will remain in its location in High Point, N.C.

“[Team owners] Bill and Gail Davis have built strong companies and we intend to carry on the tradition,” Held said. “Clearly, Triad’s history of championship successes are proof that this brain trust led by Jon Dysinger [with engines] and Todd Holbert [with chassis] will continue to be a force in the marketplace.”

Held stressed the company won’t just cater to Toyota. “If it’s got four wheels, we’ll build an engine and chassis for it,” Held said.

BDR won its first title, a Truck championship, this year with Johnny Benson.(scenedaily.com)

Canada Bails Automakers

“This is a huge problem that faces the Ontario community and the Canadian economy by extension,” Prime Minister Stephen Harper said at a press conference in downtown Toronto today.

Canada’s aid builds on the $13.4 billion in U.S. emergency loans announced by President George W. Bush. Canadian Industry Minister Tony Clement on Dec. 12 pledged to offer GM, Chrysler and Ford Motor Co.’s Canadian units federal and provincial aid “proportional” to the their contribution to North American production, which is about 20 percent.

“We will not allow catastrophic collapse” of the industry, Harper said. “But the auto companies have to change the way they do their business in a very serious way.”

The aid package is “not a blank check” and Canadian taxpayers expect the money to be used to renew the industry and involve all stakeholders in that process, Harper said.

Ontario’s Contribution...Ontario will contribute C$1.3 billion to the package and the Canadian government C$2.7 billion, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty said at the same news conference. “This is about 400,000 jobs and 400,000 families,” said McGuinty. “There’s a lot at risk.”

The Canadian Auto Workers union lauded the package and pledged to continue working with the companies and governments to ensure the industry’s survival in Canada, Ken Lewenza, president of the union said. “The announcement today was important for our industry, our workers and for all citizens of Canada,” said Lewenza. “There are 400,000 jobs at stake here.”

He declined to speculate on whether his membership will have to take wage-and-benefit cuts as part of the package.(bloomberg.com)

NASCAR Targets Four Open Sponsor Categories

The biggest defection comes from Home Depot, which has spent the last 10 years as NASCAR’s official home improvement warehouse. It is one of four official partners that decided not to renew its league deal amid budget constraints.

“It’s just a matter of figuring out how to best spend our marketing dollars in a tough economy,” said Home Depot spokeswoman Jean Niemi.

Enterprise, Domino’s Pizza and Kodak also elected to let their official status deals expire. These agreements, which normally range from three to five years in length, typically go for the low seven figures annually.

Jim O’Connell, NASCAR’s vice president of corporate marketing, characterized the departures as “companies that are leaving the sport entirely. They all had bad years, earnings-wise, and they’re looking at tighter budgets.”

Domino’s and Kodak also vacated team deals in the past year — Domino’s at Michael Waltrip Racing and Kodak at Penske Racing.

Among the sponsors that renewed with multiyear deals are Mars, Office Depot, Tylenol, Unilever and Craftsman. Camping World also has a new deal as part of its truck series title sponsorship that begins next season.

The overall reduction going into 2009 leaves NASCAR with 38 official partners, including the four auto manufacturers, about 10 fewer than three years ago.

“That goes along with our strategy of bringing in best-in-class brands with a national footprint,” O’Connell said, espousing the plan laid out by NASCAR chief marketing officer Steve Phelps to gradually trim the number of official sponsors. “We’re very pleased that these blue-chip companies have been with us and will continue to be with us. All in all, we see it as a pretty good year that we were able to renew these companies. If you look at the list, they’ve all been very successful in the sport.”

NASCAR appeared set to replace Home Depot earlier this season when it was deep into negotiations with Lowe’s. Those talks included the truck title sponsorship for Lowe’s brand Kobalt Tools and official status for Lowe’s in home improvement and tools for Kobalt. That package advanced to the contract phase before falling through late in the summer, industry sources said....Read more at ...(sportsbusinessjournal.com)

Allgaier To Run Full Nationwide Schedule