Earnhardt Jr. Can't Shoulder NASCAR's Entire Load

December 19, 2007
By Chuck Abrams

Chuck Abrams

Now that Brian France has laid the mantle of poor Chase ratings at the feet of Dale Earnhardt, Jr. is it safe to speculate that the poor showing for ISC (International Speedway Corporation) is also due to Earnhardt?

According to reports, ISC will write off $25-50 MILLION dollars this year in licensed products. That is collectibles that you and I did not buy this year. T-shirts, hats, die cast cars, key chains, can coolers – you name it we did not buy it. Or at least enough of it.

According to ISC, they blamed part of the loss on Dale Jr’s announcement that he was leaving DEI in May, as well as “…other driver movement for 2008 announced earlier than usual”.

Now, ISC owns the tracks at California, Chicago, Darlington, Daytona, Homestead, Kansas, Martinsville, Michigan, Phoenix, Richmond, Talladega and Watkins Glen as well as MRN Radio.

They announced record revenues for the third quarter of 2007 on October 4th that included the write-offs by Motorsports Authentics (the collectible arm owned by ISC and Speedway Motorsports Inc.) so I am not sure how the company will suddenly be losing between $45 and 50 million for the year. I may run my own company but I guess I am no financial genius when it comes to this kind of thing.

But I found it very interesting that once again, Dale Jr. has been called out specifically for a downturn in NASCAR business. I seem to remember a run on Dale Jr. merchandise after he announced his departure from DEI because the strong sales were counter to what many were expecting. Perhaps new sales are down but look at the merchandise. I mean, c’mon, some of the color combinations are out right brutal. Finding tasteful NASCAR related wearables has always been somewhat of a challenge until recent years although some gaudy t-shirts still seem to come out every year.

Anyway, if sales are down on collectibles, I think ISC has to look beyond its nose and Dale Earnhardt Jr. First of all, look at the economy. The collectible industry has been on the downslide for several years. The only thing that would have helped it is if Dick Cheney had been a die cast man instead of an oilman. High ticket prices, high gas prices, hotels, etc. are not only keeping fans from the races, but from purchasing collectibles as well. And those collectibles are not cheap.

Secondly, look at the state of NASCAR. You would have had to be living on a moon rock somewhere if you can’t gauge the temperature of race fans in this country over the past few years. Race fans are ticked off and when they are, they don’t buy stuff. Pretty simple and it has little to do with Dale Jr.

Silly Season – sure it starts earlier and earlier every year. Dale Jr. sells the lions share of merchandise so it is easy to blame him. But do you remember who else is moving? Mark Martin, Regan Smith and Aric Almirola are going to DEI. Kyle Busch was the other big name to move this year and while I am sure Kyle sells his share of stuff, it is not a huge amount. Ken Schrader started out this year but lost his ride to Awesome Bill. Stremme? Mayfield? Nemechek? Sterling? OK, names but not huge sellers.

OK, so back to blaming Jr. since he is the big seller? How about the state of NASCAR in 2007 where Hendrick, and specifically Gordon and Johnson, dominated the circuit this year like no other team has. People buy more stuff when their driver is winning. That did not leave a lot of room for other people to win this year and sell stuff. And there are not many new, compelling personalities coming into NASCAR right now for people to latch onto.

Joe Gibbs Racing is switching from Chevy to Toyota this year. While many fans don’t care and will support the driver no matter what, there is a vocal group that will not buy anything Toyota. And I may be nuts, but I am going to guess the Toyota car owner is not the same die-hard, rabid fan as Chevy, Ford and Dodge have. Nothing against Toyota, but NASCAR was built on the backs of the Big Three and their customers. Toyota may outsell in the dealership, but not at the racetrack.

Lastly, look at the Car Of Tomorrow, which is now the new car. Most fans hate the car, so my guess is there are a lot of expensive diecast cars sitting around.

ISC expects to break even in 2008 with its collectible business. I am sure they think that Dale Jr. fans will suddenly start to shop again next year. Add that to the 50th Daytona 500 and the 60th anniversary of NASCAR and you can see their eyes twinkling like little Christmas lights.

Let me tell you something – make NASCAR relevant again to the average fan and show them that their driver can win on any given weekend and quit messing with the sport and they will come. And they will buy.

Let me know your thoughts.

Drive fast, turn left and keep the shiny side up.

Feel free to send Chuck your thoughts on this and other race topics at Insider Racing News. The blog at www.turnleftracing.com is down now due to spammers. We will have that back up as soon as we can.

The thoughts and ideas expressed by this writer or any other writer on Insider Racing News, are not necessarily the views of the staff and/or management of IRN.

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