NASCAR 2008 - It's Black and White

December 16, 2007
By Rebecca Gladden

Rebecca Gladden

If I let my imagination wander, I can picture myself sitting in a plush Madison Avenue office, creating an advertising campaign to kick off the 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup season.

I start off by reviewing some of the ads from the 2007 preseason. You probably won't remember this, but last year FOX ran an elaborate trio of futuristic commercials promoting the season-opening Daytona 500.

Those ads combined live action with animated sequences and starred NASCAR drivers Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, and Dale Earnhardt Jr., performing a variety of extreme stunts such as driving speed boats off the top of Hoover dam and base jumping from skyscrapers.

At the height of suspense, the action was abruptly interrupted by the tagline, "Who Will Flinch?"

The ads were apparently designed to offer fans a choice between the three drivers that someone considered the most marketable in NASCAR - Gordon, Johnson, and Earnhardt Jr.

But a year ago, no one could have foreseen the shocking turn of events that transpired midway through the 2007 season, when Dale Earnhardt Jr. announced plans to leave his father's company, Dale Earnhardt, Inc., and signed with (gasp!) Hendrick Motorsports.

Of course Hendrick has been DEI's principle rival for years, tracing back to the days when fans of Dale Earnhardt Sr. and Jeff Gordon first starting hating each other.

For much of the '07 season, as Earnhardt Jr. considered his future plans, Hendrick Motorsports seemed the least likely of all places for him to go. Aside from the obvious concerns about how his fans would react to such a move, Rick Hendrick himself declared there was "no room at the inn" for Earnhardt.

Rumors of a possible move to Hendrick by Earnhardt Jr. ran rampant starting last April, when Kyle Busch crashed into Earnhardt Jr. at Texas. Busch, a driver for Hendrick Motorsports, left the track prematurely, and when his team repaired the damage to his car, they asked Earnhardt to finish the race in Busch's place - leading to speculation that a move to HMS could become permanent.

Though Busch had a contract with Hendrick through 2008, it was later decided that he would leave the company at the end of 2007, making room for Earnhardt Jr. at the "full" Hendrick Inn.

Kyle Busch, meanwhile, becomes the newest member of Joe Gibbs Racing in '08, as former JGR team member J.J. Yeley moves on to Hall of Fame Racing.

Anyway, this sets up the following team situation: Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and Casey Mears driving for HMS, with Tony Stewart, Denny Hamlin, and Kyle Busch racing for JGR.

Now, back to that advertising campaign.

The above grouping of drivers creates a natural rivalry between the good boys at Hendrick Motorsports, and the bad boys at Joe Gibbs Racing.

After all, Gordon and Johnson in particular are known for their squeaky clean, corporate friendly image, but even Earnhardt Jr., a partier in his younger days, has gone out of his way to stay out of trouble and play nicely with others. And Casey Mears is one of the nicest guys in the garage.

Meanwhile, Stewart, Hamlin, and Busch, all have a bit of edge to them, to put it politely. Stewart's NASCAR rap sheet is the longest of the three and extends back to the days when he had a number of run-ins with, well, everyone.

Even Denny Hamlin had issues on the track this season, including a highly-publicized altercation with veteran Kyle Petty in which Hamlin admitted to having a "short fuse," and a falling out with teammate Tony Stewart that wasn't resolved until team owner Joe Gibbs intervened.

And while Kyle Busch seems to be working on improving his reputation, he didn't exactly bowl over NASCAR execs last year when he won the first-ever Car of Tomorrow race. Asked how he liked driving the COT - NASCAR's R&D baby for the past seven years - Busch commented, "I can't stand to drive them. They suck."

In any event, NASCAR desperately needs an honest-to-goodness rivalry to stimulate enthusiasm and infuse some genuine excitement back into the sport.

This alignment of drivers is the perfect opportunity to start one.

Instead of a high-tech, futuristic ad campaign like last season, I envision the theme of an Old West shoot-out, with the Hendrick Boys in the white hats versus the Gibbs Gang in the black hats - O.K. Corral style.

Stewart vs. Gordon, Hamlin vs. Earnhardt, Busch vs. Johnson - ah, the possibilities.

This concept should extend not just to marketing, but to the races themselves. Let the drivers (all of them) have at it on the track this season, with Sheriff Helton intervening only in the most dire situations.

Gentlemen, start your six-shooters!

You can contact Rebecca at.. Insider Racing News
   You Can Read Other Articles By Rebecca

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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