[mitchntx]

After watching a some of the coverage of the Daytona 500 this weekend and hearing a lot of discussion about the costs associated with feilding a competitive team and hearing the gnashing of teeth surrounding the dwindling sponsorships and hearing the concerns about enough cars to field a full grid and seeing Waltrip's wild tumble and seeing that tumble re-played on network after network after network ....

I began to wonder ....

Because it's all about the number of minutes a specific sponsor get's it's name on TV, when will a driver, who is an "also ran", purposely wreck his car, just get gleen a few extra minutes of sponsor coverage?

Is it cost effective to spend a $100,000 race car in order to keep a $10 million sponsor?

NAPA received tons of exposure from networks to local TV stations replaying his wreck. I would hate to see that happen on purpose, but ... it has to be there in someone's mind ...

[mongoosez]

Adding my .02

Cope should stick to his "hair club" commercials, and get out of any racing.

I agree that any good road race guy, can't just walk in and dominate. Why has Robby (as much as I hate him) and Tony Stewart gone on to succeed? Natural ability and instinct to adjust to a bad handling car. Otherwise, the majority fade away....

The sponsorship battle has gotten WAY out of hand. Thus the entertainment twist....Listen to someone like Ward Burton last year "Well, the Caterpiller, Brawny wipes, Excedrin migraine, Dodge was off a little...."
Jeez, the guy has marbles in his mouth, yet, has to hash out all the sponsors before getting to pertinent info. A mess. Don't get me wrong, I program him into my scanner strictly to listen to his drawl as he curses other guys on the track. Entertaining....

We, "educated" racers look for more information than supplied. Most of the audience is not of our caliber. They wouldn't understand toe in any more than thumb-up-butt. They WANT the entertainment. Now with the main stream picking up and sponsorship getting pricey, they want to clean up their image. Thus Nextel is king. P.C. the racing and sponsorship. Remember all the hype with Shauna Robinson? Yet, she refused Playtex Tampon sponsors. Why?
Now, THAT would have been entertaining..."The Dodge rammed the Tampon car up the rear end of the Dupont chevy...."hehehe
entertainment

Whenever there is an altercation on or off the track, it is news....entertainment

The season ending rules- might as well be the XFL.....

The drivers are called "personalities" now. Jeff Gordon was on Ryan Seacrest's new show yesterday, what were his questions? "What is the biggest fashion no-no you have comitted...."
Please!

Yeah, Eddie George and his politics may have foiled a great racing series. But I have been to every IRL race at TMS and will continue. I have driven a best avg. of 211.7 mph there. 4.5 lateral g's in the turns. It Kicks your Ass. It is fun to watch. 6 cars in a pack, neck and neck... can't argue that. CART is going in the crapper, NASCAR is a soap opera, IRL is still Eddie's, and what are we left with?

US! (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)

So we do our own thing, thumb our noses at the "BIG Boys" and drive on!