Tuesday’s (June 3) news from Atlanta that the speedway would be known as EchoPark Speedway by way of a seven-year multi-million dollar partnership may have come as a surprise to the keen observer.
But it’s not the first time that racetracks hosting NASCAR events have taken on naming rights deals. In fact, the crown jewel of Speedway Motorsports itself, Charlotte Motor Speedway, spanned 10 years as Lowe’s Motor Speedway from 1999 to 2009.
That naming was unchartered territory for the sport. Sure, fans may have bristled at a home improvement warehouse having its name all over the track, but for all intents and purposes, if you asked someone where the Coca-Cola 600 was contested each year, chances are good that the reply was Charlotte anyway.
Truthfully, it didn’t matter what you called the track during the Lowe’s Motor Speedway era from 1999 to 2009. Odds were good that, especially from 2003 to 2005, if you wanted to collect the checkered flag at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, you would have to beat the car sponsored by … Lowe’s.
In six points events during that trio of seasons at LMS, Johnson won all but one of them. Not only that, but Johnson triumphed to win the 2003 version of the All-Star Race at Lowe’s as well.
It didn’t matter the circumstances during those three seasons. Johnson and company found ways to win. The 2003 Coca-Cola 600 saw Johnson charge from the rear thanks to an engine change, making the pass for the lead with 11 laps to go.
Johnson swept both points events in 2004 in differing ways. He first led a whopping 334 laps to win the Coca-Cola 600, while he only led 35 laps in the fall’s UAW-GM Quality 500 after Kasey Kahne‘s dominant run ended by way of a flat tire-induced crash.
In 2005, Bobby Labonte appeared to be in a position to stop Johnson’s Lowe’s dominance, but the No. 48 was just close enough for the race-winning pass on the final lap, slipping by for yet another win. Johnson would pull off another clutch win in the fall. He paced the field for 13 laps — 12 of which were the final dozen circuits — bagging yet another win at LMS.
Suffice to say, if you were a fan of the No. 48, odds were pretty good that a win would be witnessed in person in Charlotte during those three seasons. Now, detractors against Johnson all over social media when it was getting going probably alleged that the Lowe’s-sponsored car winning at Lowe’s Motor Speedway was too good to be true.
But given that Lowe’s was the primary sponsor of a driver who’d go on to win seven championships, don’t think for a second that there was extra motivation for Johnson and Chad Knaus to treat Lowe’s Motor Speedway like any other sports team defending its home turf.
The statement that Lowe’s Motor Speedway was the No. 48 team’s house went deeper than its success there. It also played into the determination of that group to emphasize running well at a particular race track.
Greatness is one of those things that is not appreciated in the present, but much more after it happens.
What Johnson, Chad Knaus, and the No. 48 did during those three years at Lowe’s Motor Speedway was a prime example.
Brad joined Frontstretch.com in 2020 and contributes to the site's 5 Points To Ponder column and other roles as needed. A graduate of the University of Georgia's Henry W. Grady School of Journalism and Mass Communication, he has covered sports in some capacity for more than 20 years with coverage including local high school sports, college athletics and minor league hockey. Brad has received multiple awards for his work from the Georgia Press Association.