NASCAR may be solving a few problems that has plagued it the past handful of years by turning back the clock.
One of those problems was a marketing issue, as for years, the NASCAR Cup Series has failed to create stars since the retirements of Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and more. Even the series’ most popular driver, Chase Elliott, is not a household name like those guys mentioned before.
Couple that with a playoff system that has been torn apart for several years now, and it’s no wonder that the ratings have declined so much to start this year’s playoffs. This past weekend’s race at Kansas Speedway had 1.49 million people tune in, down from 1.8 million last year. Those numbers are just a smidge higher than what the NASCAR Xfinity Series and NTT IndyCar Series got or have been getting this season. The Cup Series is the top form of motorsports in the U.S., so those numbers should be way higher than that.
Well, the good news is that NASCAR has heard fans’ complaints about both the marketing efforts and the playoff system as well as seen the ratings, because it is doing something about it. Whether or not the upcoming changes are actually effective will remain to be seen.
On Sept. 30, the Sports Business Journal reported NASCAR had hired the L.A.-based agency 72andSunny to develop a new marketing campaign. It is supposed to be a “back-to-roots” campaign with the tagline “Hell Yeah.”
When I hear that tagline, I’m picturing all of the drivers entering to the sounds of breaking glass like Stone Cold Steve Austin before bashing two beers together and climbing into the car for a no-holds-barred race. Now of course that’s not going to happen, but imagine the ratings if it did. That would truly be a throwback to the earliest days of NASCAR.
Still, 72andSunny is a reputable force in the marketing world. It’s done the NFL’s campaigns for its 100th Anniversary and “The 100-year Game.” It’s been behind Google’s “Year in Search,” Axe’s “Find Your Magic and Audi’s “Let It Go” campaigns, as well as several other famous ones.
After recent campaigns like “Daytona Day” and “I Am NASCAR,” the agency has a low bar to top, and it should do a pretty good job with this assignment. That is if NASCAR is actually going back to its roots next year.
You can’t come out with a theme of going back to the roots without any evidence of actually doing said thing. That would be like me declaring I’m a vegetarian while you watch me gobble down a cheeseburger.
That leads me to believe a full-season championship may be happening next year. What other area could NASCAR possibly be going back to its roots for? The Next Gen car isn’t going anywhere. Returns to North Wilkesboro Speedway, Rockingham Speedway and Bowman Gray Stadium have already happened. The 2026 schedule is already out, and there are no returns to any other historical tracks.
The playoffs have been the only major thing being discussed this year — with a playoff committee having met three times — so that has to be the change where the “back to its roots” is coming from. Otherwise, these ads will just be throwing out a phrase NASCAR hopes will catch former fans’ attention and get them to tune in, which would be false advertising. A former fan would turn a race on, see the cars, the stages and the championship haven’t changed and feel lied to before changing the channel to something else.
But if NASCAR is going back to a full-season championship or making some other massive change that is a callback to decades ago, then 72andSunny will be able to make a fantastic campaign around it, and it could lead to the reintroduction to many former fans. I’d be really excited to see what they came up with if that happens.
However, even if all of that goes off perfectly, brings back new fans and increases ratings, I’m still not in love with it. Because it’s only chasing old fans, not new ones. It would be an overcorrection from the mistakes NASCAR made 20 years ago. While NASCAR should certainly chase down some of the fans it lost along the way, the fact is some of those fans are probably dead now. If not, then they’re really old.
There’s no way to fully get back all the fans lost, which means that NASCAR needs to find a happy medium. It needs something that appeases current fans while targeting former and new fans. That is much easier said than done, and I’m not sure there are marketing campaigns or industry changes that could do all three at the same time. But if there is a company capable of doing that, it’s 72andSunny.
Also, it’s much easier to target different demographics now than it was 20 years ago, in NASCAR’s peak. Back then, companies could really only market to people through TV commercials and print pieces, with maybe a few online ads. But now ad agencies can target people through social media, and they can base what ad people see on their demographic and search algorithm. So NASCAR and 72andSunny could essentially have three different ad campaigns, catering to current fans, former fans and potential new fans all at the same time. That’s why it blows my mind that NASCAR’s marketing has been so bad in recent years.
Regardless, it is encouraging to see NASCAR at least acknowledge some of its recent shortcomings and try to right the ship. It will be interesting to see what this marketing campaign looks like when it rolls out and what kind of results it yields. But just remember, those results will be significantly capped if NASCAR doesn’t actually provide any “back-to-roots” changes this offseason.
Michael Massie joined Frontstretch in 2017 and has served as the Content Director since 2020.
Massie, a Richmond, Va., native, has covered NASCAR, IndyCar, SRX and the CARS Tour. Outside of motorsports, the Virginia Tech grad and Green Bay Packers minority owner can be seen cheering on his beloved Hokies and Packers.
72andSunny is great at what they do, but will Nascar’s decision maker listen and do what they come up with is the question. I’m not sure Ben Kennedy will listen to anyone except maybe his mom. If he has the final say. He definitely has whacky ideas. And the bigger question is will the networks listen to 72andSunny. They paid a heck of a price to Nascar. I think the playoffs make the network’s and Nascar a lot of commercial money but losing more and more watching has to be a big concern. I hope your right. Ñascar is ALL about money for the family always first thing. Will ñascar buck the networks, no.
Fingers crossed. The current system is sometimes difficult for a life long fan to understand, so I can only imagine a casual fan or lapsed fan tuning in, having zero idea of the playing field with in a race, and saying “nope”.
In modern times, there are too many other entertainment options available, which don’t require an abacus or a network server to figure out what’s going on.
“Currently, William Byron is slated to move on to the next round! Oh, wait a minute, Tyler Reddick took the lead! Now Reddick is in, and Byron is out! Oh, wait a minute, Reddick pitted, Larson leads, Byron is back in, and Reddick is out! Oh, wait a minute, now Larson pitted, and Cindric leads! Now Cindric is in and Byron is back is out! Oh, wait a minute, Cindric pitted, Allmendinger leads, now Cindric is out, Byron is back in! Oh, wait a minute, Briscoe just passed Hocevar for 23rd place! Now Briscoe is in, and Byron is back out! OH, IT’S THE BIG ONE! OUT OF NOWHERE, LAKE SPEED WON THE RACE! WHERE DID HE COME FROM?! LAKE SPEED MOVES ON, BRISCOE IS OUT!”
I am a lifelong fan, and as I’ve gotten older, moved from more blue collar work to my occupation involving fairly high level data analysis… even I sometimes have trouble keeping up with who is positioned well to move on, and who is not. A casual or lapsed fan has nearly zero chance of understanding this, and therefore caring about what’s happening.
Scrap the complicated engineered drama, and go back to a conventional points system. Then, market it as a weekly meeting of angry, hot shoe drivers. Lean into the history of the sport, but keep the things which have run their course out of it. Then, you may right the ship.
Totally agree with your assessment. The nonsense of who is in or out is frustrating to follow and irritating to boot. What it has done is make me not care about a sport I followed for years
Instead of spending $ on a marketing campaign, they should spend the $ to improve the car.
You haven’t seen boring until you go back to the old format. You want to do the sport in? That’s your answer. Just wait and see.
“When I hear that tagline, I’m picturing all of the drivers entering to the sounds of breaking glass like Stone Cold Steve Austin before bashing two beers together and climbing into the car for a no-holds-barred race.”
That would be Curtis Turner after he just left the all-night party.
NA$CAR suits will continue to do what Brian would have done!
just going back to a full season championship won’t do it in my opinion. Go back and award the championship to the driver who would have won it if not for BZFs stupid idea
plus it’s the racing that I’ve lost interest in I don’t care about who wins the crapshoot