Tony Kanaan In Prelude To The Dream

[DanicaFan]

Tony Kanaan of Andretti Autosport in the IndyCar Series will be competing at Eldora Speedway this Wednesday, June 9th for the Prelude To The Dream. Dario Franchitti had an invitation but due to his testing at Watkins Glen International the same day for IndyCar, he will not be able to make it. Tony Kanaan will be also be testing at Watkins Glen but he will make the trip to Eldora Speedway and race.

This is awesome! I am going to this race again this year. Go Tony !!

[JagtechOhio]

This is incredibly cool!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'll send you a PM if I can make it, first beer is on me.

[DanicaFan]

Originally Posted by JagtechOhio

This is incredibly cool!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'll send you a PM if I can make it, first beer is on me.

You got it! We are still in the bleachers but we are near Turn 4 this time instead of closer to the start/finish line like we were last year.

[DanicaFan]

Jimmie Johnson won. Tony Kanaan was 24th, there were 27 drivers.

Here are results..

1. Jimmie Johnson
2. Clint Bowyer
3. Carl Edwards
4. Kyle Busch
5. Denny Hamlin
6. Tony Stewart
7. Dave Blaney
8. Kasey Kahne
9. Ken Schrader
10. Bill Elliott
11. AJ Allmendinger
12. Bobby Labonte
13. Joey Logano
14. Aric Almirola
15. Marcos Ambrose
16. Ryan Newman
17. Ray Evernham
18. Matt Kenseth
19. Ricky Carmichael
20. Ron Capps
21. David Reutimann
22. Jeff Gordon
23. Travis Pastrana
24. Tony Kanaan
25. Cruz Pedregon
26. Justin Allgaier
27. Kenny Wallace

[JagtechOhio]

Thanks, hope you had a blast! I read that TK enjoyed himself, and am glad to know that an Indycar face showed up to represent and contribute to the charitable event.

[DanicaFan]

Originally Posted by JagtechOhio

Thanks, hope you had a blast! I read that TK enjoyed himself, and am glad to know that an Indycar face showed up to represent and contribute to the charitable event.

It's a great time. Yeah, Dario was supposed to go since he won the Indy 500 but he wanted to stay at Watkins Glen and focus on the tesing there since he is on the verge of another possible championship. Tony was also at Watkins Glen but he came down to race instead. Pretty cool seeing Tony out there. They had the car all painted up in his 7-Eleven scheme.

[marcostraz]

But what was exactly this race?

[Flyin Ryan]

Originally Posted by marcostraz

But what was exactly this race?

It's a race for charity Tony Stewart throws every year. He owns the racetrack it's held at, Eldora. The cars are dirt late models. It usually has a lot of NASCAR drivers with some other guys thrown in with a couple other guys like Kanaan for example (first time an Indycar driver took part), a couple guys from drag racing (Ron Capps, Cruz Pedregon), Ray Evernham (former crew chief and owner in NASCAR).

Dirt racing is awesome.

Listening to Kanaan on Trackside from last night: "the most outrageous and different thing I've ever done in my life". Said he had fun.

Best quote: "I learned what the cushion was. When I learned English, when I went to school, a cushion was a type of pillow, not a part of a race track."

[marcostraz]

Thank you!!!

[ghinzani]

I am so glad Tony did this - but you would expect nothing less of the man, he is quite exceptional. I hope he wins Indy or the Indy Racing League before he calls it a day, a true talent.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Job's on Tony, well done.

But look at some of those sponsors; ex CART.

[Flyin Ryan]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

Job's on Tony, well done.

But look at some of those sponsors; ex CART.

The sponsors aren't there for Eldora. They're the normal sponsors on the drivers' normal rides unless it was a special deal, their cars painted up and with the same number for easy resemblance for fans (Kanaan was #11 in 7-Eleven colors). So for those you have to go look at NASCAR.

ghinzani: I hope he wins Indy or the Indy Racing League before he calls it a day, a true talent.

Stewart won the Indy Racing League series title in 1997.

[JagtechOhio]

He meant Tony Kanaan, who will win Indy or the Series championship if he ever has predictable equipment to do it with.

bjohn is correct, there are still big sponsorship dollars to be had if the television exposure warrants it. Nascar and the NHRA are the proof. Red Bull and Gieco are examples of companies that sponsor anything that races, but will not make more than a token investment in the IRL.

[Flyin Ryan]

Originally Posted by JagtechOhio

bjohn is correct, there are still big sponsorship dollars to be had if the television exposure warrants it. Nascar and the NHRA are the proof. Red Bull and Gieco are examples of companies that sponsor anything that races, but will not make more than a token investment in the IRL.

Television exposure comes from fans that will watch one week to the next. Fans in turn have to have something that drives them to watch, which in North American auto racing has always been the driver. So if we have marketable and sellable personalities, fans will be attracted to watch them week after week, cheer for them, buy tickets to races and merchandise, which increases sponsor exposure. If you have drivers no one gives a sh*t about, well, viewership will naturally decline and your sponsors will leave eventually. There used to be an axiom about American racing in the early '90s that "NASCAR looks out for their fans, CART looks out for their sponsors, and the SCCA looks out for their corner workers". CART's sponsors, even going back to PPG, were never there to promote the sport or promote it to fans but were more there to promote their business-to-business relationships. You look at NASCAR in contrast, and they sponsored cars so that drivers would be their spokesmen on what their companies did and to market their products. Winston wasn't even allowed to run commercials legally and yet they spent a lot of money promoting NASCAR. Over time I think it's become clear to all which model was the way to go, and a lot of NASCAR's current problems stem from ignoring what got them to where they are.

For Indycar to succeed here, they have to get drivers that the fans will get behind and support. If that occurs, the sponsors will follow. Kanaan has made himself into a driver that the fans care about and want to win. Because of that, in spite of him not winning in two years, he's in a far better position than Dixon, Power, and Briscoe. He has a steady sponsor in 7-11. But if they were to move on, I think he'd be able to get someone else on board.

[JagtechOhio]

Wrong. Big name drivers in suck races loses viewers too.

Entertaining races > repeat viewers > driver recognition > fan favorites > increased ratings > domestic sponsorship interest > saying yes to American (and Canadian) drivers who knock on the door asking for a check.

Suck races > no significant audience > no recognition or appreciation for drivers > no saleable spokesperson for endorsements > no domestic sponsors > no American drivers.

That's why foreign investment is the only thing keeping this deal afloat, and why there are only two Americans running the full schedule.

If simply adding big name drivers to the current series...even though many have dismissed the idea publicly...was a workable plan, there would still be an IROC Series to watch. Nobody did.

[Flyin Ryan]

Originally Posted by JagtechOhio

Entertaining races > repeat viewers > driver recognition > fan favorites > increased ratings > domestic sponsorship interest > saying yes to American (and Canadian) drivers who knock on the door asking for a check.

The Indycar series' best racing was from the 2001-03 era. The level of racing actually declined after the CART teams came in and the costs exploded, driving out the smaller-budget guys and hence the domestic sponsorship interest and the American drivers.

Wrong. Big name drivers in suck races loses viewers too.

Well you got proven wrong in February. The ARCA 200 ratings went up 60% from 2009 because Danica Patrick was in it.

There's no bigger evidence than Prelude to the Dream of "ratings and attendance being driven by name drivers." Are you going to tell me Eldora would sell out on a Wednesday for the national tour World of Outlaws Dirt Late Model Series?

[JagtechOhio]

One time event. And name me a sponsor who dropped down big money for the one time event.

And if it drew a good pay-per-view gross, it was because of all the promotion it received.

None of that makes IndyCar attractive to domestic sponsors.

So who is coming to IndyCar, along with their sponsor, to raise the ratings?

[Flyin Ryan]

Originally Posted by JagtechOhio

One time event.

"My name is JagtechOhio and when presented with facts that contradict my argument I ignore them."

And name me a sponsor who dropped down big money for the one time event.

Gillette.

[JagtechOhio]

Not relevant to famous American drivers joining IndyCar, which is what you claim is the problem with national popularity.

Danica in Nascar? Good example of a novelty, which would lose everyone's interest when she runs a series of suck races.

Same with TK running 27th in a dirt car. Nice one-shot event, though.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by Flyin Ryan

Television exposure comes from fans... But if they were to move on, I think he'd be able to get someone else on board.

I did read all of your post.

Sponsorship is simply about associating the successful attributes of your product with a successful person, team or event. That person's or the event's success is then in turn associated with your product; it's a symbiotic relationship. To say "CART's sponsors, even going back to PPG, were never there to promote the sport but were more there to promote their business-to-business relationships." is too simplistic. Of course the sponsors cared, in as much as it was good for exposing and marketing their products. That's why in motor sport and sport in general, sponsors can form long term business relationships with certain teams, events and individuals.

However, as soon as an event or team doesn't deliver the results anymore, the sponsor leaves, or it could be the case that the event or team requires more money from the sponsor, than the sponsor is willing to invest so that the event or team can succeed and so another sponsor is found.

The problem with the IRL was that it's never had decent sponsorship from day one. All the big sponsors stayed with CART because it was successful and the IRL was an unknown quantity; they weren't prepared to take the risk. By the time CART morphed into CCWS, the IRL still couldn't establish itself as the premiere AOW series because of the continuing split. Penske and Ganassi were able to take their sponsors with them but many of the other sponsors that were once associated with CART fled to NASCAR. Why? Because it was established, popular, had good exposure and was therefore good for marketing.

Look at the IRL today, off the top of my head I can think of only one major oil company, who is involved, Mobil; Shell, Texaco/Havoline, Pennzoil have all gone. Of all the teams racing, Ganassi has probably managed to retain most of his sponsors from CART, to a certain extent so has Penske, (the business with Marlboro is a seperate issue), otherwise the rest have gone.

Television like sponsorship works in the same way. A TV company isn't going to spend a lot of money buying the rights to televise an event or show if the ratings are bad; it won't want to be associated with it, especially if its revenue is generated by advertising and neither will the advertisers. Just look at some of the races last season and some of the races this season, row, after row of empty seats. No one is going to want to televise that, though maybe the news of a truly exciting race might produce some interest and help draw the crowds to the next one.

As things stand, the IRL, just like it was in 1996 has very little money and poor exposure, the only significant change is that it finally has a series sponsor, who've made a complete hash of the Hunter-Reay situation.

Obviously something needs to be done to generate interest but just having big name drivers like Tony Kanaan clearly isn't answer, otherwise we wouldn't be watching empty stands. I think the big problem is the spec nature of IndyCar racing. With CART there were the different engine/chassis combinations that made it interesting, it brought new players to the table and it lasted a good 20 or so years. What do we have instead? A spec formula that frankly is boring, though the law of averages dictates there will be some good races. As long as I've been following motor sport and that's over 30 years, I've never seen a successful, premiere open wheel spec series. The most successful open wheel series is F1, it's not spec but many people point to the increasing specy nature of F1, as one of its current underlying problems and why it can produce boring racing.

Hopefully something good will come out of the ICONIC groups deliberations, though my main concern is the current economic climate and its continuing effect.