Ninety Miles an Hour Down a Dead End Street

by: PattyKay Lilley

This topic came to mind this morning while listening to an old Country Music song and I thought how it might apply to NASCAR. We'll return to that thought in just a bit, but first, a word from our sponsors... is that word "Good-bye?"

For the first fifty or more years of its existence, NASCAR was always able to brag about the fact that its fans were the most brand-loyal fans to be found in  any sport in the world. If a company put its name on the hood of a racecar, NASCAR fans selected that company’s product over any other for the simple reason that the company was a NASCAR sponsor. It was just that simple. There was a family atmosphere in the sport and fans felt that in patronizing a sponsor, they were actually helping a family member to get ahead in the world. It’s funny, but I don’t recall there ever being a sponsor crisis before now.