Sponsor Summit ‘vital’ for financial success of Iowa Speedway

NEWTON - Everyone who's ever been around auto racing for longer than a day knows sponsorship dollars are the lifeblood of the sport, regardless of level, venue or type of racecar.

Without (large amounts of) money - ranging from your local bar and grill to Fortune 500 companies - racers wouldn't be able to tote their cars across the country and the tracks they race at wouldn't be able to hold those races. Prize money wouldn't really exist, either.

On Thursday, Iowa Speedway held its annual Sponsorship Summit in the speedway's media center, gathering the representatives from the businesses that make the track go. In many ways, the annual event is the most important day of the fiscal year. Showing a business why a sponsorship makes sense financially is one part. Showing them the passion of everyone else involved is the other.

'It's vitally important. These types of summits are not just a great opportunity to give an update to our partners all at once, in a live setting where questions can be asked and you can interact with them, but when you're in person you can share your enthusiasm,” said Iowa Speedway President Jimmy Small. 'That's really important because emails, phone calls and marketing materials don't necessarily get that message through. When you're able to get that message through in person, you're able to almost transfer that enthusiasm and make sure you get that point across.”

Small and NASCAR's objectives are layered at an event like Thursday's, offering networking opportunities for business between each other in addition to the speedway. Being a liaison for two companies to benefit from each other only increases the likelihood of gaining or keeping a sponsorship for the track itself.

The Summit brought together existing sponsors like Sukup Manufacturing Co., Casey's General Stores, General Motors and Mediacom in an effort to reaffirm their support of the track. But the day also serves as a chance for the speedway and NASCAR to court businesses and companies to become new sponsors as well.

'I think we had one potential new partner in the room today, the rest were current partners; ones that have a contract signed with Iowa Speedway, and most have been here since the very beginning,” Small said. 'We're talking about who we are, what we're all about and we literally show them what they'll be getting and what the experience will be like.”

It's no coincidence the billboards and placards seen around racetracks big or small are products and services that racers and race fans use or buy on a daily basis - almost all directly related to racing in some way.

The challenge for racing facilities - whether it's Iowa Speedway or Hawkeye Downs - is to attract sponsors from outside the often-small racing community to help widen the audience further and create new fans.

The companies and businesses that choose to invest in that form of advertising do so most often because those in charge are or have been racers or race fans. The value they get from that partnership is weighed with the fun and interest they have in the subject matter. Events like the Sponsor Summit offer a chance to introduce people to the world and the experience if they haven't already been exposed to it.

'We've done the research and we've found it's what our customers like to watch. They like to participate, listen to it on the radio and watch on TV. It's high up there on the charts based on research we've done,” said Casey's General Stores Promotions Manager Angela Wood. 'Race fans are loyal to brands, and we've seen that research as well. It's definitely what our customers enjoy and we enjoy it. Our leadership enjoys it.

'We're in all sorts of motorsports, not just NASCAR. We deal with 80 tracks throughout 14 states and sponsor different series as well. … Really all levels. We've been here (at Iowa Speedway) since the beginning and we enjoy it.”

Sponsorship in racing dates back decades - in NASCAR, most famously, to Richard Petty's deal with STP in the 1970s - so nowadays race fans not only expect their favorite drivers to be covered head to toe in logos, but many enjoy it and support their driver's products.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. fans often drive Chevrolets, file their taxes through TaxSlayer and drink Diet Mountain Dew. Kyle Busch fans drink Monster Energy Drink, eat M&Ms and have Interstate Batteries in their cars. Jimmie Johnson fans shop at Lowe's. And so on.

It's a far cry from the umbrage NBA fans take when the topic of ads on jersey's comes up.

'I think it's fundamental to our sport, which I think is the difference between racing and an NBA jersey,” Small said. 'I wouldn't want to see a sponsor logo on an NBA jersey. But a sponsor is so fundamental to racing, that the fans know it and most of the time were educated about the whole business of the sport or they heard their driver talking each and every week about why sponsors are so important. Everyone in this industry knows how it works and know why it's so important. Everyone gets it and knows it.”

l Comments: (319) 368-8884; jeremiah.davis@thegazette.com