Roger Lajoie operates Triumph Sports Communications, a leader in providing editorial, broadcast and public relations services.

Roger's weekly sports column "The Rog's Rant" is now available here every Monday.

The Rog's Rant

NASCAR knows how to sell its product

MONTREAL – For years I have always wondered how it was that NASCAR had become so incredibly popular in the United States.

I mean, it’s glorified stock car racing, with cars loaded with advertising logos, running around and around on a track. What is the attraction?

While I still will never classify myself as a big auto racing fan, and the passion that many people have for the sport still mystifies me to a point, I do now know why NASCAR is so wildly popular in the United States.

One word – marketing.

I was in Montreal the weekend of the Busch Series NASCAR race and let me tell you, I came away impressed. I came away impressed with the quality of the presentation, the quality of the promotion and the quality of the event that was run.

It was fun. The drivers are incredibly accessible. The atmosphere is electric.

How I wish other North American sports – most notably the National Hockey League for instance – could steal a page or two or three, or preferably the whole marketing book – that NASCAR uses to stage an event.

What a fun event to be at, and that comes from a guy who had never before attended a NASCAR event. And keep in mind, this wasn’t even NASCAR’s top series (the Nextel Cup), it was its minor league series in comparison.

But the fans ate up every minute of it, and it was hard for even a non-racing fan not to get caught up in the excitement. The drivers are well promoted, every true fan knows every racer in the event, and there’s a sense that you are at a big-time event that means something.

Maybe that’s the biggest problem leagues like the NHL face – there are just too many games on the schedule to allow for every game to have a big event feel to it. There’s one race a week in each NASCAR series, the season doesn’t drag on for 10 months and therefore every week is something special.

But there are things NASCAR does extremely well that the NHL (and other leagues and sports organizations), don’t do nearly well enough.

NASCAR sells not just its product, but the athletes in it. NASCAR manages to maintain a “regular guys” feel to the people involved in it, even though many of them are making a pile of money. NASCAR gets attention by being loud and brash in its marketing and its stars (they arranged to have Crescent Street, Montreal’s most popular streets for bars, closed down for a NASCAR street party right in the middle of summer).

They do it right and from what I saw, they do everything right. Somewhere other sports organizations have lost the sense that sports is supposed to be all about fun – and that’s what the NASCAR race was in Montreal – all fun!

I will never be a good old boy and never be a big racing fan. But after seeing NASCAR up close in Montreal, I have a new appreciation for the sport and especially for the people who run it.

Good for them, they have earned their success. Now I know why NASCAR is where it is on the North American sports map and where hockey is where it is.

And both deserve to be just where they are, based on the way they promote themselves.

Comments on The Rant of July 22 on Soccer violence:

“Soccer is a great game, but there is something about it that really draws hooligans to it. I can’t understand why, but it does.” – Chris in Whitby

“Excellent point. Teams should be penalized heavily right from the start for incidents like the one we saw in Toronto and precedents set.” – Phil in Etobicoke

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