June 11th, 2009 
Journo Sponsorship, or lack thereof has been on the mind of just about every team executive in NASCAR this season. While the year has been rough for the sponsorship market as a whole, in no place has it hit harder then in the Truck Series.
The biggest anomaly in the series are the amount of experienced, winning drivers that have been affected.
Take defending champion Johnny Benson. He became the latest victim of the economy this week after Red Horse Racing shut down his unsponsored team. I believe the only time the team actually had any deal was at Daytona with K&N. The rest of the time the truck has remained white.
Now he hear Timothy Peters is joining Red Horse from his own fledgling organization. Peters’ biggest asset is the Strutmasters sponsorship he brings with him.
Todd Bodine doesn’t quite know Johnny’s plight, but he has been driving race-to-race all season. Every time Bodine has been on the cusp of reaching his final race, sponsorship has come through and they have been able to continue. The brilliant thing this team has been doing is publicizing their struggle and they have gotten a lot of great exposure as a result.
Germain ran several very small sponsors early on in the season (which were plugged heavily during the broadcasts), and then signed Copart for the last several races. Copart has three races remaining with the team this season. After that the team finds itself in a familiar situation.
Another former champion feeling the pinch is 26-time winner Mike Skinner. He joined Randy Moss Motorsports this season after Bill Davis Racing folded. Skinner brought with him a partial sponsorship from Exide and some support from Toyota, but he and most especially his wife Angie have been working very hard to put together smaller deals for the holes in his schedule.
They have had everything from Daytona Beach law firm Rue & Ziffra to Bad Boy Mowers on the truck. Mike and Angie, instead of waiting and hoping on others to find deals, took the initiative and are keeping Mike’s career alive and still very vibrant.
Unfortunately NASCAR has been less than enthusiastic about furthering the Truck Series. It has become the overlooked series, almost an after thought by the sanctioning body. If you want an example of this look at purse money. Just something to consider; the top grossing driver, in terms of purse money, in the Cup Series is Tony Stewart. He has pulled in $3,459,120. In the Nationwide Series, Kyle Busch is tops; he has earned $506,620. In the Truck Series Todd Bodine holds the crown with $286,875 in winnings. He is not the norm either. The points leader at the moment, Matt Crafton, has pulled in $130,000 less than Bodine. While it is true it’s a little cheaper to run in the Truck Series, it’s not that much cheaper.
Another big issue the series faces is a lack of media exposure. While they have been making ratings strides on Speed, the untapped market is very large. Despite the extensive amount of programming that covers the other series, the Truck Series has very often left out in the cold.
And now we have reached the point where fewer than 30 trucks will even actually finish the race. At Texas there were only 22 trucks running at the end. This weekend there are 32 on the entry list and I counted at least six start and parks.
It’s hard not to commend the teams who are actually fighting and going the distance. I can’t say enough times how much I love the Truck Series. It is the most fun to be around and the best racing you’ll see most weekends. Unfortunately NASCAR has been slow to give the series the credit it deserves. It will be interesting to see how the remainder of the season plays out for those sponsor-challenged teams.
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Really a shame. While I might have to miss the NNS race due to a bushy weekend sometimes, I never miss the truck race because the racing is always good.
I hate to see deserving guys sit on the sidelines while others still have rides, but that’s the nature of things–talent isn’t the only part of the deal anymore, which is too bad, but it is reality.
Regarding Tim Peters, it appears that he is the bad guy in this situation. Typical “unknown” rich driver waltzing in and buying a ride to the detriment of last year’s champ. This sponsor, Strutmasters.com, just came on board full time with him and Premier Racing recently. The #17 was race to race after the first five races and it wasn’t looking good for them. Tim and his crew chief Chad Kendrick are the only employees of Premier and they worked on the truck in Steve Stallings’ garage. Not his race shop, his garage attached to his house where he normally parks his own vehicles. Don’t ask me what he does for a pit crew but I suspect they are all volunteers and they probably don’t have the same guys for consecutive races.
Now all of a sudden, Johnny is blindsided and on the street and Tim’s moving in. This truly sucks. I like Johnny Benson a lot and if this is going to happen to someone, Johnny is truly the last guy in the series this should happen to.
But it is what it is. Tim’s by no means a wealthy guy and he’s worked very hard for what he has. Strutmasters.com didn’t commit to the whole season to a team with a stable consisting of two trucks and no employees because Chip Lofton didn’t have anything better to do with his money. He saw what Tim could do with zero resources and he hasn’t done too bad. Granted the point standings may not show a stellar performance but the #17 has consistently been able to run in the top 10 then lose all track position during the pit stop.
So yes, it does suck that Johnny Benson is the victim here, but keep in mind that this isn’t some rich kid with daddy’s money or daddy’s sponsor paying to race.
Strutmasters.com may be Peters’ biggest asset but he brings more to the table than you may think.
Maybe I’m to blame for the demise of truck racing. I’ve been to Daytona Speedweeks to see all but two of the truck series races since they first circuited the speedway and Geoff Bodine’s harrowing crash. Back then the trucks ran faster than Cup and Busch at DIS. Of the Thursday Duels, IROC, Busch (uh Nationwide) and trucks…the trucks year-in-year-out put on “the” best show of them all.
Then that’s it! I go into truck hibernation.
Sure I’ll catch a truck race here and there on TV and maybe go to Atl….if I get a free ticket.
Now, the racing is usually very good and the mix of driver level pitting young vs old equating to a pretty good show.
Problem is the other 11 months out of the year the trucks are kind of out-of-sight-out-of-mind for me. Maybe it the coverage, or lack thereof, or more likely I just don’t get the whole throw a truck body on a stock car chassis? Trucks need tailgates and are used to haul things.
Therefore I personally accept partial, as small as it may be, responsibility for the downslide.
Some, ok a lot, are of the opinion that Toyota should take the fall. Since it’s common knowledge that Toyota entered NASCAR in general, not to sell Camrys, but Tundras….it makes me wonder about Toyotas involvement in Cup and NW w/o a “truck” on track??? or does it even matter?
Windowlicker- I’m sorry if it sounded like Timothy was the bad guy here. He is by no means. I believe he is running that team out of his garage. This is a very good thing for him and I commend him for finding an opportunity better than the one he was in. I pointed that out just to illustrate the fact that his sponsorship was the main factor in his ascension to Red Horse.
Thanks Journo. I don’t think your post made Timothy sound like a bad guy, I think the situation in general makes Timothy look like a bad guy. I just wanted to point out that this deal is not what it appears to be ie rich kid buys ride, good driver hits the bricks.
Yes, Tim 100% got this ride because he has a sponsor, but he worked damn hard to get this sponsor. It’s not his father’s store or casino that is sponsoring the #17. He sold his deceased father’s prized corvette to buy his first truck when he started out on his own last year.
I just wish it wasn’t JB getting the shaft here.
Journo, agree with all, especially what I believe is the key point lack of effective marketing of the series AND it being on Speed a network that does not reach every idiot box in the country like an over-the-air network does.
Because of that the series starts out in a hole.
I would also agree purses need to be increased, a very hard thing to due currently for obvious reasons.
Marc- Agreed on the purses thing and the lack of marketing. There just isn’t a whole lot of value for the sponsors, plus the teams aren’t helping the sponsors (with the exception of maybe KHI) like teams in the other series do. That though is an issue with the owners and not with NASCAR.
Agree on higher purses. I don’t know how an owner can come out ahead in this series even with a full time sponsor.
I rarely watch a Busch race but never miss a truck race. I’d like to see some of the purse taken from the Busch series & injected into the truck series. Won’t happen but that’s what I’d like to see. Maybe lower purses in the Busch series might keep some of the Buschwackers away too? Not the guys that run the entire season but those who only race in 2 – 10 events.
Journo: What did you mean by “the teams aren’t helping the sponsors?” Do you mean by teams aggressively promoting their sponsors?
I believe that with the economy the way it is and will be for sometime to come (meaning sponsors cutting budgets) that NASCAR should merge the Nationwide Series and the Truck Series to create the Sportsmen Series that runs the Trucks (the Trucks are already built and are strong.
This would create a 43 truck field with more available drivers, teams and sponsors…think about it, will two second tier series live on in this state of teh economy?
Strutmasters are doing really great!