Quote:
Originally Posted by spicoli
Isn't he the one, a few years ago, who said women will never like going to a dirt track because it will mess up their hair-do?
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I just happened to have re-read that article again the other day.... at the time he was hell bent to buy the World of Outlaws or start a competing series...he would have turned sprintcars into those ugly THUNDER ROADSTERS if he had his way about it...bumpers covering the wheels, horsepower cut in half, self starting, and he honestly was quoted as saying "Every part on those cars should be made of either STEEL or FIBERGLASS only...no exotic metals"... apparently to a NASCAR guy aluminum and chromoly are "exotic" metals... Can you imagine a sprintcar with a DOM steel chassis, steel radius rods, steering arms, floorpans, wheels, etc etc etc... I know back in the 60s and 70s there was little or no aluminum on the cars but come on, aluminum hasn't hurt the sport, and many components cast or machined from aluminum are going to be cheaper than if you have to fab and weld up all of it in steel.
Based on the press release it does sound like this is more for his pocketbook than to help somebody who promotes a 1/4 mile dirt track in Illinois.
Lets say Humpy convinces John Deere to sponsor short track racing... signs them to a million dollar deal..surely Humpys company keeps 250-400K out of the million... so now theres $750,000 worth of John Deere money in the kitty...if there are 1000 tracks in the program each one just got a whopping $750 worth of money from John Deere...not even enough to pay for signage and the membership fee to be in the program...plus it would probably have a non compete written in the contract... so now the track owner can't also solicit the local Kubota dealer for sponsorship...loss of potential revenue... and what if the contract also says the tracks equipment must all be John Deere green...no Ford or Caterpillar or International tractors or graders allowed in front of the fans... When Humpys company signs Pepsi as "The Official Soft Drink of Short Track Racing" suddenly the promoter is stuck using Pepsi products at whatever price they offer him...no chance to get a better bid from Coke...etc etc etc
I realize all of this is doomsday speculation and there isn't one piece of evidence in this press release supporting all of my assumptions... but after seeing how NASCAR has acted with all of their sponsors the last 15 years I can't imagine Humpy treating short track sponsors any differently....remember when Nextel became the title sponsor??? Any other mobile communication company who wasn't already sponsoring a team was off the table as a potential sponsor for teams...Alltel and Cingular were grandfathered in but many more were locked out...