I went to Lucas Oil Speedway this weekend, and was absolutely blown away by the facilities. I started thinking about all of the racing related items Lucas Oil sponsors. At least two tourling late model seires. At least two touring sprint car series. Off road series. Drag boats. Tractor pulls. All of the NHRA classes seem to have at least one Lucas Oil sponsored car with the top fuel class having two. It also has the naming rights to the Colts football stadium, and I am sure that I am missing some items.

My question is how in the world do they sell enough product to pay for all of this? I always thought that they had a niche market selling high end products to gear heads, but you can't afford all of these things with a niche market. Do they have a market that I am missing?

The market is, Get your name in front of as many peoples faces as possible, When you walk in the store to buy say, Fuel treatment, You see STP, Yadda brand and Lucas. Lucas is everywhere, it must be good stuff, so you pick it.

Every corporation has a advertising budget, a ton of it is written off.

Last but not least, Forest Lucas loves racing.

Ever heard of the saying,"Good things happen to good people"?
Forrest Lucas is one good hearted gentleman. He will be the first to admit,He wouldn't have anything if it wasn't for his wife helping him along the way. He has his priorities straight so it seems.
Lucas Oil got into Formula One in a quiet way about 6 years ago. Needless to say once you've hit F1 you don't need to say anymore,if your talking in $$ terms!
The "business model" is called hard work and perseverence.
It WILL get you places ,believe it or not. Nobody ever throws anything good in your lap, so I was I was told many moons ago.,,,
As you seen for yourself,even their little ol dirt track is classy!
Wish more dirt track facilities could be as neat looking as Lucas Oil Speedway.

BC

We've had this same discussion a few times. Although I greatly appreciate all off the Lucas sponsorships, I just can't figure out how they can sell enough racing oils to pay for all they do. Maybe they have some large fleet sales or something?

Their main busines for years has been Over the Road Semi trucks. I believe I read at one time he was a truck driver or associated in the trucking Industry and he decided he would try and develop an oil and gear lube to use in the trucks.

That is obviously glossing over many things, but that is basically how he got started. I'm sure there is many stories on the web about them.

The racing oils is basically just a small market. Probably sells more fuel tratment than racing oil.

He is a prime case of advertising pays off.

When he put his name on The Colts stadium, it was said that he spends over 30% of his income on advertising.

I appreciate all that Lucas Oil has done for motorsports. I appreciate that Forrest Lucas loves motorsports, and is a good guy. I really appreciate the track he has in Wheatland. I have no ill will towards Lucas oil at all.

However, my comment was more around how sustainable is all of this. If I were to guess at the amount of money they spend on adversting it would be large. Colts stadium $5 mill a year, two NHRA top fuel teams $8 mill a year, all of the grass roots stuff that he does $2 mill a year (sprints, late models, tractors boats, etc). Thus, by my numbers he is spending $15 million a year on advertising, and using your number on his budget this means he is selling $45 million dollars worth of product. All of these numbers are all uninformed guesses. Any real numbers would be appreciated.

I just don't see Lucas Oil selling that much product. If Lucas Oil was the top choice of over the road semi trucks, and half of all semi trucks used his products, the numbers would make more sense. Until this thread, I never knew that he sold to the semi truck market.

I agree that Lucas is in a lot of places with its advertising. And I too appreciate his focus.

As far as sustainability, I have to believe a company that can build up like it has must have a solid business plan to maintain its position in the market.

Lucas' road distribution trucks are all older trucks that, you guessed it, all run Lucas. Fuel treatment, oil stabilizers, and other diesel fleet products are the heart of Lucas' business. Truckers and racers, it doesn't get much more loyal than these people.

Last but certainly not least Forrest Lucas goes racing! He's a guy that can keep a speedway, series, or team able to compete. And he gets his name out in front of more people, more often. When you see him at the track, you may not even know it. He's a genuine good guy.
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WRONG!! i worked on the top fuel team for a year ....... he got started in the trucking world but their biggest market is cutting & cooling lube,s oversea,s as 4 all their racing involment he is a man that just love,s racing