When NASCAR was born on the sands of Daytona Beach, Fla., 61 years ago, its fan base likely wasn’t much different from its racing heroes.
A sport spawned by moonshine running starred undereducated white males from the South who subsisted on modest incomes.
As it rolled into Atlanta this weekend for a September race celebrating America’s working class, NASCAR is coping with maintaining the interest of a fan base that increasingly reflects the country’s 21st century sophistication. Statistics say its followers are richer, smarter and more technologically savvy than ever. Well I was there for my very first NASCAR event and I would like to think I fit that description.
Bootleggers have given way to bloggers — and the shift has ocurred as fans have become a focal point for re-energizing a phenomenon whose once surging popularity has lost some steam.
With TV ratings and attendance in a three-year dip after steady growth for more than a decade, NASCAR has refocused on catering to a constituency that seems vastly different from the redneck stereotype associated with stock-car racing. There are physics professors who apply mathematics to explain the sport’s wrecks and rule-breaking, and multi-degreed mountain climbers mesmerized by its plot twists and rivalries.
But there also still is a blue-collar section of workers presenting a challenge of appealing to all groups without alienating.
“We have to play the game a little bit different than what we did 15 or 20 years ago because society is dictating they want to see something different,” says Richard Petty, a seven-time champion and team owner. “It makes it really tough from NASCAR’s standpoint (of) what is the fan really looking for?”
NASCAR has been measuring fan demographics since starting its own brand research department nine years ago. According to data derived from ESPN Sports Poll (independent consumer research conducted by TNS), 60% live outside the South, and 41% are female. Since 2000, the number of fans making $100,000 or more has doubled from 7% to 16% of its fan base, and those with incomes of $50,000 or more has risen from 35% to 48%. College graduates in the fan base has swelled to nearly one in four.
David Carter, executive director of the University of Southern California’s Sports Business Institute, says changes are reflective of the geographical shifts in NASCAR, which has added races in the Los Angeles, Dallas-Fort Worth, Chicago and Miami markets in the past 12 years.
“As they have moved out of their Southern roots and penetrated big metro markets, the demographic of their casual fan base has become more diversified,” Carter says. “For about 40 to 50 years, the demographics of this country have changed, so you’d expect every sport to be different.”
NASCAR spokesman Andrew Giangola says NASCAR.com counts about 7 million visitors per month or about 1 million more than the average TV audience for Cup races 10 years ago. A typical fan spends seven hours a week consuming NASCAR media through TV, websites or satellite radio. Many sponsors and drivers have begun using Twitter and other social-networking sites.
Last year, a 12,300-member, Internet-based “fan council” representing all 50 states was created so NASCAR could conduct opinion surveys through the Internet. The series recently adopted double-file restarts after the proposed change received overwhelmingly positive support from the council, which counts bloggers as about 20% of its membership.
“We look at it as an advisory board,” Giangola says. “It’s a tool to listen to what’s on fans’ minds as any company would want to connect with their best customers. Technology allows us to do the feedback in a more efficient way.”
It’s part of an industry-wide push to make a series always billing itself as “fan friendly” even more accommodating to those buying tickets.
Drivers are scheduling more autograph sessions, tracks are slashing concession prices and lobbying hotels to eliminate minimum-stay requirements, and NASCAR is embracing “citizen journalism” by offering press credentials to those who cover the sport in their spare time.
Many of the steps are aimed at helping supporters weather the economic downturn, and it’s because no sport relies more heavily on the support of customers to fuel its existence.
Last month, a free cookout with a 1,300-foot grill for Coca-Cola 600 ticket-holders at Lowe’s Motor Speedway drew a crowd of more than 6,000. The event was sponsored by Coke, which has been active in NASCAR for 40 years, the past 12 as an official sponsor (Coca-Cola recently renewed its status in a 10-year deal).
Beatriz Perez, senior vice president of integrated marketing for Coca-Cola North America, says the company has adjusted its campaigns for a more national strategy incorporating multiple media platforms.
“These fans are very much into technology, and we’re trying to make sure we follow the consumers,” says Perez, who added Coke’s sales spike double-digits in markets with race promotions. “There’s no less passion for NASCAR, it’s just people are consuming it differently because of the economic conditions today.”
Corporate sponsorship is the primary revenue stream for championship-caliber teams whose annual budgets start at $20 million, and Fortune 500 companies splash their brightly colored logos on those cars because they believe the brand loyalty justifies the investment.
NASCAR says one in three of its fans always buy sponsors’ products according to Ipsos polling, and a 2005 study of NASCAR fans by James Madison University said roughly half liked companies more if they sponsored the sport. “We have to prove to fans we’re willing to do whatever it takes so they come to the races and enjoy being part of it,” veteran driver Jeff Burton says. “If we don’t, this sport will be in trouble. That’s what made this sport what it is. And as we grew and grew and grew, we got away from that.”
