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GURSS: Personal Impact
Written by: Jade Gurss   
06/16/2009
Mooresville, NC
 
Faster. Louder. The weekly column on SPEEDtv.com by Jade Gurss. (Harold Hinson Photo) ยป More Photos

The Personal Impact of Chevrolet’s Withdrawal

When General Motors announced Friday they were pulling all support from their NASCAR Nationwide and Truck Series teams immediately, the public response from the teams most affected was guarded and limited to several carefully worded responses. Privately, I had a gut feeling my days as a publicity consultant with Kevin Harvick Inc. were numbered – in single digits. By Sunday night, after a difficult phone conversation with DeLana Harvick, the gut feeling was confirmed.

I have no ill will toward the Harvicks: they were a great couple to work for and I thank them for everything. Their reliance upon Chevrolet’s support as the de facto “factory team” for Chevy in the Camping World Truck Series meant they were probably the team most impacted by the GM withdrawal from the two series. (Chevy’s Sprint Cup involvement is still be announced – they have a meeting with all of their Cup team owners Wednesday to discuss the level of the Cup-level impact.) I’m confident Kevin Harvick Inc. will survive this major blow and continue to put race-winning teams on the track in the weeks and months to come, albeit with a smaller staff and smaller budget.

In two decades in motorsports, I’ve learned a lot of lessons, and one of the first is to not place too much faith in the long-term status of sponsors or manufacturers. Many programs are subject to the whims of a single new executive or new management team. Even if grounded on a clear and sound return-on-investment basis, sponsorships can come and go quickly for many reasons. Even a near perfect combination of sponsor and driver can end, as evidenced by the divorce of Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Budweiser when he left to join Hendrick Motorsports. It’s something that happens more often than not. This situation was more than a whim: it was the end result of a manufacturer that had struggled for several years. It should come as no big surprise to anyone involved.

While the overall economy seems to be sputtering towards a recovery, I suspect we’ll see a lot more motorsports sponsor and manufacturer trouble in the months to come. Many 2009 programs were signed and sealed well before the late-2008 economic collapse, so teams
that were able to retain their sponsors on existing contracts might have more trouble re-signing the same backers in a tough economic climate this summer.

It’s been a lean season for my company: several smaller deals fell by the wayside as companies cut back their motorsports efforts this year, which makes losing the KHI program an even tougher pill to swallow. Motorsports is a seasonal business, so the quest begins now to line-up accounts and/or employment for the 2010 season. Here’s hoping the economy continues to head in the right direction.

The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEEDtv.com, FOX, NewsCorp, or Speed Channel

Jade Gurss is the owner of fingerprint, inc., a sports publicity company. He has written two New York Times Best Sellers, including what is believed to be the biggest-selling motorsports book in American publishing history (Driver #8 with Dale Earnhardt Jr.). His two decades of publicity and marketing experience involves nearly every category of motorsports, including nine innovative seasons as NASCAR publicist for the Budweiser brand and Earnhardt Jr. His blog can be seen at: http://fingerprint.typepad.com

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