Ford 300 - Derrike Cope Notes

NASCAR Teams – The Business Of The Business
Owner Jay Robinson talks marketing, Busch Series

INDIAN TRAIL, N.C. – Winning is what NASCAR racing is all about.

But the definition of “winning” can vary, depending on who is doing the talking. At least, that’s the thought of NASCAR car owner Jay Robinson.

“For a race team, ‘winning’ is what you celebrate in Victory Lane after a race, or what you hold a trophy for at the end of the season,” Robinson said. “But the corporate sponsors on the sides of these race cars look at winning in a whole different light a lot of times. ‘Winning’ is when racing is used well enough to help sell their products.”

As far as Robinson is concerned, making his sponsors winners is the first priority, though success on the race track isn’t far behind.

“We’re here because we’re racers. We run because we are competitive and we want to do well,” Robinson said. “But we know that having the resources to be competitive is the first order of business. And having those resources is based on giving these corporate sponsors their money’s worth.”

Robinson’s NASCAR Busch Series teams are sponsored by Advil and Yahoo!

“The Boston Red Sox, the Yankees, the St. Louis Cardinals . . . all of them are winners, for sure,” Robinson said, “but the first thing they did was get their financial base solid, and then brought in players – a lot of very talented players at some very high salaries – that made them winners.

“Can the Expos compete? Not right now. They don’t have the financial backing to bring in the players they need to compete with the Cardinals,” Robinson said. “But by moving to Washington (D.C.) and building their base, they feel they will be in a position to start bringing in more talented, more high-priced players.

“If they do like some teams, they will do relatively well in the short term but lose big in the long term. We’re looking to run well in the long term,” he added. “The business of racing is business. If you lose track of that, you’re not just going to have a hard time being competitive . . . you’re going to have a hard time keeping your race team.”

Robinson is considered one of the most savvy business thinkers among car owners in NASCAR. One of his drivers, Derrike Cope, is considered one of the stronger business minds among those who wheel stock cars.

“Sponsorship is the lifeblood of the business, and Jay not only realizes that but he uses that in his business model,” Cope said. “There have been a lot of owners come through this sport, spend a ton of money and have nothing to show for it at the end. They come in, spend what they have and then they are gone, most of the time never to be heard from again.

“You have to have a solid foundation, and Jay has done that with his race teams,” Cope continued. “We’re moving forward and using the resources we have pretty wisely. Our hopes are that we can keep building, continue moving forward and get even more competitive.

“The thing about Jay is he can take one dollar and make it look like he has two. A sponsor spends a dollar with Jay and get three dollars in return,” Cope said. “We’re not the richest team out here by far, but you look around at what we have been able to do and what we have been able to accomplish, and you would think we’re doing pretty well.

“With the financial backing of some of the top teams out here, I really believe Jay would have his teams right at the top of the charts every week.”

Cope, a native of Spanaway, Wash., is a former winner of the Daytona 500 and a two-time NASCAR Nextel Cup race winner. A top athlete whose professional baseball career was cut short by a knee injury in college, Cope has become one of the top athletes in NASCAR racing, and has become one of the top public spokesmen for the sport.

Jay Robinson Racing, in its fourth season of operation, is one of the fastest-growing teams in NASCAR. Robinson, a Charlotte, N.C., native who is a successful businessman, founded the team as a high-value endeavor that offers high-end equipment and efforts, while proving to be one of the most cost-efficient teams in the sport. Robinson fields two sponsored cars fulltime on the Busch Series: Cope’s #49 Advil Ford and the #39 Yahoo! Ford of driver Tina Gordon, which Cope is helping mentor.