Telcel Motorola 200 pres. by Banamex - Jay Robinson Racing Notes

Making sponsorship work key for Robinson’s success Takes ‘long-term approach’ to business that can be short-sighted

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – With transporters headed to Mexico City, Jay Robinson knows to continue looking down the road, taking the 2005 NASCAR Busch Series season as a whole.

“From a competition standpoint, you look at things one race at a time. From a business standpoint for a race team, you look at the season as a whole, then break into down into parts,” said Robinson, who fields two cars on the NASCAR Busch Series and who will have both in Mexico City this week.

Robinson is considered one of the top business minds at the top levels of NASCAR racing. His #28 car, driven by Derrike Cope the first two races of this season and driven by Johnny Sauter this weekend at Mexico City, made an incredible 42nd-to-16th place run in the season opener at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway and is just 42 points out of the top 10 of the current NASCAR Busch Series standings. Robinson also drives the #49 Ford, which has been driven by Steve Grissom this season but will be driven by Mara Reyes at Mexico City.

“What Jay Robinson has been able to do this season just shows the tremendous potential this race team has,” said Cope. “We had some pretty good sponsorship at Daytona and it turned into a pretty nice finish for RadioShack. That’s the type of showing Jay has always given his sponsors – invest one marketing dollar in his race team and he’ll give you two dollars’ worth.”

Robinson definitely takes care of his sponsors, and putting them first has helped him develop one of the longer-running multi-car teams in NASCAR’s Busch Series.

“We’re all here because we’re racers, and because we want to be competitive. You want to run as well as we can possibly run every week, no matter who are you,” Robinson said.

“To all of us at Jay Robinson Racing, we know the corporate sponsors make it possible for us to race and make it possible for us to compete,” he said. “Winning races is great and a lot of fun, but making sponsorship work from a business standpoint is what is most important to them. As long as we can help them make the sponsorship work well, then they are going to want to be a part of what we are doing. And as long as they are part of what we are doing, we can keep racing.”

Granted, Robinson said, sometimes the marketing focus changes for a motorsports sponsor, or a new person comes into the company who feels another sport is more advantageous.

“You can’t always make it work but if you go into a corporate relationship thinking the right way, you can usually make it work,” Cope said. “People like myself and Jay Robinson, we put our sponsorship proposals together thinking, ‘How can sponsorship help this company move product?’ Too many teams go into these days thinking, ‘I need X amount of dollars to run. How can I talk them into paying it?’

“The result of the latter a lot of times is a company might come in and then realize it’s not getting a return on its investment,” Cope added. “So they turn around and walk back out, soured on the sport and soured on what we all have to offer. If they are moving product, if they are meeting goals and motorsports sponsorship is helping and doing its part, then you have a great deal going.

“As race teams, as drivers, we owe that to the sponsors. Just like we owe something to the fans, the ones who buy tickets and sit in the grandstands, we owe it to the sponsors to help them in any way we can,” he said.

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

“Sponsorship is the base for NASCAR racing at the higher levels, 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 fifth 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.