Auto Club 500 - Kyle Petty Notes

Kyle Petty Notes, Quotes: NAPA 500

Marketing, and marketing in Los Angeles

Kyle Petty and the #45 Georgia-Pacific/Brawny Dodge team head to the Pacific Coast this week, making the only stop for NASCAR’s Winston Cup teams in southern California. Sunday’s NAPA 500 is at the two-mile California Speedway in Fontana, just east of Los Angeles.

One of the newest speedways on the circuit, California has quickly become a linchpin in the marketing strategy of NASCAR Winston Cup teams and sponsors. The second-largest market in the country, the Los Angeles-Ontario-Riverside market has become a key to the NASCAR Winston Cup teams.

Petty, 42, will be making his 655th career start this weekend. He is 11th on the all-time list in NASCAR Winston Cup career starts, and fourth among active drivers. His eight career victories place him 45th on NASCAR’s all-time list in Winston Cup wins. One of the most recognizable names in international motorsports, as is his sponsor, Georgia-Pacific, Petty’s driving career began with a five-race season in 1979. The native of Level Cross, N.C., has won over $16 million.

The thoughts of Georgia-Pacific/Brawny Dodge driver Kyle Petty heading into California:

“Every week, we’re in a race on the track and every week, the sponsors are on a race off the track. Something that is a big race for us might not be as big of a race for them. Don’t get me wrong. All of the races are big races but the market might make something bigger for a sponsor one place than someplace else.

“Television has changed things in that regard some. Every race is big because we have so many people watching and following us. Say 15 years ago, we didn’t even have all of our races on television and we were running a lot fewer races than we are running today. Look at it that way. A race at, say, Nashville in the mid 1980's might have had a total of 20,000 people seeing the race. Now, our smallest crowd is way into the millions when you count television.

“For the sponsors, the races don’t get much bigger than southern California. The California market is a lot like Texas has been for us. The only difference is California was a much hotter NASCAR market at one time before things kind of cooled off there, and then we came back again. Texas was the same way.

“Twenty years ago, we were running races in Texas and southern California. We were at Texas World Speedway, and we were running two southern California races - not far from the new Fontana track in Ontario and down the road a little bit at Riverside (road course). The land got to be so valuable in Ontario that the track went away and, not long after that, Riverside was gone too. Texas World Speedway just couldn’t draw. It was halfway between Dallas and Houston, which seemed to be perfect, but it was just far enough to be too far away from both cities. It was gone too.

“As the sport has grown, those markets have come back to us. The races at Texas have gained a ton of attention. The media in those areas is real strong, and they cover the sport on a regular basis too, not just when we’re in town. The fan base there has gotten really strong really quick, and it’s a great place for us to be. I don’t see that area doing anything but growing for us in the future.

“California is growing too. They started off with like 75,000 seats, and the demand is strong. The media is paying more and more attention to us, and there is a really solid fan base there now too. Things are looking pretty good for that speedway right now.

“That’s a huge market for anybody, regardless of what kind of business. Just because it’s huge doesn’t mean you automatically succeed. The NFL ended up having a pretty rough time with the area. You have to think pro football will come back there at some point but, so far, they have sort of set the Los Angeles area aside. There are two major league baseball teams that seem to do pretty well, but the NBA teams, one does great and the other kind of struggles some.

“I guess we kind of gave up on the Los Angeles market too at one point. Once they dug up Riverside there just wasn’t anything in southern California for us. A lot of people were talking but not many people were building. So we missed out on this market for a long time.

“Being here and having been here for a few years now is good for everybody. It’s good for Georgia-Pacific, it’s good for General Mills, it’s good for the sport. There are just so many people out here, and being able to touch them through promotions or whatever is big - whether they come to the race or not, or watch the race on TV or not. Whether it’s doing an appearance at a souvenir stand or the Georgia-Pacific Teen Safety program or something like the deal John (Andretti) is doing this weekend with the Cheerios Spoonfuls of Stories program, it’s a big deal.

“You have to work hard to make these things work, and you work a little harder in the bigger markets because you have so many more people to touch. There aren’t any guarantees without hard work. If all Georgia-Pacific did was buy a sponsorship, paint their name on the side of the car and wait for the business to roll in, that wouldn’t be a very successful program. But they start with the sponsorship and they work it and promote it and use it every way they can to market. They have to have great products, which they do, and they have to market them well, which they do. That makes them successful.

“At Petty Enterprises we do the same thing with every sponsor. We have our marketing people set up to make the programs work for the sponsors. I don’t know of another race team that, from car owner to driver to marketing department to crew to everywhere else on the team, works as hard and is as willing to work hard as we are. You have to go that extra step to make things work. You have to be willing to go that extra mile to make things work. And going to southern California this weekend, this is one of those places where you have to do the things you need to do from a marketing standpoint as well as a racing standpoint.

“We only get one shot in southern California now, so we have to make the most of it as a race team. We’d like to have a really good run with this Georgia-Pacific Dodge at that speedway. We’re going to do what we can to do to just that.”

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