NASCAR has plan to build an international presence

Nate Ryan | USA TODAY Sports

While battling daily to shore up its U.S. audience, NASCAR still draws offers to showcase its brand around the world.

Singapore. Malaysia. Russia.

NASCAR senior vice president Steve O'Donnell said the sanctioning body turned down opportunities to bring one of its national series to each country.

"We get approached every day," O'Donnell, who oversees NASCAR's global strategy, told USA TODAY Sports. "We've had 20 groups approach us from China. But most of them are one-offs. We keep pushing back and saying we're going to do this but in a smart way. If you can show us how we build stock-car racing, that's something we want to pursue."

As NASCAR expands its international media rights with new Fox and NBC deals beginning in 2015 (races currently are seen in more than 150 countries in 23 languages), O'Donnell said Brazil, Japan and Russia are viewed as most enticing for building new series. The hope is that foreign drivers will begin gravitating toward aiming at the Sprint Cup Series instead of open-wheel Formula One.

"Our goal is to take what we've learned into other racing cultures and change that from open wheel to stock cars," he said. "We're nowhere near where we want to be, but we want to bring the NBA model where players come to the U.S. from other countries. We want drivers to race in premier NASCAR leagues around the globe but aspire to race in the U.S.

"NASCAR started in the South, but every sport that's shown growth has fans and sponsors internationally."

While races in Mexico City and Montreal disappeared from the Nationwide Series schedule in the past five years, NASCAR used those events to help build a footprint in Canada and Mexico that it hopes will become the blueprint for establishing leagues around the world.

Its most successful example is south of the border, where NASCAR has become Mexico's No. 1 motorsport through a partnership with OCESA (an entertainment company owned by billionaire Carlos Slim). The 15-race Toyota Series, which opened its 2013 season at Phoenix International Raceway as a companion to the Sprint Cup race in March, draws crowds of 30,000 for its most successful races.

It also has started funneling Mexican stars, such as German Quiroga and Daniel Suarez, toward NASCAR's domestic circuits. As NASCAR tries to increase its domestic audience by luring more Hispanics, Spanish-speaking stars are viewed as a major asset.

"These are guys that would have gone open wheel and now want to be in stock-car racing and succeed at the highest levels," O'Donnell said.

Though the Sprint Cup Series is "tapped out" at 36 races, O'Donnell said NASCAR would consider returning with the Nationwide Series after a 2005-08 run in Mexico City. The Nationwide Series raced Montreal from 2007-12, and the Camping World Truck Series made a successful debut at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, a road course in Bowmanville, Ontario, that also hosts the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series that is operated from Daytona Beach, Fla.

But holding a "tentpole" event with a national series isn't viewed as necessary in NASCAR's long-term strategy for expanding into a country.

"Our tentpole events were to showcase the touring series and have that live on its own as the premier series," he said. "We look at that as a success."

O'Donnell said NASCAR altered its approach after holding exhibition races in Japan from 1996-98 that resulted in a large check for the sanctioning body but left no permanent presence.

"Everything was great, but there were no new sponsors or drivers as a result," he said. "We want to be international but build from the grass roots. The goal is not to become Formula One and collect a fee and leave."

O'Donnell was a featured speaker this week at the World Innovation Conference in Cannes, France, to highlight the 2014 schedule of the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series. The circuit, which just completed its second year, will make its debut next season at Germany's famed Nurburgring, joining a slate that also includes Valencia, Spain, and the headliner division for an American racing festival at Brands Hatch in Kent, England.

The series also will make its third visit to Tours Speedway in France, a NASCAR-specific 0.75-mile oval that was modeled after Richmond International Raceway. O'Donnell said NASCAR has been pleased with the Euro Series' attendance (averaging crowds of 25,000 for its six race weekends) and team growth. Two new cars owners from Italy will join the circuit, which has a mix of teams from various series. The annual budget is in the mid-six figures.

Though open-wheel racing on road and street courses is the predominant form of auto racing in Europe, O'Donnell said stock cars are making inroads.

"Our product on road courses over the last five years has been pretty good," he said. "People see that, and the light goes on that this is a pretty good product and compelling. We're trying to sell two things: the competitive nature of the sport and that it reflects what (fans) may be driving on the street."

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