Small businesses find NASCAR sponsorships are in reach

Chess Hedrick always saw NASCAR races at Dover as a chance to wine and dine his industrial supply company's most loyal customers, so he bought extra tickets for them and handed out as many pit passes as he could on race days.

But the game changed when he realized he and his Delaware small business, Iron Source, could do one better, and actually sponsor a driver's car.

Many major NASCAR sponsors are Fortune 500 companies: Coca-Cola, 3M, Coors. But especially in the wake of the 2008-2009 recession, it's been easier than ever for smaller-scale businesses, and even individual fans, to attain sponsor status. With it comes not only advertising exposure — a logo on a racing team's car, and possibly lapel space on a driver's uniform too — but even greater behind-the-scenes access for the sponsors to dole out to customers or friends.

"When you take them up into the skybox and enjoy the hospitality, you're not going to go back to the stands," Hedrick said.

Sponsorships are the lifeblood of NASCAR teams; the revenue they bring in is what pays for the gas in the tank, the mechanics turning the wrenches and the trailer that takes the team and its car from track to track.

There are plenty of big-ticket sponsors orbiting NASCAR. Rick Harris, vice-president of the Florida company Race Day Sponsor, said many teams were accustomed to striking high-dollar, multi-race deals with sponsors in the last decade.

"The old standard was, it's $35,000 for a race and you have to do three races. Take it or leave it," Harris said in an interview Friday. The recession, he said, changed that calculation for many businesses and race teams.

That's when his company, which is essentially a broker between small entities and the teams they can sponsor, got its start.

"We had to find creative ways to raise money for these teams," Harris said. "They started realizing $10,000 goes a long way."

Harris's company will even link individual people, NASCAR superfans, with teams for what they call 'fan sponsorship.' That's a pretty popular option at Dover, Harris said. It gets the fans pit passes and in many cases pre-race access to drivers, cars and teams they otherwise couldn't get.

For Hedrick of Iron Source — which sells and rents heavy equipment from stores in Smyrna and Georgetown — arranging a sponsorship meant sharing the cost with some vendors and partner businesses. Meding's Seafood, another Delaware company, is also sponsoring the No. 1 Camaro, and two Iron Source vendors chipped in as well: Wacker Neuson, which makes construction equipment, and TIPCO Technologies, a hose and tubing supplier.

To sponsor one car for one race costs Iron Source $5,000 to $6,000, Hedrick said. He estimated his slate of sponsors together contributed around $15,000 to the JD Motorsports with Gary Keller team that Cassill races for.

"It's expensive, but not as expensive as everybody thinks it is," Hedrick said. "It gave us a lot more to do with the customers. They can sit in the trailers with the drivers and talk to them. It means a lot."

It means a lot to the drivers, too; for many of them, recruiting enough local sponsors is the only way they'll get to race day. CJ Faison, of Seaford, had hoped to compete in the NASCAR Xfinity Series on Saturday. But, he said, he couldn't round up enough sponsorship funds to make the cut with a racing team. A $50,000 sponsorship package, he said, would have allowed him to be on a team with an average-performing car. Drivers who can put together $100,000 or more, he said, get access to faster vehicles and a much better shot at the winner's circle.

Making time to indulge the sponsors and the customers they bring with them, he said, is no burden; it's just part of the deal.

"Your fans make you who you are. If you can take time with fans and sponsors and their customers, at the end of the day, it’s what everyone does for each other," Faison said Friday. "I actually thoroughly enjoy that. You get to make people’s day.”

For midsize organizations, being an umbrella sponsor for a race brings with it a lot of brand exposure. AAA Mid-Atlantic has invested in sponsoring at Dover since 2005, and for the past eight years has been a title sponsor for one of the races, said its chief marketing officer, Terry Rubritz.

"NASCAR is a different audience in terms of demographic. We want to appeal to all types of people," Rubritz said. The race, he said, lets AAA get the word out about its auto insurance business, a less widely known offering than its roadside assistance for members.