How curious...US Military NASCAR sponsors, and no incredulous comments?

[Major Carrales]

Seems I recall some huff and puff on the CAP NASCAR with Ashton Lewis, yet...

http://www.military.com/NASCAR/airforce

WAS CAP a PIONEER?  Or is this folly for them all?  Really, I need an education on this matter.

[lordmonar]

No,

The military has been sponsoring NASCAR and Dragsters for years and years.

I remeber watching the Army funny car back in the 70's.

The heat CAP took for sponsoring the NASCAR was not because it was not a legitamte recruiting venue....but it was not cost effective.

1.  Because we tried to do it on the cheap and got a guy who could not win.
2.  At the same time CAP was cutting funding from other programs.

The military can afford good drivers who make a good showing every year.

[RiverAux]

We probably did get a little bit of benefit out of it, but the $5 mil could have bought pages and pages of advertising in various pilot-related magazines that would have been targeted at one of our primary specialties. 

[Cecil DP]

The cost was probably much higher than the $5M mentioned earlier. CAP actually had several megamillion CD and investment accounts which were lost in the NASCAR debacle.

[mikeylikey]

We probably did get a little bit of benefit out of it, but the $5 mil could have bought pages and pages of advertising in various pilot-related magazines that would have been targeted at one of our primary specialties. 

Agreed!  They could have found other ways to advertise.  I think those billboards late 2002, early 2003 actually did more recruiting than anything else.  We really need to get into AF times, Army times, Navy Times, all Post/ Base newspapers, flight magazines, and other professional journals.  We also need to hit up schools real hard, all over the country, and make a push to get CAP after school one night a week a student activity that the schools don't have to pay for.  I could go on, but this was about nascar or something.  Sorry!

[Pylon]

Don't draw unrelated correlations.

Sponsoring a NASCAR is only a small sliver of the DoD's annual recruiting and PA budgets.  They have the financial ability to do this, without any damage to the organization if they were to lose the car in an accident.

CAP viewed this one NASCAR sponsorship as a solve-all, one-stop solution to recruiting and awareness for our organization.  CAP does not have this type of money in our advertising and recruiting budgets, and dipped heavily into investments (to the tune of about $11M total, I believe) to put this tool out there.  Not a wise choice given the risk.

[O-Rex]

I would love to poll recruits:

What made you join the military?

   a. Patriotism

   b. Job skills/Technical training

   c. Money for college

   d. That really cool car on ESPN

[mikeylikey]

I am shocked no one has mentioned seeing a military car at a Demolition Derby.  I love watching those cars smash into each other.  About 10 years ago I remember a group from a local AFB put an awesome station wagon in the derby.  They painted it all up sky blue, wrote AF all over it, and painted the phone number to the recruiting office on the hood. 

All in all, the AF car got ate up, and I think caught on fire.  It was a good night!

[NIN]

CAP viewed this one NASCAR sponsorship as a solve-all, one-stop solution to recruiting and awareness for our organization.  CAP does not have this type of money in our advertising and recruiting budgets, and dipped heavily into investments (to the tune of about $11M total, I believe) to put this tool out there.  Not a wise choice given the risk.

Actually, that was a gentleman named "George Freeman" who was hired as our Advancement Officer ("Advancement" in the parlance of non-profits like colleges and organizations = the guys who go out and beg money from donors, alumni, members, etc..), and the NASCAR thing was his "one trick pony."

(I met the guy, and while he was a nice enough fellow, I got the distinct impression that he was a bit of a "good 'ol Southren boy" who had finally found a way to "git himself a NASCAR team.."  When they were up here for a race back in 2003, I think it was, I noticed that he acted like he was the "team owner" a lot, prancing around the pits and out onto the grid during the pre-race activities, but I didn't see a lot of "advancement" actually occurring from the guy.

(the idea behind a corporate NASCAR sponsorship is that for every "exposure" of car #46, it counts as an "impression" to a viewer, and NASCAR supposedly has the highest "impressions per hour" or some such.. Never mind that its hard to be "impressed" as the car whizzes by at 200mph and you can't even see the tri-prop on the hood.. We were supposedly getting beaucoup marketing exposure time for our $$$.. I think that kind of metric is total snake oil from NASCAR's standpoint...)

That money would have been better spent on the Advancement Officer's travel budget as he went around the country glad-handing corporations for $$ instead of saying "Hey, look, we're so flush we can afford to blow $11M on a race car.. But give us more money, 'cuz, you know, we need it, or something.."

[♠SARKID♠]

Just a little stats on that car we had.

http://www.motorsportsone.com/busch/lewisas1.htm


MAYBE THIS IS WHY IT WAS A BAD IDEA!!! Yes, that is the CAP car!  Crash & BURN!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtyvRUhu3cc


Mod Edit: A few points... All CAPS=bad. Big font= more bad. Subverting the language filter with acronyms="Oh no you didn't!"  -TA

[lordmonar]

I guess I was misinformed.  I though our guy was not that good.  Ranked 12th the year he drove the CAP car.  That's not too bad...plus a cool crash!

[pixelwonk]

MAYBE THIS IS WHY IT WAS A BAD IDEA!!! Yes, that is the CAP car!  Crash & BURN!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtyvRUhu3cc

Good 'ol Crashton.

[ELTHunter]

I seem to recall the rational being the the service branches had success with their own NASCAR's and CAP thought they could do the same thing.  Maybe not a bad idea of your audience is 18 - 24 year old males, but probably not as usefull for attracting 12 - 15 year olds.

It seemed like every time I watched a Busch race, I had a hard time picking out the CAP car.  Selling the CAP Racing merchandise was another huge mistake.

[Cecil DP]

It seemed like every time I watched a Busch race, I had a hard time picking out the CAP car.  Selling the CAP Racing merchandise was another huge mistake.

It was the one in the rear_burning money. Our Money!!

[SarDragon]

A little in Mr Lewis' defense - if you look at the stats, he wasn't a horrible driver. He has finished in the top 20 every year since 2001, and had 11 top 5 race finishes in the same timeframe. As for crashes, everyone crashes, and as often as not, cars involved in the crash are just collected up by others. I couldn't really tell in the one in the link above. It loked like #24 might have tapped him in the back as he lifted in the turn.

[pixelwonk]

maybe not a horrible driver, but he was a fantastic crasher

[NIN]

He came to my squadron prior to a race.  He's a super dude, I felt sorry for him that he got such a crappy sponsor (honestly, CAP was not cut out to be a NASCAR sponsor.. Its just not our alley.. It was George Freeman's alley, just not ours...)

[jimmydeanno]

He came to my squadron prior to a race.  He's a super dude, I felt sorry for him that he got such a crappy sponsor (honestly, CAP was not cut out to be a NASCAR sponsor.. Its just not our alley.. It was George Freeman's alley, just not ours...)

It's kind of like having Bill Buckner on your team...

[JCW0312]

Anyone have a good picture of the CAP car? I would be interested to see it. I was on sabbatical during that period.

[RiverAux]

I did used to wear my CAP racing hat all the time.  Though even that part of the program was sort of messed up as the hat didn't really show of CAP very well.