Just Tired,
Jr. is still not out of the equation (I hear National Guard is pushing hard) but the larger question for UPS is whether his presence as their face in NASCAR will impact to the plus for UPS' bottomline. Dale Jarrett, for better or worse, made UPS a type of household name with the "Drive the Truck" deal. Sure everyone to a certain extent knew the Big Brown Truck but Dale make it an icon. Dale's qualities made him a natural because across the board of NASCAR fans, Dale is liked and trusted by about everyone. Those same qualities also come across to non-NASCAR fans as well and they trusted Dale.
Could Jr. do this? Oh sure, he's great in market appeal but how far. The beer he represents is already a national icon so just how hard does he have to work? Don't get me wrong as I like Jr. but his sister Kelley IMO is a marketing genius (ironically she has a degree in sports marketing if I'm correct) and she's put Jr. in the right place to capitialize on the situation.
I'm not poo-pooing your point, I think it has merit but racing today is not just about winning the race. It's about how much exposure you get for your money and how much you are willing to pay for it. We think what drives racing is a bunch of engineers, crew chiefs and drivers testing, working and setting up the cars but that's not it. Walk just a little further down the hall to the large conference room behind closed doors and there you'll find the marketing specialists and PR people (racing's IE dept. LOL)studying the latest demographics reports and the viewership numbers from the recent broadcasts and that is the driving force behind racing and I think I can prove it.
Let's take a young Jr. Johnson with his same background and bring him forward to 2007'. Now it's a fact the guy can drive the wheels off a stock car but with his past and NC mountain drawl, do you honestly think for one minute he'd get a shot especially with the bigger teams? Not only no but H3LL NO! He has limited market appeal. As great as Jr. Johnson is, they only drag him out from time to time in order to hype the moonshining, hillybilly past of racing just for the sake of hype. And he tells a good, entertaining story too so in that respect it works. I grew up in NC in Jr's era and went to tons of races so I love seeing Jr. (the real one
Besides, if UPS wants a winner, then just get Tony Stewart. Love em' or hate em' he's the best pure driving talent out there but it would never happen IMO.
Right now UPS is probably getting it's exposure dollars worth with Vandergriff but ESPN and drag racing doesn't pull in the same demographic numbers as NASCAR does.
I do think you are right that UPS is not a serious longterm player in NASCAR or even drag racing but then I don't know how FedEx's presence will change that either. Good post from you regardless of my opinion.