Sunday is known as the AMP Energy Juice 500 at Talladega Superspeedway. Corporate NASCAR pulled their heads off their shoulders and became too corporate again Saturday when Robby Gordon, who’s Speed Energy Toyota will roll off from the 42nd position Sunday, had an issue with his new energy drink and Sunday’s race sponsor AMP Energy.
Of course, NASCAR will say the incident that I am about to tell you about had nothing to do with the race sponsor and will say it was something they can’t discuss.
Robby Gordon had his personal truck parked in the owner/driver parking lot at Talladega Superspeedway. Nothing should have been wrong, yet when Robby went to find his truck something was wrong.
“It’s gone,” Gordon said. “I guess it’s in some impound yard somewhere. But it’s my personal truck.”
Why would they tow his personal truck? Because Gordon had his Speed Energy logo on the truck, trying to promote his energy drink introduced this weekend a little bit more.
Corporate NASCAR has gone way too far.
Watching Undercover Boss last Sunday Night on CBS, a crew member on a Michael Waltrip Racing team had told NASCAR Vice President of Corporate Marketing Steve Phelps that NASCAR had become too corporate and he would like to see that change. Phelps had said it would be hard but they would try working on that.
Too bad the Hollywood urban legend told to their fans last Sunday night was just that.
We all know NASCAR and the International Speedway Corporation (who runs Talladega Superspeedway) are run by the same people and the ultimate decision came down from the NASCAR people.
NASCAR already regulates series sponsorships without allowing another major gas company or cell phone company to sponsor a team due to their ties with Sprint and Sunoco. What’s next, if you have a sponsor on a car that is a rival to the race sponsor, their logos will have to leave the track and you will have to find a new sponsor for that weekends race?
Shesh! Can anyone tell me why NASCAR is losing fans?
