With word that Monster Energy will not renew its sponsorship of the Winston Cup Grand National series after 2019, Matt Weaver analyzes what appears to be the coming business model for NASCAR that appears modeled after the models used in the NFL etc. with multiple official partners. The potential problem here is NASCAR needs more, not less, sponsors and it needs to swallow its pride and welcome competing sponsors like Gatorade, Mountain Dew, STP, etc. Stop worrying about "conflict" because bundling sponsors for the series, tracks, etc. should eschew the "one size fits all" mentality that has hurt the sport. Sponsors competing against each other has long helped the sport as well as the sponsors themselves. Teams also need to be benefitted because too many sponsors who should be on racecars were taken by NASCAR as "official sponsors."
The Weaver piece lobbies for schedule changes so NASCAR can "reinvent itself" and claims "a handful of tracks...do not currently warrant two dates." This is false. The tracks with two dates manifestly do warrant two dates and contrary to contrarianism in fan and some media circles the sport doesn't really need new markets, it needs to make itself more competitive as racing and thus strengthen its existing markets. This is why NASCAR's use of the restrictor plate-drag duct package at the All Star Race is all the more a positive development.
The business model for NASCAR also needs to address spending, because this is why costs have increased. Team spending needs to be addressed by all involved because no team should be spending $10 million or more to run forty races a season.
NASCAR now seems to be grasping at least partially what has to be done.
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