The 200-MPH Billboard
The Inside Story of How Big Money Changed NASCAR
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- £11.99
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- £11.99
Publisher Description
What began on the dusty racetracks of the rural South is now a world-class enterprise, as closely watched by Wall Street as by hometown racing fans. How NASCAR grew from its provincial roots to become a big business of international proportions is the story Mark Yost tells in The 200-MPH Billboard.
A seasoned sports and business reporter for the Wall Street Journal and contributor to the New York Times and the Sports Business Journal, Yost demystifies the economics and politics behind NASCAR sponsorship. His book takes us behind the scenes of some of the head-turning corporate deals that altered the way NASCAR does business.
From Junior Johnson’s contract with Darrell Waltrip and Mountain Dew, which announced a significant change, to deals between the likes of Dale Jr. and Budweiser, Tony Stewart and Home Depot, NASCAR and Fox Television, this book clearly tracks the subtle and not-so-subtle transformations that corporate sponsorship has wrought in recent years. And it offers a rare insider’s look at what these changes have meant for NASCAR and its devoted fans.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Business and sports reporter Yost takes on the rise of NASCAR, bringing readers into the deals that have turned a Southern good ol' boy racing circuit into a clean-shaven marketing goliath. Yost is admirably unsentimental about the sport's growth, but fails to capture NASCAR's appeal to its fans as he looks at racetracks from the corporate hospitality suites. Content to mimic the suits, he frequently observes that the fans are remarkably loyal to the brands they see on the cars, the drivers and virtually anything else associated with American stock car racing. Yost does have access to some inside deal making: a chapter on NASCAR's business-to-business council shows how NASCAR brokers lucrative deals between sponsors, including nontraditional partners like Waste Management. However, the narrative often falls into a quicksand of numbers, including old television ratings and income from prize and sponsorship money. Additional chapters on deals between NASCAR and outfits like UPS and the armed forces feel redundant. In essence, companies sponsor NASCAR because it's high visibility, fast and cool, and because the sport's leaders and drivers are preternaturally accommodating to corporate needs. Business school students may enjoy the details, but general readers might wish Yost had stepped out of the boardroom to hear the crowd and the cars.
