Customer Reviews

The 200-MPH Billboard: The Inside Story of How Big Money Changed NASCAR

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Did you know that most NASCAR fans can easily identify a sponsor of their favorite driver? This is why NASCAR became so big. Loyal fans are very aware of sponsoring brands and are highly likely to buy products of sponsors associated with NASCAR or their favorite driver. Sponsors pour more money into the sport because they see a return on their investment. It is a win-win situation for everyone: fans, sponsors, drivers, and track owners. The author of this book did a great job walking readers through the history of the sport. Drivers used to struggle financially and now many of them are multi-millionaires. This all started with the ban of Cigarette companies' advertisement on television. They had to find other places to advertise. That's how sponsoring dollars found NASCAR. Other companies followed and the rest is history.

- Mariusz Skonieczny, author of Why Are We So Clueless about the Stock Market? Learn how to invest your money, how to pick stocks, and how to make money in the stock market

For the NASCAR fan, or for those who don't understand how millions of people can watch cars drive in circles for hours, this book reveals how big business drove the consumer to the racetrack. It provides a look at the fascinating history of the sport. While clearly well researched, I found the writing annoying when the author repeatedly makes a statement, followed by the words: but more about that later. You need an excellent memory to follow the thread of information.

If you are a big fan of NASCAR (as I am), then you need to understand there is a business behind the sport. This book explores the business aspects of the sport and the money involved. It's an easy read and a fascinating book.

I used this book for a project in an MBA class on international marketing. For the project I studied Toyota's entrance into the Nextel Cup and its effects on the company's sales of Tundra pickup trucks. The chapter on Toyota offered some insights that I had not seen previously published.

Overall, the book gives a shallow treatment of the business of NASCAR. There are at least a handful of studies by economists that show the relationship between NASCAR and its fans. One study showed a 14% increase in the likelihood that a NASCAR fan would purchase an unfamiliar product if it was identified with the sport. Some of these studies run rather deep into the psychographics and demographics of NASCAR fans, but hardly any of this type of research is in this book. Those studies, while academic, can reveal to fans the ways in which NASCAR-related marketing is influencing their behavior.

Yost does track revenues and losses for pretty much the entire history of the sport in its organized form and charts the financial rollercoaster ride NASCAR took during the 1970s-1980s. "200-MPH Billboard" is not an academic study of NASCAR and its powerful affect on consumers, nor is it an in-depth expose on how deals are done in the sport. Rather, it's a brief tour of the industry plus a glimpse inside the exclusive hospitality suites of the biggest sponsors, like Goodyear.

This is a quick read for the fan who is perhaps not in business nor interested in the nitty-gritty economics of the sport, its marketing machine and the behavior of its fans as consumers.

I enjoyed the book overall but I am a devoted NASCAR fan and found some errors in the book. One being the Richmond race in 1987 and the book had Dale Earnhardt and Rusty Wallace crashing to give the lead and victory to Kyle Petty. The wreck involved Dale Earnhardt and Darrell Waltrip! The book kept stating Tide joined Darrell Waltrip in 1989! It was actually 1987! It said Jeff Burton was sponsored by MBNA but it was Ward Burton!