Photo: John Close
NASCAR’s hidden season by john close
t used to be when the NASCAR season ended in late November, everyone took off for a well-deserved vacation. After a couple of weeks of “R&R” to shake off the grind of being on the road full-time for 36 weeks, all returned to work in early December before the holidays provided another opportunity for time off. Fat on Christmas bounty, and full of New Year’s cheer, the new NASCAR season didn’t really kick into gear in earnest in January. Not anymore. “One of the biggest myths in NASCAR is the ‘offseason,’” says Jeremy Burleson, managing director of partnership marketing and communications at Richard Childress Racing. “Honestly, it just doesn’t exist anymore. The racing schedule may be from February to November, but the business of NASCAR for the teams and the people who support them is now a year-round proposition. The days of having time off and starting to work on a new season in December and January are long gone. If anything, things in my office ramp up in those months, they don’t slow down.” Burleson’s situation is a common one regardless of who you are or what NASCARrelated job you perform. Whether it is in management, marketing, media or competition, the fact is NASCAR is a 52-weeks-ayear enterprise.
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The demise of NASCAR’s offseason is revealed by when the next new season starts. It’s not at Daytona in February, but rather in the heat of the preceding summer months. “We start getting serious about the upcoming year in June and July,” says Robbie Reiser, vice president of competition at Roush Fenway Racing. “That’s when we start paying attention to what teams are going to have next season – who’s going to drive for who and what kind of personnel you are going to have available. You’re trying to get everyone situated and organized for the following season. Personnel is always the first step to that.” While Reiser is evaluating race team talent throughout the summer months, Burleson is wading through the details of the next season’s marketing and media associations with RCR team sponsors. “Ideally, we’ve finalized contracts with our partners for the upcoming season already in early summer,” says Burleson. “The earlier you have these finished, the better. Everything has a sign-off process. We have to go through a brand team and legal – on their end and ours – in creating all of the designs, programs and contracts. There’s a lot of email exchange and phone conversations before everybody signs off on the final product. There are challenges to getting everyone to agree on all the details and that takes time.”
The timelines aren’t any better for Tim Packman, RCR’s director of corporate communications. “We started working on the 2014 season back in September,” says Packman. “We looked at everything we did this past
Photo: John Close
Jeremy Burleson is busy throughout the year overseeing multiple sponsor associations and a staff of 12 marketing specialists for Richard Childress Racing. w w w. p t c c h a l l e n g e . c o m