Villeneuve and NASCAR - You’re Kidding
Jacques Villeneuve recently gave a big hint that NASCAR might be where his career heads now by saying:
Le Mans, sports cars, DTM, IRL, Champ Car? Well, I’m sorry, but they’re all a step down from F1. NASCAR isn’t.
You’d have to assume Villeneuve’s talking about the racing and not the technology!! B) At the end of the day though, I don’t see how you can say NASCAR is on par with Formula One. Sure, the racing is good, but so is the racing in V8 Supercars here in Australia. Are they equal to F1? No way!
The big problem with NASCAR is outside of the United States people have hardly even heard of the sport let alone get a chance to see it. Same problem with V8 Supercars in Australia. At least with Champ Car you get a degree of international coverage..
Date: Sunday, August 20th, 2006 at 6:43 pm
Category: F1 Drivers, F1 Personalities, F1 Rumours, Formula 1 Silly Season, Media
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the real issue with nascar beyond the borders of the u.s. is that the brands don’t necessarily resonate with the fans/consumers the way they do here. i’m an open-wheel guy and i don’t find nascar to be great racing. i imagine many fans would agree, but nascar has done a tremendous job of making their drivers celebrities via brand activation. this is what sticks in the mind of the fans. if great racing was the only qualification, irl would be at the top. but the brand equity of the sponsors is what really fuels nascar and they’ve done a good job of managing it. but how popular are those brands beyond u.s. borders? time will tell.
Tommy, I’d like to know more about this “brand activation”. Are drivers made celebrities there because they appear in ads for their sponsors so much? Is that what you meant by that term?
It sure would be nice to see some F1 drivers on TV ads here in Australia (we never got to see Schumi’s Loreal commercials! ;)).. I think I may have seen a Webber ad one time but it obviously wasn’t very memorable..
I see it this way, if all goes good and in a couple years, Jacques could be the first and only driver to win championships in three different catagories