NHRA – Get The Word Out!
Start A Pre-Season Media Tour (Like NASCAR)
Maybe it’s because I live in the middle of NASCAR-land (K-Town, NC; birthplace of Dale Earnhardt), and if you can fog a mirror you’ll receive a daily dose of stock car racing info. Sort of like living in Detroit and the air is full of car manufacturing news -- which isn’t so good these days for U.S. makers.
Then again, maybe it’s because I’d like to add to the unique swag I accumulated over the years attending the Lowe’s Motor Speedway NASCAR Nextel Cup Media Tour back when it was the Charlotte Motor Speedway Media Tour (‘90s).
Apparently the Fed tax guys hadn’t found the promo budget loopholes in those days, and attending members of the media from around the country had to use a duffle bag to carry away all the logoed promo booty from sponsors and teams – jackets, trading cards, nylon
bags, cool engraved aluminum block paperweights made by the first CNC machines in the Cup shops, etc. Plus, each of the racing shops we’d visit (3-4 per day) were in competition to out-feed the media (a tough task) – you ate like a prince at least. (Glenny needs a brand new team jacket!)
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Or maybe it’s because in those days of the Cup media tour you were not kept at arms-length from its drivers and crews and owners like today -- admittedly, there were about 50 ink-stained wretches on the tour then, not 200 like last week’s version The access to the Cup crews and nooks and crannies and behind the locks at the Cup shops of yesteryear is gone, but now you have 200 media outlets talking about stock car racing before the season even starts!
Or maybe it’s because a stock car journalista could gather enough meaty tech and news info and crazy rumors to fill your print writing quota for at least a couple of months, if not longer. When the Net started ramping up in the mid-90s, we would post about five stories a day and multiple photo galleries of new paint jobs and drivers, buzz, and just plain solid news about stock car racing.
NASCAR's pre-season Media Tour produces a multi-media blanket covering stock car racing. Drag racing pre-season coverage is pitiful in comparison. (Courtesy lowesmotorspeedway.com/Harold Hinson)
