Alex Meshkin

According to Sports Media Watch, FOX has its lowest rated NASCAR season ever.

A year of declines has concluded with FOX drawing its lowest average rating for NASCAR since the net began airing races in ‘01.

Excluding the rain delayed Coca Cola 600, 12 NASCAR races averaged a 5.1/11 rating and 8.5 million viewers on FOX during the 2009 season, down 11% in ratings and 9% in viewers from a 5.7/12 and 9.3 million last year, and the lowest rated season ever for NASCAR on FOX.

Last Sunday’s Autism Speaks 400 drew a 4.0/10 final rating on FOX, down 11% from a 4.5/11 for the same race last year.

Every single, solitary NASCAR Sprint Cup telecast on FOX — all twelve races, the Budweiser Shootout and Daytona 500 Qualifying — saw declining ratings this season. 10 of the 12 races saw double-digit declines, including the last nine.

Despite the declines, NASCAR on FOX easily topped its competition. The 5.1 rating for NASCAR races on FOX is 65% higher than the 3.1 average for the ‘09 NBA Playoffs (not including the ongoing NBA Finals) and 16% higher than the 4.4 for last year’s MLB Playoffs (including the World Series).

Additionally, the 8.5 million viewers is 42% higher than the 6.0 million for last year’s college football bowl games (including the BCS), and is only slightly off from the 8.9 million viewers for last year’s NCAA Tournament (including the Final Four).

Ratings for NASCAR on FOX in 2009.
Asterisk (*) indicates race was moved to another day because of rain.

The global credit crisis may be slowing the M&A markets of Corporate America, however, mergers and acquisitions remain all the buzz in NASCAR. Back in July, I wrote Team Consolidation on the Horizon and it appears more likely than ever that Michael Waltrip Racing (MWR) led by Robert Kauffman will acquire Chip Ganassi Racing.
Additionally, speculation is running rampant – Gillette Evernham Motorsports (GEM) will acquire Bill Davis Racing (BDR). With BDR having yet to secure a replacement for Caterpillar for the #22 Toyota Camry, the value proposition of the proposed acquisition appears to be strictly around the coveted partnership with Toyota Motorsports and BDR’s ownership in Triad Racing Development. So it appears that if both transactions are completed; and Gillette changes from Dodge to Toyota – Dodge Motorsports will be left with just Penske Racing and Richard Petty Racing. Furthermore, I suspect at the root of Gillette’s motivation to acquire BDR is the reality that Dodge is looking to leave NASCAR all together. As my readers know, earlier this month Dodge announced their plans to leave the NASCAR Truck Series and with the founding Dodge Sprint Cup Team (Evernham) possibly joining the Toyota camp through the BDR acquisition – I think this will be most definitive indication that Dodge is saying “bye bye” to NASCAR.
It’s rather apparent, that in 2009 the pit lane of the NASCAR Sprint Cup series will be dominated and owned by just a few organizations. One must wonder – will NASCAR reverse their policy to limit teams to just 4 cars? – Because in 2010, Roush Fenway Racing will be required to “sell” one of their teams which is expected to be transferred to Yates Racing. However, NASCAR may reverse or postpone plans to prevent any additional sponsorship deflections.
With primary sponsors becoming increasingly elusive and operating costs continuing to soar, the benefits of team consolidation may be the only way for the NASCAR teams to have a fighting chance of survival. The fact is clear: The economies of scale and integrated marketing advantages are vital to remaining competitive on the track and attractive to the few remaining potential sponsors.
Is there any hope for NASCAR’s future? Yes, but not without some major changes and “redistribution of wealth”. NASCAR’s unfair revenue model and overall lack of innovation are the primary contributing causes to the sponsorship crisis for race teams. NASCAR needs to immediately revise the distribution of TV revenues to fairly compensate the race teams – or face the reality that the life expectancy of many NASCAR race teams are limited at best and more teams will continue to close their doors.

By Dick Brinster, The Associated Press June 10, 2004
3:53 PM EDT (1953 GMT)

Dressed in a T-shirt, jeans and sneakers, his cap on backward, Alex Meshkin bears little resemblance to other NASCAR team owners.

That’s what Larry McReynolds thought when the former crew chief was approached last spring by Meshkin and asked to join Bang Racing, now a fledgling team in the Craftsman Truck series.

“I asked him, ‘Where’s your dad at? Your dad must be the one who’s going to do this deal,”‘ McReynolds recalled.

Little did he know this was a 23-year-old whiz kid who six years earlier took some money his parents put aside for college and made a few million sitting at his computer trading stocks.

“I was able to (turn) it into a little bit of wealth and start my own company,” said Meshkin, whose Bang Technology Software affiliate is based in Bombay, India.

He also heads a merchandising company and Nutzz.com, which rewards consumers for the use of products in a manner similar to retailers giving frequent flyer miles.

The two-truck team is costing Meshkin nearly $15 million a year, and he expects the operation to be profitable by 2007. That’s the fast lane in a sport where sponsorship can be tough to maintain.

But super salesman Meshkin isn’t concerned. His teams, with series champion Travis Kvapil and former Cup driver and Craftsman champion Mike Skinner, are backed by Toyota and eBay among others.

Meshkin laughs when asked about his attempt to become a racer.

“I always wanted to be involved in racing since I was a little kid,” said Meshkin, who briefly campaigned a formula car. “I prefer the ownership side. I think I’ll just stick with what I do well.”

To McReynolds, who owns a small share of the team, Meshkin stands out because of his “passion” for the sport.

“Every other business I’ve been involved in, the excitement to me was when I could sell it to make money,” Meshkin said. “For this, I don’t care how much they offer me, I wouldn’t sell it.”

In fact, he plans to expand to the Busch series and eventually to Nextel Cup. The truck teams are just the foundation of his racing program.

Meshkin knew he wouldn’t have much credibility without bringing aboard a high-profile racing figure. So he targeted McReynolds, and was persistent when first rebuffed.

“I wasn’t really interested in talking to him,” said McReynolds, Dale Earnhardt’s former crew chief and a TV racing analyst. “Since I stepped off the pit box at the end of 2000, I’ve had 30 or 40 people come at me.

“I always had the feeling that they were looking for someone with a magic wand in their back pocket to wave over the race team and try to fix it.

“Even though I won 23 Cup races as a crew chief, I lost 447. So, obviously, I don’t have a magic wand.”

Finally, Meshkin sold McReynolds on the team and then sold him a piece of it.

“He’s an awfully good salesman,” McReynolds said. “And he knows how to go out and get those sponsors.”

With McReynolds as vice president of racing, Meshkin is able to concentrate almost solely on the business side of the operation. Part of that is pairing sponsors and trucks.

Skinner’s effort is backed by Toyota and Kvapil’s chief sponsor is Line-X, a spray-on bedliner for pickup trucks. Meshkin secured them and is confident his acumen as a salesman will eventually allow Bang to field about a half-dozen teams spread through NASCAR’s top three divisions.

“Our goal is to be the best and the biggest,” Meshkin said. “We’re not modest here.”

Fruition of his plan would put Bang at the level of Hendrick Motorsports or Roush Racing, the biggest operations in the sport. Meshkin believes that’s attainable because he expects to hold sponsorship by giving backers a fair return on their investment.

“That’s why sponsors come into the sport and are gone in a few years,” he explained. “We need to keep them by doing what’s right for them and the race team.”

Meshkin, now 24, says being young hasn’t hurt him in his marketing. Actually, he’s always considered youth an asset.

“Even when I started my first company as an 18-year-old,” Meshkin said. “People would look at me and figure, ‘I want to hear what this kid has to say.”‘

http://www.nascar.com/2004/news/headlines/truck/06/10/amishkin_feature.ap/

HOMESTEAD, Fla. (AP) — Toyota officially became part of NASCAR’s Craftsman Truck series on Friday, announcing agreements with four teams for the 2004 season.

Bill Davis Racing, Innovative Motorsports Inc., Waltrip Racing Inc. and Bang Racing, all new to the series, will field Toyota Tundra trucks in the season-opening event Feb. 13 at Daytona International Speedway.

Davis will bring 18-year-old Shelby Howard to the truck series, while Robert Huffman and Hank Parker Jr. will drive for George deBidart’s Innovative Motorsports.

Darrell Waltrip, a three-time Winston Cup champion who is now a TV analyst, has hired David Reutimann as his driver and will get behind the wheel of a second entry for two or three events in 2004.

The new Bang Racing team, co-owned by Larry McReynolds, former Cup crew chief and now also a TV analyst, and Alex Meshkin, has hired 1995 truck series champion Mike Skinner and is expected to run a second entry for new series champion Travis Kvapil.

Davis also will work with Toyota Racing Development in building the race trucks and V8 engines for all four teams.

“What I’ve seen Toyota accomplish in such a short time in the IRL series, and the support they have given those teams … there’s no question that their intentions and goals are the same as they head toward the truck series in 2004,” said McReynolds.

Toyota engines competed in the IRL series for the first time in 2003, and Scott Dixon won the series championship in a Toyota-powered car.

In another truck announcement Friday, General Motors will add to its role in the Craftsman series with sponsorship of three teams.

A Chevrolet Silverado driven by Dennis Setzer for Morgan-Dollar Motorsports will carry the Silverado sponsorship, while Jack Sprague will drive a vehicle sponsored by Chevy Trucks for Xpress Motorsports.

Kevin Harvick Inc., will field a Silverado driven by Matt Crafton and sponsored by GM Goodwrench.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2003/racing/11/14/notebook.ap/

By Gary Graves, USA TODAY

Rarely has a NASCAR entrance generated as much buzz as Toyota’s announcement that it would enter its Tundra model in the Craftsman Truck Series this season.

		Mike Skinner, who”ll drive a Tundra, says the engine needs work, but “I’d be very surprised if it weren’t competitive within four or five months.”
		By Tim Dillon, USA TODA

The din has only slightly abated as some fans appear willing to welcome the Japanese carmaker to the heretofore-American sport. But keepers of the flame fear another Yankee stronghold is slipping away to a foreign interloper. Just recently, Nextel Cup and sometime Craftsman driver Jimmy Spencer broke off a xenophobic rant that NASCAR declined to discipline.

But Spencer’s comments seemed to express the sentiment of some, whom at the very least wonder if this is Toyota’s first step on the way to Nextel Cup. The company, which builds the trucks in Tennessee and Indiana, won’t comment.

Time will tell whether it comes true. For now Toyota will settle for being able to hang with American brands Ford, Dodge and Chevy.

Preseason testing revealed a horsepower deficit and other issues, but most expect the dependable Tundra to close the gap by season’s end, setting the stage for more suspense in NASCAR’s most competitive series.

“It’s stable,” said 1995 series champion Mike Skinner, who will team with reigning champion Travis Kvapil as part of Toyota’s four-team, seven-truck contingent. “We’re behind the gun a little bit, but I think we’re off to a great start. They’ve just got to make the engine better. I’d be very surprised if it weren’t competitive within four or five months.”

If signing Kvapil was intended to help give Toyota track credibility, adding irascible Darrell Waltrip and Larry McReynolds provides experience as well as comic relief. Waltrip, the three-time Cup champion, and McReynolds, the late Dale Earnhardt’s longtime crew chief, are best known for their repartee as Fox TV analysts.

They will be respectively known as team owner and management. Waltrip will drive in three Craftsman races this season but will mostly oversee David Reutimann’s progress in Darrell Waltrip Racing’s No. 17 Tundra.

McReynolds will supervise Kvapil and Skinner as Bang! Racing’s vice president, a prospect he didn’t consider until examining Toyota’s business plan last year. That erased his reservations, but he quickly discovered that not everybody was so open-minded.

“It’s disappointing to me, this old-school thinking,” McReynolds said. “I’ve been called a traitor and a lot of other things I can’t repeat. But I’d bet that those who are against Toyota coming into NASCAR probably have Mitsubishi and Sony TVs and a lot of other foreign things in their homes.

“If you had come to me five years ago and told me Toyota would be in NASCAR. … I’m more enlightened now. It’s very American-oriented.”

In addition to Bang! and Waltrip, Bill Davis Racing will field a two-truck effort with Bill Lester and Shelby Howard. Innovative Motorsports will enter Robert Huffman and Hank Parker Jr.

Toyota will be the primary sponsor for Kvapil, Huffman and Lester.

If Kvapil thought it was tough rallying from third to win the closest-ever points race last season, consider what he’ll face as the man to beat. There’s the matter of Ted Musgrave, who finished 18 points back in third after officials black-flagged his final-restart pass for the lead at the Homestead finale. He immediately vowed to be more, er, daring, this season.

As if that isn’t enough to deal with, there’s runner-up Dennis Setzer (nine points back), fifth-place Jon Wood and seventh-place Rick Crawford, whose three-wide victory at Daytona last year set the tone for the season. Former Cup regular Steve Park joins Orleand Racing, and 2002 truck champion Jack Sprague is racing for Xpress Motorsports.

That makes the points race too hard for even drivers to handicap.

“With Toyota in, it has to be stronger,” Crawford said. “It has stepped everybody up to the plate. Toyota didn’t come into NASCAR just to play around and be a number in the finishing order; they’re coming in to win. Look at what they’ve done in other forms of racing. I’m sure they’ll make the same impact in NASCAR.”

That confidence sustains Kvapil as he gets used to a new truck and his third team in as many seasons. Last season’s jump from third to series champion in the finale taught him that things somehow fall into place, minimizing his initial concerns about Toyota. He also believes Toyota eventually will silence debate over its place, which might be the biggest victory.

“We’ve blown a few engines in testing, but that was to be expected,” said Kvapil, who set a series record by completing all but one half-mile lap last season. “Toyota is building engines to be there at the end. They’re fine-tuning some things, so there are definitely some question marks. But we’ll be there.”

Also competing are Tina Gordon, the series’ only full-time female driver, and Kelly Sutton. Gordon will drive the No. 13 Chevy, while rookie Sutton, a former Dash series driver, will guide the No. 02 Chevy.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/motor/nascar/2004-02-12-bonus-toyota_x.htm