Today marked the official beginning of the 2006 NASCAR season. You may think it’s funny that I’m writing about stock car racing on what is supposed to be a blog based on marketing campaigns and branding strategies. Well that is exactly why I’m mentioning America’s most popular spectator sport. With a weekly tour in which most tracks host over 100,000 guests and contracts with major television networks such as TNT and NBC, the brands that choose to spend upwards of $500,000 (approaching $1 Million in some cases) to sponsor a NASCAR team, have great opportunity to promote brand awareness and reach a large audience with their product.

In stock car racing, you would expect to see the usual car-related sponsors–NAPA, GMC Goodwrench, Carquest, and so forth. However, it is obvious that the attraction to the sport has become more widespread, with newcomers such as Waste Management, Betty Crocker, and most interestingly Texas Instrument’s DLP technology–the field of sponsorship has become wide open.

Throughout the year I’m sure we will see some interesting sponsors, often there are movie sponsorships used to celebrate major summer blockbusters and sometimes even rock bands. Always interesting to witness the types of companies that find value in advertising on a stock car.