Full Throttle

Say what you will, but this off-season is unlike most others. Normally the three days proceeding Turkey Day are a race fans No MansLand and devoid of much news- not this year - it’s all business.

Some good news, but mostly bad in many respects.

Camping World becomes title sponsor of NASCAR’s truck series in 2009, and CEO Marcus Lemonis said he’s serious about being a good partner. In the past, Chevy has been the official car and truck of Camping World’s retail centres, and each time customers bought an RV, they received a $500 coupon toward the purchase of a General Motors vehicle.

1,000 of those coupons have been redeemed this year, and Lemonis wants to offer the other automakers the same deal. Since Lemonis publicly extended the offer about three weeks ago, he has not heard back from any of the manufacturers.

“I guess we’re selling enough cars and trucks that we don’t need something like this to get excited about,” Lemonis said. “I’ve yet to get a call from a manufacturer.” (Or, the three CEO’s are too busy panhandling in Wash. D.C. to notice the offer - ed)

For Whom the Bell Tolls - AT&T.

AT&T executives watched their final Sprint Cup race as sponsor of Jeff Burton’s #31 car from a suite over the garages at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Tim McGhee, AT&T’s director of national sponsorships, said the scene was sad, “knowing that we won’t be back in the Cup series in the foreseeable future.” With Cingular’s rebranding to AT&T, the Richard Childress Racing sponsor was bumped out of the Sprint Cup Series by NASCAR and its series title sponsor, Sprint.

McGhee said it has not been decided whether AT&T will continue its substantial advertising on NASCAR broadcasts.

More Cup races not heading to cable.

“We think the balance as it is today is good,” Paul Brooks, president of the NASCAR Media Group, said. “We worked hard as we put our TV plans in place to ensure the greatest coverage available for the sport. … We have assurances that the balance will be there moving forward.”

(Um, excuse me Mr. Brooks. Was that “balance” when ABC bumped the final laps at Phoenix to ESPN2 to make room for “America’s Funniest Home Videos” - ed)

Meanwhile FoxSports is looking to broadcast “on the cheap.”

Fox is talking to NASCAR and ESPN about ways the network can save money on its broadcasts of the sport next year. They are exploring potential cost cuts on the production side.

Paul Brooks, president of the NASCAR Media Group said, “What are we missing? What can we do better? We want to make sure we’re looking through all of those opportunities.”

“There are additional things we can look at as far as sharing and managing facilities in an even more efficient way,” he said.

(Oh yeah I see that happening - Fox and ESPN sharing broadcast facilities - not! How about Fox “downsizing “Boggity, Boggity, Boggity? - ed)

And finally the “good news,” such as it is.

What is Jimmie Johnson’s third Cup worth?

According to research conducted by an Ann Arbor, Mich., firm, Joyce Julius & Associates a cool $510 million in broadcast television exposure - easily besting second-place Carl Edwards’s total of $496 million.

Joyce Julius found that 62 brands appeared on Johnson’s car, uniform and pit team for 59 hours, 28 minutes and 39 seconds. The sponsors were also mentioned by the announcers, Johnson or his crew 316 times.

Johnson’s top sponsor, Lowe’s, received nearly $200 million in exposure, and Chevrolet, his manufacturer, got about $68 million.

(I suppose that $200 million figure rules out having the Full Throttle logo on the #48 next year - ed)