The More Things Change, the More They Change
ESPN is reporting next years premier series will go by the new name, NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. If the report is true it will be the third time in four six (corrected by TMC’s comment) seasons that NASCAR’s Cup Series changed names.
Not a good thing, in terms of marketing identity is everything. Everyone knows who the Michelin Man and the Keebler Elves are. Will the casual fan be confused by the constant name changes to stock car top series?
It won’t bother long-time fans but for those just entering NASCAR Nation it may prove frustrating. If they take enough of an interest to search it’s history and find so many different references it might. Will a casual/new fan make the connection between a “Grand National” champ and a Sprint Cup champ?
Added to that would be any confusion that may arise by seeing Grand National applied to the Busch/Wal-Mart/Samsung/Dunkin-Donuts/whatevertohellitsgonnabe Cup.
NASCAR needs to make a sea-change. Once the NEXTEL/Sprint contract is up the award/series should be named the Bill France Cup and to hell with the corporate sponsorship identity for the series and the trophy.
If a magic wand were waved now and all NEXTEL/Sprint logos and promotions remained with the exception of the series name and champ’s trophy I doubt seriously if the companies revenue would be seriously hurt.
Make the change NASCAR!
UPDATE: Bill Center, one of the most respected motorsports writers on the Left Coast, brings up an interesting angle to NASCAR’s switch to the Sprint Cup.
It’s a “what if” scenario: “Not to mention about what the World of Outlaws and USAC open-wheel Sprint Car series might have to say about
If the series becomes the Bill France Cup…would Brian be kicked out since the Bill France name would have exclusive rights in the series (ha)!
3x in 4 years for a series name change? That isn’t right is it? In 2003, the series was the Winston Cup series. From 2004-2007, it was the Nextel Cup series. If changed in 2008, it’ll be the Sprint Cup (or whatever they call it). By my count, that’s 2 changes in 5 years. Either way, I can’t believe folks are all that surprised by the change. Once Sprint merged with Nextel (i.e. bought them), the Nextel brand pretty much became obsolete as did Cingular following the AT&T/Bellsouth merger. I thought something like this may happen back when Nextel took over for RJR. I didn’t necessarily think the series would be rebranded because of Nextel selling. But I did think the cell market was too volatile for a provider to have a long series run like RJR did with its Winston brand. I think NASCAR just wanted out of the whole RJR/smoking relationship and was willing to go with whatever non-”sin” company came along to write a big check - even if was for a short run. I think you’ll see another series name change within the next 5 years too.
You’re right TMC, it should be 3 changes in six years. The text has been corrected.