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Front: WITHOUT A MILLION DOLLAR WINNER DRAG RACING WILL NEVER ATTAIN MAJOR LEAGUE STATUS 
When the NHRA Winternationals opened last week the professional competitors were racing for an increased purse for the first time in far too many years. In one of the few real successes ever scored by the Professional Racers Owners Organization (PRO) in their dealings with the hierarchy of the National Hot Rod Association, the organization wrested a “whopping” 7.4 percent purse increase from management, but let’s not forget one very important point: It took almost 18 months for the increase to see the light of day, and it only came about because the racers forced the issue in 2004. By way of quick review (and my timeline could be slightly off after all this time), in the late summer of 2004 the membership began pushing the PRO leadership to seriously address the purse issue, which NHRA had been side-stepping for years, often claiming financial commitments to other areas of the sport deemed by them to be more important. What was in effect a letter of demand was sent by the PRO to NHRA, with the deadline for response being the Saturday evening of the Dallas race in the early fall. Although there was some misunderstanding on the part of both parties due to the wording of the letter, it was apparent that some within the NHRA management group weren’t taking the PRO seriously. Numerous racers were polled by NHRA officials during the Dallas race as to their intentions regarding the PRO’s suggestion that they would sit out one or more qualifying sessions at the following week’s Joliet race, with further actions to take place at the year’s remaining events. When every single racer they spoke with vowed to support whatever the majority of the membership decided, NHRA was essentially forced to the negotiation table. The 7.4 percent purse increase was the end result of those negotiations.
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All of the increases will appear in the first three rounds of eliminations, and that’s probably the right place to put the money, because the sport can’t thrive without the continued presence of the teams that rarely appear on the winners lists. You can’t have successful POWERade Series events with less than full fields, and the limited increases could provide just enough additional funding to keep some of those teams in action. But, taking the long view, the purse increase engineered by the PRO falls far short of where it should be. Bypassing the issue of individual event purses for a moment, if drag racing is ever going to achieve true major league status with other forms of motorsports we absolutely, without question, must have at least one million dollar winner at the end of the year. Without one drag racing will continue to be given short shrift by the nation’s print and electronic media. The age-old argument that drag racing has too many winners just won’t cut it in the 21st Century. Despite the claims they consistently make about making more positive inroads with the media, NHRA can’t ignore the absolute fact that when it comes to media exposure, money talks a lot louder than eye-popping elapsed times and speeds. That’s just one of the reasons that on-the-fringes professional golf tours, the almost-perpetually ignored pro bowlers tour and junior tennis championships get more agate coverage in the back of your daily newspaper than does drag racing. While drag racing may get some eliminations listings on the Monday following an event, those other activities get almost weekly listings – of their money earnings. Particularly embarrassing for drag racing is how far behind those fringe activities the quarter-mile sport continues to be. Forget NASCAR’s Nextel Cup program (where 11 drivers earned more than $1 million in post-season bonuses and a total of 20 earned more than drag racing’s fuel category champions). Even NASCAR’s Busch Series, which is clearly a support series, enjoyed a hefty season-ending points payout that totaled $3.7 million thanks to sponsor Anheuser-Busch. For this year the points fund exceeds $4 million. Beyond champion Martin Truex’s $1.4 million-plus bonus, four other drivers exceeded the bonuses earned by NHRA’s fuel racers. NASCAR’s Craftsman Truck Series champion, Ted Musgrave, earned $364,643 in bonus money, the only roundy-round winner who didn’t surpass what the NHRA fuel racers took home, but in trying to compare the Truck Series to drag racing it would appear that the series is on the level of a Division championship. a
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Points fund money usually comes from series sponsors, but those sponsors aren’t always going to “volunteer” to pay out big bucks. They have to be convinced to do so by the viability of the series they’re involved with, and while we believe that Coca-Cola’s POWERade division is pleased with their involvement with drag racing, there’s little practical reason to believe this is the case. When Winston was sponsoring both NASCAR and NHRA their financial support of the former was phenomenal. Along with the handful of individual races that offered million dollar bonuses, their support of the Winston West series, the regional events that took place in the western states, was also more than impressive. While NHRA drag racing was gaining no additional points money this secondary series picked up annual $500,000 points fund increases during the last few years of the sponsorship, a clear indication of where Winston thought they would gain the most bang for their bucks – via a regional rather than national activity. Last summer, when NHRA announced an extension of the POWERade program until 2011 – with no attendant mention of points fund increases – this reporter asked NHRA president Tom Compton point blank how much money was involved. Compton’s response was, “All you guys care about is money,” to which I said, “Tom, the money is the only thing that counts. It wouldn’t matter if the sponsorship was extended to 2050 if it doesn’t produce a million dollar winner.” Compton responded by doing an about face and walking away. a
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There will be no points fund increase in 2006, which means that once again the winners in Top Fuel and Funny Car will each take home $400,000, while the Pro Stock winner gets $200,000 – the fifth year without an increase. That the Pro Stock payout is egregious is a given, but let’s focus on the bigger picture. Not only is a $400,000 winner’s purse ludicrous in this day and age, it’s nothing less than an insult to the brave men and women who literally risk their lives on every run. Of course, no one forces them to drive these cars, but if they choose to do so they should be better remunerated than they are at present. Beyond the NASCAR series we referenced above, consider this: The four-race IROC series pays its champion $1 million. That’s four races in cars that are wholly owned by the series itself. The drivers don’t even have to provide their own safety gear. In other words, unlike drag racing, there’s absolutely no financial investment on the part of the competitors, so anything they win is pure profit (every driver below the winner receives a flat fee of $80,000 for participating). Yes, we readily acknowledge all the participants earned their starting spots based on their successes in other series, but that’s not the point here, the money’s the point. In 2003 Advertising Age reported that Coca-Cola was the nation’s 58th largest advertiser in 2002 with total expenditures of $569 million, down 8.2 percent from the $620 Million spent on advertising the previous year. That same year expenditures on behalf of POWERade were slightly below $11 million, a 52.8 percent decrease in spending from the previous year. a
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For 2003 Coca-Cola was ranked 72nd, but in 2004 they moved up to the 68th position on the 100 Leading National Advertisers list with expenditures of more than $540 million, a 20.8 percent increase over ’02. POWERade’s ad spending topped $11 million, a 9 percent increase over 2003. The brand also enjoyed a 17 percent sales increase in 2004 on sales of just below $170 million. Full Throttle, the Coca-Cola energy drink that’s been heavily hyped at the races for the last year, enjoyed sales of $17 million and now has 4.3 percent of the energy drink marketplace. We’ll assume that the line’s involvement with drag racing – heck, it’s very name is reminiscent of the sport – has helped boost sales. If Coca-Cola truly believed in the benefits of drag racing they’d show it by backing the sport with more points fund money. As things now stand, they aren’t helping in the manner they’re clearly capable of by boosting the sport’s profile, but the problem isn’t solely theirs. NHRA and the PRO are also partially responsible for the stagnancy of drag racing’s acceptance by mainstream America because they’ve done nothing to alleviate the constant refrain of “too many winners.” Some way must be found to equitably combine the points earned by competitors in the three core categories so that along with individual Top Fuel, Funny Car and Pro Stock champions, one will emerge as drag racing’s overall winner – with a million dollar check to go with it. a d v e r t i s e m e n t
Click to visit our sponsor's website Concentrating on just the champion’s purse for now, if the Pro Stock purse were elevated to the same level as the fuel categories, and from those three categories a single driver would walk away with $1 million, the total additional money needed would be just $800,000. Yes, that is a significant sum, but isn’t elevating drag racing to the level of other forms of motorsports worth that kind of investment? The points fund payout isn’t drag racing’s only financial problem. The winner’s purse of just $40,000 in Top Fuel and Funny Car for 22 of 23 races (Indy pays $75,000), and just $20,000 in Pro Stock ($35,000 at Indy) is too low. Every one of 43 starters in the supporting Busch Series takes home more than do the headliners in NHRA competition, and there’s just something flat wrong about that. If we’re ever going to really get the attention of the media and therefore, the average American, our competitors must earn more than a paltry $40,000 for their efforts. I know no one believes race purses are going to be profit centers, but this is ridiculous. Forty-thousand dollars doesn’t come close to covering the costs of a weekend’s competition. If we hope to impact the media our drivers should be winning a minimum of $100,000 in 22 of 23 races, and significantly more, something like double that, to win the U.S. Nationals. To get to a $100,000 winners purse in three categories requires an additional investment of $200,000 per event, so the question becomes, where’s that money going to come from? When NHRA is selling the title rights to the POWERade events in amounts varying from the low to high six figures, that’s clearly one viable source, because right now, where’s that title rights money going? It certainly doesn’t appear to be going to the racers. Another source might actually be some of the Coca-Cola brands, leading to a Full Throttle Top Fuel championship, a Coca-Cola Funny Car championship and the Dasani Water Pro Stock battle. Regardless, elevating individual event purses and points fund increases as outlined would require an additional investment of $5,615,000. That’s less than one percent of Coca-Cola’s total national advertising budget, but it’s a far larger percentage of POWERade’s similar expenditures, hence our suggestion of spreading the costs throughout the company’s various brands. Regardless of where the funding comes from, it absolutely has to come from somewhere, or in 2011 we’ll still be lamenting the fact that drag racing doesn’t have a single million dollar winner.
Got a comment? Drop us a line at comppluseditor@aol.com.
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