Opinion: Time For Extenze To Take Its Money Elsewhere

In this economic climate, it’s just about downright blasphemous to suggest that a company that is willing to put money into NASCAR sponsorship should take a hike. If somebody is willing to pony up the cash to make a race car go around, they should almost-universally be welcomed with open arms.

Almost.

There is one company that needs to make like a child’s Christmas toy and get lost quick.

Extenze first jumped into NASCAR back in 2009, through its sponsorship of the No. 87 NEMCO Motorsports Toyota in the Nationwide Series. The driver - and the man who has become synonymous with the brand’s racing activities, if one could call them that - was Kevin Conway.

That wasn’t the first time Conway had lured a company to the sport. In 2007, he brought Z-Line Designs to Joe Gibbs Racing’s Nationwide program. Though he was out as driver of the team’s No. 18 car at the conclusion of that season, the Gibbs/Z-Line partnership has recorded multiple race victories, a driver’s championship in 2009 with Kyle Busch, and owners championships from 2008-10.

Since their June 2009 debut at Dover, Conway and Extenze have fallen well short of duplicating that success, competing in several Nationwide and Sprint Cup events and amounting to little more than a tiresome, usually crude joke.

On the track, Conway’s chief accomplishment is the 2010 Sprint Cup Rookie of the Year award, which he achieved via two means. First, he was the only rookie to attempt even half the schedule, showing up for 29 races in all. Second, he was able to benefit from teammates Travis Kvapil and David Gilliland, allowing him stay in the top-35 in owner points courtesy of some creative point swapping amongst Front Row Motorsports’ three teams. Finally, after Watkins Glen in August, he was pulled from the ride and the Extenze logos were pulled off the car. A lawsuit was subsequently filed by Front Row, alledging non-payment on the part of Extenze.

From there, Conway moved to the No. 7 Robby Gordon Motorsports car, which he drove in seven races. He also failed to qualify in a second RGM car at Charlotte. Conway’s butt and Extenze’s decals ended up out at Gordon’s team as well, and another lawsuit was short to follow.

Most recently, Conway qualified for the Aaron’s 499 in one of Joe Nemechek’s Sprint Cup cars, in a homecoming of sorts for himself and Extenze. Conway ran the first lap of the race, parked his Toyota in the garage, and took home a paycheck of $79,181.

Again, he ran a single lap, and bagged nearly $80 grand.

As bad as things have been on the track, it’s off the track where the real issue with Extenze is to be had.

Humor in racing isn’t a bad thing. To the contrary, it’s always been just about as necessary to the sport as tires and racing fuel. The brand of “humor” Extenze has brought along, though, has been anything but the kind of humor befitting of a sport that prides itself on being family-friendly.

A walk past the Extenze Racing souvenir trailer at Sprint Cup events last year would have revealed t-shirts with such slogans as “We Race Hard” and “Growing Our Fanbase, One Member At A Time.” And those are the cleanest ones that could be quoted here.

Furthermore, a statement responding to an alleged assault by Robby Gordon against Conway in Las Vegas opened with this line, attributed to Conway himself: “I don’t mind stiff competition, but I want to make sure the hard facts are told.”

At the risk of being crude, it must be said: when your product’s sole purpose is to help a man’s woo-hoo, the only folks you’re going to endear yourselves to with phrases like that in public are the Beavis and Butthead-types who still giggle like schoolboys anytime they hear the scientific terms for a man’s woo-hoo or a woman’s yee-haw.

It’s hard to imagine that there is anyone else who take Conway and Extenze seriously at this point. And while drivers and companies that don’t take themselves too seriously are often times healthy for the sport, this is a case of a driver and company looking at themselves and the field they’re putting their cash into as one great big vulgar joke. Those kind of jokes are all fine and good for the bedroom, but they have no place at a race track.

To be sure, NASCAR isn’t squaky-clean by any means. Radio chatter is often so sordid that Redd Foxx very well might have blushed were he alive and scanning a team’s channel. In their private time, some drivers are also known to make some, well, less than wholesome remarks. Tony Stewart’s 2008 Rolling Stone interview and Brian Vickers’ Maxim piece from earlier this year - both penned by the same writer - illustrate that clearly.

Still, for a sport that portrays its public image as good, clean, wholesome fun for the whole family, NASCAR could do itself a favor by distancing itself from Extenze. Their involvement in the 2011 season - thankfully - has been limited to the Talladega farce, a failed attempt to make the Daytona 500, three Nationwide races with Conway at the wheel, and a near-victory in the Talladega Nationwide event with Joe Nemechek. While long-time fans perhaps owe them some gratitude for sponsoring Nemechek’s ride in that event and giving him one more grasp at glory, in the big picture, it’s probably best if Extenze bids motorsports adieu and leaves the bedroom jokes in the bedroom, or at least out of race tracks..