Monster Energy premier series sponsorship energizes NASCAR

There’s no denying NASCAR has needed a jolt. Television ratings are nosediving, attendance at most races is sagging, and a sport that a decade ago was seemingly on a course to surpass the NFL is clearly at a crossroads.

Enter Monster Energy, the energy drink company that is now the entitlement sponsor of NASCAR’s premier series. The deal was formally announced on Thursday.

For a sport that as of late has been on an almost perpetual and often futile quest to attract new and younger eyeballs to its product, NASCAR securing Monster is an ideal partner to accomplish that task.

Few companies are better at marketing themselves and the entities they sponsors than Monster, which not only effectively markets to the younger demographic that NASCAR covets, but also has extensive experience in motorsports promotion. That’s a big win-win for NASCAR, which currently has a considerably older fan base.

Go to a Monster Energy Supercross motocross event — the verve is palatable, the crowd noticeably youthful. Its marketing approach can best be encapsulated by what happened when Monster-sponsored NASCAR driver Robby Gordon winged a helmet at the car of a competitor he felt wronged him.

“It was a great day for me when Robby threw his helmet at some guy, because that was the only time I ever got it on camera,” said Mark Hall, Monster’s chief marketing officer. “I actually called him up and said, ‘Robby, can you do that some more?’”

That’s the exact kind of boost NASCAR could use — a fact not lost on NASCAR CEO and Chairman Brian France, who says he was so enamored with what Monster represented as a potential title sponsor that he personally called company executives to make the sales pitch.

“Obviously, they’re an edgy brand,” France said. “They’re a fun brand. They get at a millennial audience in a different way, clearly, than we’ve ever been associated with, particularly at this level, and they know what they’re doing. This is their DNA.

“They understand how to reach across and excite our core audience and help us deliver on a new audience, and that was very exciting for us.”

Monster’s ascension to the role of NASCAR’s most prominent sponsor comes at an ideal time. Mainstays Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart are retired, while veterans like Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jimmie Johnson, and Kevin Harvick are nearing the twilight of their Hall of Fame careers. But following in their tire marks is an incredibly promising group of young drivers that many NASCAR insiders have said is the most talented crop in decades.

Presuming Kyle Larson (24), Chase Elliott (21), Erik Jones (20), and William Byron (19) fulfill the expectations placed on them, their youth is a viable asset Monster can use to foster NASCAR’s reemergence at a time when millennials are largely uninterested in cars. Collectively, they could become the faces used to gear the sport toward a younger generation that is either unfamiliar with NASCAR or could be considered casual fans at best.

However, as encouraging as Monster’s multiyear pact with NASCAR is, not everything is as sweet as one of Monster’s energy drinks. The specifics, such as the length of the deal or even how the division formerly known as the Sprint Cup Series will be rebranded, were not disclosed on Thursday.

Another hurdle is that Monster doesn’t market its products to children under 12 because of potential health risks. So while the company will undoubtedly have success in promoting NASCAR to young adults, its effectiveness in appealing to the potential next-generation NASCAR fan will be limited — much in the way the Winston cigarette brand was shackled when it served as the Cup Series entitlement sponsor from 1971 to 2003.

Then there are the tried-and-true, entrenched fans, many of whom are reluctant about change of any kind. And certainly changes are forthcoming, which could easily provoke further resentment among a segment of fans already jaded by the numerous revisions the sanctioning body has been prone to undertake, whether in the form of how it crowns a champion or officiates races.

But while alienating a devout portion of one’s fan base is never advisable, from NASCAR’s perspective it’s an understandable calculation — because the harsh truth is that for NASCAR to remain relevant years from now, it must get younger presently.

“We do have some ideas about how we can make NASCAR more attractive to what I would call a different audience than is currently there without detracting from what is already a great audience and a great fan base,” Hall said. “We have experience with that, and those fans do relate to our brand, and we think there’s an opportunity to bring some new ones in.”

NASCAR is counting on Monster to do just that.