Investing and building a brand image for a driver is something that every team undertakes at a certain point. In a sport like NASCAR, it makes sense to do such, in order to grow a loyal fan base and following associated both with the team and the driver. Recently, the vice chairman of Hendrick Motorsports Jeff Gordon spoke about building a brand image for the race teams alongside the star power of the drivers that race with them.
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However, he did mention not reducing the value of the driver-associated star power, since that helps to a certain degree as well. But on the other side of it, fellow team owner and driver Brad Keselowski seems to think otherwise, remaining concerned about such an investment to only backfire if the driver decides to jump ship at a later stage.
Brad Keselowski does not agree with Jeff Gordon’s point on building a driver’s brand
Speaking on the matter, Gordon had initially stated, “I think we have a role as race teams to build our brand up, maybe not as much as the star power of the driver, but in a way where drivers… We’ve seen this recently with Jimmie Johnson, Dale Jr., and myself, several big drivers that have huge fan followings stepped away from the sport, and I think it had a big impact on the sport. Because the fans seem to not have a connection to the team as strongly as they did to the driver.”
While Gordon’s argument does seem to make sense, it is the investment factor focused on a driver that Keselowski does not agree with. As mentioned by Racing America, Keselowski explained, “If that driver leaves and goes to another team, that’s just a complete loss. That’s my way of saying that we’re not fully aligned, at this time as a sport to fully capitalize on driver star power.”
Adding, “And because we’re not aligned, that creates a lack of really true incentives and we’re not getting enough movement there. But I think it’s really important that we create some kind of system that connects all of this.”
Tyler Reddick would be a great example of Keselowski’s point
After a string of successful seasons in the Xfinity Series, where Tyler Reddick ended up winning two championships, he finally received the call-up to join the Cup Series with Richard Childress Racing. He did well enough in his first couple of years with the team and Childress personally had also been delighted after his Cup career-first win at Road America against Chase Elliott.
However, just as the good days had begun for RCR, a surprise announcement caught them off guard. During the 2022 season, Denny Hamlin announced that Reddick would be joining his 23XI Racing team in the 2024 season. This obviously upset RCR, who had Reddick in contract till the end of the 2023 season. Thereafter, RCR began to look elsewhere to invest, until Reddick was left without a drive for the 2023 season and 23XI Racing had to hire him a year early.
Reddick’s case of moving away from a team like that is what Keselowski fears the most. This kind of thing has become increasingly common nowadays as well. Hence, it would not make sense for teams to outright invest in drivers, with the future being uncertain. At the end of the day, both Gordon and Keselowski’s points remain valid, but again one would have to look at the circumstances at hand to deliver a judgment in order to invest in a certain driver for the long run.
