I’m an old man. I’ve loved drag racing for 60 years . IMHO the sport is flat lining and the NHRA is on life support. I go to two or three national events a year. Pretty much all I see in the fan base are old folks like me. The sport itself is irrelevant to todays kids. Any young people watching or participating are legacy kids whose dads have enabled their kids to participate. Upper class racing is staggeringly expensive….lower class racing is merely stupidly expensive. I think we are seeing the demise of drag racing as configured today. I don’t know what’s coming,but I know that when I see empty seats at the U.S. Nationals , trouble is afoot.
The reason is the chance of violence and riots, for national events run in BLUE state's people didn't want to put themselves in a situation.i can't say I don't blame them.and it was both blue and red folks voicing their concerns....packed house's in predominantly red states. They also need to do some research on the demographics... this generation is video games and electric cars...you got some dipping their toes into EV hell Big Daddy has been building a EV dragster..it will be another class.. like I stop watching pro stock because that is not what it is....90%is GM so it's the Chevy show....it use to be win on Sunday sell on Monday because all your manufacturers had representation on the track they over regulated Mopar out of NASCAR and I stopped watching and going to races. FORD pulled out of drag racing till Bob tasca went and begged and pleaded with them to get re-involved... Castrol bounced all because of politics now look what political agenda they are pushing...
@@patrickharper9297 hey pat. I agree. I should have made it more nuanced. Mostly I was talking about NHRA racing. There still is a plethora of motor sports to keep a gear head happy. And nothing,but nothing is quite like the top fuel circus from NHRA. An acquired taste,I admit, but one I seek.
Part of the problem IMO is that NHRA doesn't translate well to live TV. It's best done on delay so they can edit out the time in between races. My wife and I regularly attend both NHRA and NASCAR races and there's more downtime between races than people realize. A month ago I went to Street Outlaws/No Prep Kings for the first time and it was great. When one pair of cars are going through the traps the next pair are doing their burnouts. I realize there's less money at stake and not an official championship but it's more fun to watch.
Not just live tv but tv in general, it’s impossible to translate the speed, sound and adrenaline of drag racing. Whereas circuit racing has more intriguing aspects which do translate, namely wheel to wheel racing which doesn’t exist in drag racing.
@@benlowes8570 Right. I started out mostly watching drag racing decades ago as it was what was available locally. Now I am stock car racing. I find it nearly impossible to get much out of drag racing on tv. At least the racing action part, which is 90% of what I am wanting. Roundy round and road courses work pretty well on tv.
The only real downtime is when they have an oildown or an accident. They have lots of sportsman classes running between the PRO classes but they don't televise those, usually not even the ProMod which is really disappointing. The only other downtime is when they are prepping the track for the PRO classes. It is a full day event which if they tried to do it live, would eat up one channel all day. It would be cool if they at least had a PPV channel for a reasonable price.
@joninpgh Funny thing is this concept isn't lost on NHRA, that is exactly what they do for the not Pro classes. Two in the traps, two on the line and two in the box at all times.
Was thinking the same thing. Sure, Coke stepped out of the contract and used Covid as an excuse. But it seems to me more that Coke caught NHRA on its heels in a pretty bad time. The quip from 2019 that Coke wanted out and was wanting NHRA to look for other sponsors seemed pretty telling of that, and I feel that was overlooked in the coverage. It’s hard to say though, but I agree there’s probably a lot more to this.
Coke totally used the pandemic as an excuse, especially since they were probably paying the NHRA less than what they are currently paying NASCAR to be a "premier partner" but then again, drag racing seems to always lose out to circuit racing, as evidenced by the fact that Winston also chose the NASCAR Cup Series over the NHRA
...right, the racing series that get the most publicity, ratings, views, ticket sales, etc. tend to get the most money from sponsorships. Not sure why anyone would think that it's something other than those metrics, not sure why anyone would think that it should be based on something else.
A larger factor that cripples NHRA is their terrible TV deal. They don't get priority with FOX and are last in line after NFL, NASCAR, MLB. Their current sponsor is also in NASCAR . Honestly they had better coverage with the old Nashville Network. NHRA needs to look after their own interest, stop cross- promotions with other sports, and for crying out loud fix the NHRA TV site.
FOX does live coverage. When NHRA was on TNN it was broadcast a week AFTER the event was held. At worst FOX delays the start of the coverage a couple hours after the event is concluded. Of course there's the alternative NHRA TV, which is live.
@@billmiller7138 Yes, you are getting the audio feed from the tower. The one thing that WAS good about the TNN broadcasts was Steve Evans and Dave McClellan. I think FOX has a pretty good team too.
@@billmiller7138 Indeed. The depth of knowledge and experience. Dave was a nice man too. Evans had experience running drag strips. I liked the combination of Paul Page and Mike Dunn over at ESPN. Fans never warmed to Page though he had extensive knowledge about the sport, as well as IndyCar. I thought Gary Gerould was fantastic at the top end. Another truly nice guy. I've warmed to Brian and Tony. If Bruno wasn't still racing (and hosting his own show) he would be great in the booth. I like Jamie Howe and Amanda Busick, Jamie has experience covering everything racing and Amanda has been expanding her experience as well. I wish NHRA would hire them full time. Now I have to dig out "Be There" a tape Steve Evans put together of drag racing radio commercials from the 60's and 70's. Cheers!
I got the call to build the 2020 camping championship trophy in place of the Mello Yello trophies to instantly give them a new look.. that was such a crazy turn of events
And for such short notice you did a great job designing that. Part of me misses the giant size wally that they use to get but you still found a great way to modernize the look.
@@MightyMack03 well the wally only has two sizes and the one of the mello trophy is the same size on the new ones and the smaller one is used for the sportsman classes and other small races.
@@coldhardart yea, but still that giant base was kind of neat. Sure the actual wally itself wasn't any bigger but with the base holding it it felt like just a giant wally which I liked about it.
If Coke had just stuck with the contract and let it expire, I think most fans wouldn't have had much of a problem. The fact that they left NHRA for dead in the middle of a contract, hiding behind the pandemic as a reason was what angered everyone. I'm glad Lemonis and Camping World stepped up. He's from the Chicago area and hopefully I'll see him when they return to Route 66 Raceway next year.
This is very interesting and explains a bit as to why several guys I know that are sportsmen racers thought the NHRA was doing some odd things during the pandemic! Some thought they were going bankrupt, but now it’s clear some other things were coming to bear! This certainly put a whole lot of shade on Coke as a company and will force some very complicated binding contracts in their future. I guess being a CEO and taking home twenty thirty million a year is tough!
I've been involved in Motor Sports of all kinds Indy cars ,Monster Trucks , Off shore power boats ,Nascar Truck series, IHRA, and NHRA . For the money you spend NHRA Top Fuel was the best bang for the buck for TV coverage . Thats what sponsors want to see.
PLEASE learn to ENUNCIATE your words!!! Slow down a bit will go a LONG WAY in making your videos understandable! Good information. I wouldn't trust NHRA as far as I could throw them... I have NEVER had a problem with Coca Cola in the 60 plus years I have been drinking it....
The amusing thing is that since coke walked away, the NHRA pro categories have grown almost exponentially. The tv package moved to Fox and is rating higher than ever and the race events themselves are breaking attendance records almost every weekend.
I'm glad I got to attend a Winston Cup race (Las Vegas 2002). I'm also glad I bought a bunch of Nextel stock before they took over the series title sponsorship. 🤑
Lemonis is a racing fan. He's helped out smaller truck teams in NASCAR, put up a signing bonus to best finisher, and is typically good for conversations on Twitter. I didn't know this happened in NHRA & yet it diesn't shock me either that Lemonis would do such a thing.
My feelings towards Marcus Lemonis are mixed, I like what he’s done for racing, but when he bought Camping World he forced experienced people out, ignored feedback from veterans in favor of MBA’s, then froze raises. My boss recommended I get a bump from $13.50/hr to $16.50/hr as I was an excellent parts guy who went above and beyond, and did the work of multiple people… My raise got put on hold for 6 months before I quit.
Some people really are "too good to be true." Powerful people who are doing things that from a distance seem from the heart a d smart but the second you do digging you realize that there's always a big catch.
Interesting video but you need to slow down, and improve the audio levels. Hard to follow when the words are running together and audio levels are down.
Thanks for the great video, I had no idea this was happening. BTW, Full throttle has 8x th amount of caffeine listed on the label. I drank it once, had more jitters than ever. This is based on students at Purdue breaking down and testing the ingredients.
There’s a old rumor from around the time Coke signed on to the NHRA that Coke wanted to sponsor IMSA and the ALMS but the management didn’t think Coke was “premium” enough for the AlMS.
Coca-Cola has always had a shady past, as far as business practices go anyway. Their brutal response to Union leaders and rank & file workers in South America is the stuff of legend (and NOT in a good way).
The NHRA has nobody to blame but themselves. The product they have put out for the last 25 years has been abysmal at best! Between prostock being all Chevy Camaros looking the same to shortening the races of their top classes to a thousand feet they have made drag racing into a joke that is absolutely unwatchable.
I've been going to the Brainerd round most years since 2008 and in that time frame the decline is noticeable, granted a part of that is certainly on the track as they have pretty much been doing the bare minimum.
Great job young Man! Other than suggesting you slow your read just a little, I have zero complaints! 💪 I have rarely sided with the NHRA on problem's in the past, I have to side with them on this one. While so many top shelf companies suffered great monetary losses during the pandemic, I seriously doubt that Coke Cola did! My family drank "ZERO" less soft drink's during said pandemic, infact probably the opposite occurred, as we all had more down time at home, giving more time to drinking MORE! They (Coke Cola) IMO did exactly what the NHRA claimed they did, used a global pandemic as an excuse to renege on their contract! Coke Cola, again IMO, performed a "PUNK" move in this case, plain & simple 🤷🏻♂️ #Its1320orNothingAtAll!! #PutTheCokeBackInCokeCola!!
Coke went Woke and I Continue to not purchase any CocaCola products! Unfortunately the pandemic, I don’t believe hurt Coke sales. The biggest surprise to me is how Small the Coke deal was. I was the Racing Director for a Fortune 500 company deeply involved in auto racing. In 1993 our Racing Budget was 14.7M for team financial and product sponsorship in several USA racing series.
Coca-Cola may have made some unethical moves in leaving the sport but I'm confident the complete failure of NHRA's management team caused it. Don't feel bad for the NHRA, when Atlanta Dragway was for sale they had offers from individuals that wanted to continue operating the track but they chose to sell to someone that would attempt to redevelop the property and immediately close the track. Speaking with past track operators they were constantly handcuffed by the idiots in Glendora that would block local sponsorship opportunities and anything else they could do to try to run the place into the ground. What a shame that no one took over the NHRA years ago that really knew how to run it, because Compton and the current group couldn't manage their way out of a wet paper bag.
I dont know much but to claim there is not a report on the settlement when a public company is involved seems incorrect to me. Somewhere in cokes quarterly or annual report there should be the answer
I would think that like most contracts there was a “Force Ma•Jeure “clause along with a arbitration stipulation as is done with most business contracts? This happened with my brothers multiple multi million dollar contracts that he was in the middle of when the pandemic hit forcing both parties to settle any disagreements, fortunately for my brother it all worked out and still has a good working relationship with most of his clients. That’s why those clauses are put into contracts and any lawyer worth there salt advises a client to put that into a contract🤔
Tony Stewart is going to be a huge deal for NHRA in bringing new fans and sponsors to the sport. My biggest worry is Biden’s energy policies potentially shutting down motorsports as we know it and going electric. Guarantee there is no future in that. I wouldn’t go to an event to watch a quiet electric engine go down the track, it’s the feeling you get when a top fueler takes off. If everyone would experience that, everyone would be a fan!
Camping World ended up leaving the NASCAR Truck series to focus on spending more money on employees instead of sponsorship (they will be replaced by Craftsman, which everyone in NASCAR is excited about). I was worried that they'd leave NHRA too, but that doesn't appear to be the case. Marcus is an interesting guy, definitely willing to throw his money around to help out where he sees a need.
The use of the ronna virus to bounce out on a contract with the NHRA really tarnished Coca-Cola and unfortunately the NHRA due to the controversy. This type of motorsport should never be treated as the red headed stepchild, it has real personalities versus what Nascar has, the PC culture has destroyed the way drivers think in Nascar but in the NHRA the drivers speak to what is irritating them instead of acting like some passive pushover Nascar driver.
No it didn't. You, know what everyone wanted during the pandemic? Coke! How do I know? I worked at one of Cokes bottling facilities. The demand was crazy high. Coke couldn't make enough to keep up with the demands.
The ticket discounts were around when it was full throttle you got a discount on Sundays admission of $8 for a can of full throttle and the sponsorship whent to mellow yellow when coke traded thier energy drink brands to monster for thier non energy drink brands when coke started a distribution agreement with monster
I quit drinking Coca Cola products as soon as I started hearing glitches from them towards the NHRA. Water is definitely healthier for you anyway. As of now, I don’t even support the NHRA much anymore. I find the sportsman classes a helluva lot more interesting now. Bracket and index racing is a ton more interesting and skillful than first to the finish line. Now, the playing field is level, and the guy with the most money is not nescissarily the automatic winner.
Coca Cola products have a mold mildew taste now. I watched a popular nascar driver get out of his car and someone handed him a 16 oz bottle of Coca Cola. He took a drink and handed back to the person saying,” that taste like shit. Do you have some water?” The accountability of their product is yet to come home to nest. Won’t be any court battles forcing any tyrannical decisions that can be bought. This one is going to bleed out all over itself in rapid fashion. Nothing to do with any sponsorship mishaps or anything. Just a piss poor product from a company with piss poor grandiose disorder.
What was stupid to me was every Ennis Texas race I went to they were not even selling mello yellow. One would the title sponsor would be sold at the track.
I strongly recommend that you slow down the narration - your words are running together and are very hard to understand. Or just have the script in sub-titles. Not everyone here is an American English speaker
If he’s going to speak that fast he needs to enunciate his words better. 100% they are running together. Don’t know if it’s his equipment or just how he talks. I can listen to and follow fast speakers (Ben Shapiro, for example) just fine but this was admittedly rough.
never knew coke was bad in sponsoring. one of the biggest companies in the world. as far as the nhra goes seems like the sport is hanging by a thread. losing legendary venues such as Englishtown my hometown track, Houston and Atlanta.
Next event I plan on going to is the Gatornationals, the Charlotte 4 Wide and the Thunder Valley Nats are also definitely 2 on my list as well. Others that are possible are Chicago, Indy, Norwalk, St. Louis, and Reading as well.
I was disappointed in Coca Cola for this exit. Yes it was the pandemic and the world was turned upside down but it was an awful way to handle it. They could have just hit the pause button and rolled the contract into the next year and still be title sponsor right now. NHRA has had something like 10 sellout events this year? But I will say that Camping World seems to have embraced this sport and is a good partner to NHRA by all appearances.
Coca-Cola is a weird company. In that they don't actually make a majority the products their name is on. They lease the formulas to 3rd party bottling companies who then make, bottle, package and ship the completed Coke products.
Been attending NASA road racing events. Full day of racing and you can interact with the drivers and cars PLUS get a fun ride at lunch. NHRA events... Not so much
You've always been able to get up close with the drivers at an NHRA event. Some drivers are more popular than others and you may not get a lot of time with them, like John Force. I can recall taking to Del Worsham for several minutes a few hours after he blew up a car in qualifying at Route 66 Raceway. I assume you meant NASCAR in your response. That seemed far less accessible than NHRA. Some drivers might be at the souvenir trailers, but you couldn't get garage or pit access without paying more high prices in addition to the expensive tickets you bought. Maybe that was different on a track by track basis. NHRA is very consistent in that every ticket is a pit pass and you can talk to any driver that wants to talk to you
Well now is a great time to get to work on those companies (that were forced to sit on the sidelines during the Coke reign) to build a stronger and ( I hate this word) - better. But with the politically alignment that they are leaning it might be appropriate.
Winston got pushed out by our government.... they went after big tobacco for advertising to children and they made it illegal to advertise tobacco products totally......then they went after the Brewing companies made that illegal to advertise...that's why you don't have Winston drag racing and the big Bud shoot out and all the racers they sponsored....the government made it legal tobacco and alcohol and then the liberals and progressives didn't like it but they still tax grab these companies ....but you can promote drug's (Pfizer)
NHRA loses a lot of the fan base that can't afford cable channels, since they moved away from the channels over the air I have wondered why and in this video it showed that the sponsors are the reason. So if the sponsors control where NHRA is viewed, then I guess that fans have to go without seeing the NHRA on over the air channels.
They get more money outA your pocket when you pull into the parking lot than they ever would if you stay home… folks are talking about the flo racing stuff going on keeping folks out of the stands at lots of tracks… some tracks won’t be selling time to flo no more
@@patrickharper9297 I quit going the the local track because of the lack of TV coverage. Why should I go there when I can't see any part of the rest of the season.
Why does it sound like you are talking from down the hall from your set up? Then the audio goes quiet than loud. It's annoying enough so I stopped the video.
The elephant in the room is that Coke went woke and when the Trump stickers starting appearing on the race cars Coke wasn't having anything to do with that !!! That's how it looked on the TV.
Of course the individuals making remarks here probably have never watched TOP FUEL Racing live before i have many times nothing else can duplicate Fuel Racing especially at night I will take a Fuel Funny Cars and Top Fuel Or even Top Alcohol Funny Cars Over type of Racing
Still rushing through the sentences. READ. SLOWER. It's like you're holding your breath and the faster you get to the end of the sentence the faster you can get some air. You also mumble because you rush. Articulate, take your time, no one's going to interrupt you. Listen to it yourself before you upload, if it's too fast, just re-record.
The end of Tobacco sponsorship in Motorsport and Sport in General was because of Laws enacted that made Tobacco Sponsorship illegal. Making Videos and knowing not enough about the topic and making up content from non factual information is not a good thing, Unless you produce absolute unreliable rubbish. Lies does not make truth. Neither does fiction become fact: Or reading from pages of Wikipedia
I’m an old man. I’ve loved drag racing for 60 years . IMHO the sport is flat lining and the NHRA is on life support. I go to two or three national events a year. Pretty much all I see in the fan base are old folks like me. The sport itself is irrelevant to todays kids. Any young people watching or participating are legacy kids whose dads have enabled their kids to participate. Upper class racing is staggeringly expensive….lower class racing is merely stupidly expensive. I think we are seeing the demise of drag racing as configured today. I don’t know what’s coming,but I know that when I see empty seats at the U.S. Nationals , trouble is afoot.
The reason is the chance of violence and riots, for national events run in BLUE state's people didn't want to put themselves in a situation.i can't say I don't blame them.and it was both blue and red folks voicing their concerns....packed house's in predominantly red states. They also need to do some research on the demographics... this generation is video games and electric cars...you got some dipping their toes into EV hell Big Daddy has been building a EV dragster..it will be another class.. like I stop watching pro stock because that is not what it is....90%is GM so it's the Chevy show....it use to be win on Sunday sell on Monday because all your manufacturers had representation on the track they over regulated Mopar out of NASCAR and I stopped watching and going to races. FORD pulled out of drag racing till Bob tasca went and begged and pleaded with them to get re-involved... Castrol bounced all because of politics now look what political agenda they are pushing...
Drag racing has a future ahead of it… check pdra, local tracks, npk, SFG, footbrake, look past the nationals there is intrest all over drag racing
@@patrickharper9297 hey pat.
I agree. I should have made it more nuanced. Mostly I was talking about NHRA racing. There still is a plethora of motor sports to keep a gear head happy. And nothing,but nothing is quite like the top fuel circus from NHRA. An acquired taste,I admit, but one I seek.
Personally I love drag racing, but I believe that you are correct. As sad as that is
@@patrickharper9297 It's odd how Bracket racing attracts more racers than the fuel cars, and I'm saying this as a bracket racer.
Part of the problem IMO is that NHRA doesn't translate well to live TV. It's best done on delay so they can edit out the time in between races. My wife and I regularly attend both NHRA and NASCAR races and there's more downtime between races than people realize. A month ago I went to Street Outlaws/No Prep Kings for the first time and it was great. When one pair of cars are going through the traps the next pair are doing their burnouts. I realize there's less money at stake and not an official championship but it's more fun to watch.
Not just live tv but tv in general, it’s impossible to translate the speed, sound and adrenaline of drag racing. Whereas circuit racing has more intriguing aspects which do translate, namely wheel to wheel racing which doesn’t exist in drag racing.
@@benlowes8570 Right. I started out mostly watching drag racing decades ago as it was what was available locally. Now I am stock car racing. I find it nearly impossible to get much out of drag racing on tv. At least the racing action part, which is 90% of what I am wanting. Roundy round and road courses work pretty well on tv.
With “electric’s” coming it will only get worse!
The only real downtime is when they have an oildown or an accident. They have lots of sportsman classes running between the PRO classes but they don't televise those, usually not even the ProMod which is really disappointing. The only other downtime is when they are prepping the track for the PRO classes. It is a full day event which if they tried to do it live, would eat up one channel all day. It would be cool if they at least had a PPV channel for a reasonable price.
@joninpgh Funny thing is this concept isn't lost on NHRA, that is exactly what they do for the not Pro classes. Two in the traps, two on the line and two in the box at all times.
I am 100% sure there is more to the story. NHRA could ruin a wet dream
Was thinking the same thing. Sure, Coke stepped out of the contract and used Covid as an excuse. But it seems to me more that Coke caught NHRA on its heels in a pretty bad time. The quip from 2019 that Coke wanted out and was wanting NHRA to look for other sponsors seemed pretty telling of that, and I feel that was overlooked in the coverage. It’s hard to say though, but I agree there’s probably a lot more to this.
Coke totally used the pandemic as an excuse, especially since they were probably paying the NHRA less than what they are currently paying NASCAR to be a "premier partner" but then again, drag racing seems to always lose out to circuit racing, as evidenced by the fact that Winston also chose the NASCAR Cup Series over the NHRA
I like drag racing, but NASCAR is just better
@@TheMNrailfan227 I love going straight and fast! I get dizzy goin’ ‘round in circles... 🤭🤢🤮😵
@@laytonturpin864 yeah drag racing is for older folks
@@TheMNrailfan227 as Bubba J said - " look a left turn! Oh, look, another left turn " . That's exciting ☺️
...right, the racing series that get the most publicity, ratings, views, ticket sales, etc. tend to get the most money from sponsorships. Not sure why anyone would think that it's something other than those metrics, not sure why anyone would think that it should be based on something else.
great video, its kinda sick how coca-cola treated the NHRA.
woke company
TAKE a look around! COCA COLA is BAD BAD BAD!
A larger factor that cripples NHRA is their terrible TV deal. They don't get priority with FOX and are last in line after NFL, NASCAR, MLB. Their current sponsor is also in NASCAR . Honestly they had better coverage with the old Nashville Network. NHRA needs to look after their own interest, stop cross- promotions with other sports, and for crying out loud fix the NHRA TV site.
FOX does live coverage. When NHRA was on TNN it was broadcast a week AFTER the event was held. At worst FOX delays the start of the coverage a couple hours after the event is concluded. Of course there's the alternative NHRA TV, which is live.
@@garyjackson3531 But you have to listen to Reinhardt and Costello ad nauseam or mute the sound which I often do.
@@billmiller7138 Yes, you are getting the audio feed from the tower. The one thing that WAS good about the TNN broadcasts was Steve Evans and Dave McClellan. I think FOX has a pretty good team too.
@@garyjackson3531 Evans and McClellan set the bar, be pretty tough for anybody to come up to it.
@@billmiller7138 Indeed. The depth of knowledge and experience. Dave was a nice man too. Evans had experience running drag strips. I liked the combination of Paul Page and Mike Dunn over at ESPN. Fans never warmed to Page though he had extensive knowledge about the sport, as well as IndyCar. I thought Gary Gerould was fantastic at the top end. Another truly nice guy. I've warmed to Brian and Tony. If Bruno wasn't still racing (and hosting his own show) he would be great in the booth. I like Jamie Howe and Amanda Busick, Jamie has experience covering everything racing and Amanda has been expanding her experience as well. I wish NHRA would hire them full time. Now I have to dig out "Be There" a tape Steve Evans put together of drag racing radio commercials from the 60's and 70's. Cheers!
I got the call to build the 2020 camping championship trophy in place of the Mello Yello trophies to instantly give them a new look.. that was such a crazy turn of events
And for such short notice you did a great job designing that. Part of me misses the giant size wally that they use to get but you still found a great way to modernize the look.
@@MightyMack03 well the wally only has two sizes and the one of the mello trophy is the same size on the new ones and the smaller one is used for the sportsman classes and other small races.
@@coldhardart yea, but still that giant base was kind of neat. Sure the actual wally itself wasn't any bigger but with the base holding it it felt like just a giant wally which I liked about it.
@@MightyMack03 oh I see gottha gottha
If Coke had just stuck with the contract and let it expire, I think most fans wouldn't have had much of a problem. The fact that they left NHRA for dead in the middle of a contract, hiding behind the pandemic as a reason was what angered everyone. I'm glad Lemonis and Camping World stepped up. He's from the Chicago area and hopefully I'll see him when they return to Route 66 Raceway next year.
This is very interesting and explains a bit as to why several guys I know that are sportsmen racers thought the NHRA was doing some odd things during the pandemic! Some thought they were going bankrupt, but now it’s clear some other things were coming to bear! This certainly put a whole lot of shade on Coke as a company and will force some very complicated binding contracts in their future. I guess being a CEO and taking home twenty thirty million a year is tough!
Great video and great information. You need a much better microphone though. The audio quality drags down the content. 😕
I searched for motogp and found this. Pretty solid. Tragic for the racing company tho
Keep up the fight, good reporting 👍.
I've been involved in Motor Sports of all kinds Indy cars ,Monster Trucks , Off shore power boats ,Nascar Truck series, IHRA, and NHRA . For the money you spend NHRA Top Fuel was the best bang for the buck for TV coverage . Thats what sponsors want to see.
PLEASE learn to ENUNCIATE your words!!!
Slow down a bit will go a LONG WAY in making
your videos understandable!
Good information.
I wouldn't trust NHRA as far as I could throw them...
I have NEVER had a problem with Coca Cola in the
60 plus years I have been drinking it....
Glad I got you in my recommendations! Definitely giving a follow and a like, keep it up, man!
Great work. Nice choice of slo mo shots
The amusing thing is that since coke walked away, the NHRA pro categories have grown almost exponentially. The tv package moved to Fox and is rating higher than ever and the race events themselves are breaking attendance records almost every weekend.
I’ve seen lots of things in my days; but real big league NHRA doesn’t really have competition from anyone for my time when they come to town
I'm glad I got to attend a Winston Cup race (Las Vegas 2002). I'm also glad I bought a bunch of Nextel stock before they took over the series title sponsorship. 🤑
Lemonis is a racing fan. He's helped out smaller truck teams in NASCAR, put up a signing bonus to best finisher, and is typically good for conversations on Twitter.
I didn't know this happened in NHRA & yet it diesn't shock me either that Lemonis would do such a thing.
My feelings towards Marcus Lemonis are mixed, I like what he’s done for racing, but when he bought Camping World he forced experienced people out, ignored feedback from veterans in favor of MBA’s, then froze raises. My boss recommended I get a bump from $13.50/hr to $16.50/hr as I was an excellent parts guy who went above and beyond, and did the work of multiple people… My raise got put on hold for 6 months before I quit.
Some people really are "too good to be true." Powerful people who are doing things that from a distance seem from the heart a d smart but the second you do digging you realize that there's always a big catch.
It’s always been ”Me and my RC” I’m guessing it will stay that way.
Interesting video but you need to slow down, and improve the audio levels. Hard to follow when the words are running together and audio levels are down.
Thanks for the great video, I had no idea this was happening. BTW, Full throttle has 8x th amount of caffeine listed on the label. I drank it once, had more jitters than ever. This is based on students at Purdue breaking down and testing the ingredients.
There’s a old rumor from around the time Coke signed on to the NHRA that Coke wanted to sponsor IMSA and the ALMS but the management didn’t think Coke was “premium” enough for the AlMS.
NICELY done! Awesome!!
Coca-Cola has always had a shady past, as far as business practices go anyway. Their brutal response to Union leaders and rank & file workers in South America is the stuff of legend (and NOT in a good way).
The NHRA has nobody to blame but themselves. The product they have put out for the last 25 years has been abysmal at best! Between prostock being all Chevy Camaros looking the same to shortening the races of their top classes to a thousand feet they have made drag racing into a joke that is absolutely unwatchable.
I've been going to the Brainerd round most years since 2008 and in that time frame the decline is noticeable, granted a part of that is certainly on the track as they have pretty much been doing the bare minimum.
Getting rid of the quarter mile distance made no sense to me.
Great job young Man! Other than suggesting you slow your read just a little, I have zero complaints! 💪
I have rarely sided with the NHRA on problem's in the past, I have to side with them on this one. While so many top shelf companies suffered great monetary losses during the pandemic, I seriously doubt that Coke Cola did! My family drank "ZERO" less soft drink's during said pandemic, infact probably the opposite occurred, as we all had more down time at home, giving more time to drinking MORE! They (Coke Cola) IMO did exactly what the NHRA claimed they did, used a global pandemic as an excuse to renege on their contract! Coke Cola, again IMO, performed a "PUNK" move in this case, plain & simple 🤷🏻♂️
#Its1320orNothingAtAll!!
#PutTheCokeBackInCokeCola!!
I have not drank a coke product since.
I hear you and agree but I feel the fast talking is easy to adjust to and has a certain charm to it
Coke went Woke and I Continue to not purchase any CocaCola products! Unfortunately the pandemic, I don’t believe hurt Coke sales. The biggest surprise to me is how Small the Coke deal was. I was the Racing Director for a Fortune 500 company deeply involved in auto racing. In 1993 our Racing Budget was 14.7M for team financial and product sponsorship in several USA racing series.
These videos are incredible
Coca-Cola may have made some unethical moves in leaving the sport but I'm confident the complete failure of NHRA's management team caused it. Don't feel bad for the NHRA, when Atlanta Dragway was for sale they had offers from individuals that wanted to continue operating the track but they chose to sell to someone that would attempt to redevelop the property and immediately close the track. Speaking with past track operators they were constantly handcuffed by the idiots in Glendora that would block local sponsorship opportunities and anything else they could do to try to run the place into the ground. What a shame that no one took over the NHRA years ago that really knew how to run it, because Compton and the current group couldn't manage their way out of a wet paper bag.
I dont know much but to claim there is not a report on the settlement when a public company is involved seems incorrect to me. Somewhere in cokes quarterly or annual report there should be the answer
It was a settlement agreement not a “plea deal” which is in criminal cases as described starting at 10:08. Still an excellent video.
Absolutely correct. Two completely different things. Should not be used interchangeably.
I would think that like most contracts there was a “Force Ma•Jeure “clause along with a arbitration stipulation as is done with most business contracts? This happened with my brothers multiple multi million dollar contracts that he was in the middle of when the pandemic hit forcing both parties to settle any disagreements, fortunately for my brother it all worked out and still has a good working relationship with most of his clients. That’s why those clauses are put into contracts and any lawyer worth there salt advises a client to put that into a contract🤔
Tony Stewart is going to be a huge deal for NHRA in bringing new fans and sponsors to the sport. My biggest worry is Biden’s energy policies potentially shutting down motorsports as we know it and going electric. Guarantee there is no future in that. I wouldn’t go to an event to watch a quiet electric engine go down the track, it’s the feeling you get when a top fueler takes off. If everyone would experience that, everyone would be a fan!
Too bad the corporations took over the sport. Very good piece.
"itz duh evil corp sponsors!"
No, it's the NHRA
Camping World ended up leaving the NASCAR Truck series to focus on spending more money on employees instead of sponsorship (they will be replaced by Craftsman, which everyone in NASCAR is excited about). I was worried that they'd leave NHRA too, but that doesn't appear to be the case. Marcus is an interesting guy, definitely willing to throw his money around to help out where he sees a need.
So a main nascar series sponsor left nascar for nhra? Lol great
The use of the ronna virus to bounce out on a contract with the NHRA really tarnished Coca-Cola and unfortunately the NHRA due to the controversy. This type of motorsport should never be treated as the red headed stepchild, it has real personalities versus what Nascar has, the PC culture has destroyed the way drivers think in Nascar but in the NHRA the drivers speak to what is irritating them instead of acting like some passive pushover Nascar driver.
"...really tarnished Coke"
C'mon dude, barely anyone even noticed this
No it didn't. You, know what everyone wanted during the pandemic? Coke! How do I know? I worked at one of Cokes bottling facilities. The demand was crazy high. Coke couldn't make enough to keep up with the demands.
The ticket discounts were around when it was full throttle you got a discount on Sundays admission of $8 for a can of full throttle and the sponsorship whent to mellow yellow when coke traded thier energy drink brands to monster for thier non energy drink brands when coke started a distribution agreement with monster
Sign of the times, unfortunately. You can bet Coke's books are balanced!
they have no red ink pens in the accountant's storeroom!!
I love the content but the volume needs to be upped quite a bit to make it more enjoyable to watch
Really to bad cause Coke really had a good thing going…good old American greed!
Or maybe the sponsorship was no longer beneficial for them
Need a tire and fuel rule. Dropping THOUSANDS on every pass is not a good business practice. They followed nascar down the money hole.
I know when we went to the world finals, I got a better deal at the gate for being an AAA member than my buddy who actually had a NHRA card,….lol
Well done piece
Is Steve-o the narrator?
I’ve attended every Virginia Nationals. It blows that we lost our race AGAIN
I will drink water before I ever drink a coke product
I quit drinking Coca Cola products as soon as I started hearing glitches from them towards the NHRA. Water is definitely healthier for you anyway. As of now, I don’t even support the NHRA much anymore. I find the sportsman classes a helluva lot more interesting now. Bracket and index racing is a ton more interesting and skillful than first to the finish line. Now, the playing field is level, and the guy with the most money is not nescissarily the automatic winner.
I drink coke products *every* day, and will continue to do so!!
Coca Cola products have a mold mildew taste now.
I watched a popular nascar driver get out of his car and someone handed him a 16 oz bottle of Coca Cola.
He took a drink and handed back to the person saying,” that taste like shit. Do you have some water?”
The accountability of their product is yet to come home to nest.
Won’t be any court battles forcing any tyrannical decisions that can be bought.
This one is going to bleed out all over itself in rapid fashion.
Nothing to do with any sponsorship mishaps or anything.
Just a piss poor product from a company with piss poor grandiose disorder.
Coke is for virgins. Good for you
I don't drink coke a lot but when I do......I drink it with Jack or Jim
What was stupid to me was every Ennis Texas race I went to they were not even selling mello yellow. One would the title sponsor would be sold at the track.
who drinks that anyway ?
As a drag bike guy.... F the NHRA.
My NHDRA street legal bike is less than .7 seconds slower then their "modern Suzuki" which run 1984 technology.
I quit watching NHRA when they went to 1000'. For the past 5-8 years Coke has been taking a dump on everyone, customers, vendors, ect.
I strongly recommend that you slow down the narration - your words are running together and are very hard to understand. Or just have the script in sub-titles. Not everyone here is an American English speaker
I agree. It got a bit too fast for me and I am an American.
I too agree, some of what he said I didn't get ... why be so rushed anyway ?
Run at 75% works much better!
If he’s going to speak that fast he needs to enunciate his words better. 100% they are running together. Don’t know if it’s his equipment or just how he talks. I can listen to and follow fast speakers (Ben Shapiro, for example) just fine but this was admittedly rough.
Whoever wrote all that, should be in movies
Companies only care about money. Duh.
never knew coke was bad in sponsoring. one of the biggest companies in the world. as far as the nhra goes seems like the sport is hanging by a thread. losing legendary venues such as Englishtown my hometown track, Houston and Atlanta.
What events are you planning on attending? I live in Charlotte so I go to Zmax twice a year but I want to try and hit Bristol next season too.
Next event I plan on going to is the Gatornationals, the Charlotte 4 Wide and the Thunder Valley Nats are also definitely 2 on my list as well. Others that are possible are Chicago, Indy, Norwalk, St. Louis, and Reading as well.
@@MightyMack03 Cool man. Maybe I'll see you around the track.
Wonder who’s going to take camping worlds sponsorship now.
I was disappointed in Coca Cola for this exit. Yes it was the pandemic and the world was turned upside down but it was an awful way to handle it. They could have just hit the pause button and rolled the contract into the next year and still be title sponsor right now. NHRA has had something like 10 sellout events this year? But I will say that Camping World seems to have embraced this sport and is a good partner to NHRA by all appearances.
Is it $50 000 for pro stock bike per race?
Coke also pushed CRT on thier employees... never buying a coke product again...
Coca-Cola is a weird company. In that they don't actually make a majority the products their name is on. They lease the formulas to 3rd party bottling companies who then make, bottle, package and ship the completed Coke products.
Been attending NASA road racing events. Full day of racing and you can interact with the drivers and cars PLUS get a fun ride at lunch. NHRA events... Not so much
You've always been able to get up close with the drivers at an NHRA event. Some drivers are more popular than others and you may not get a lot of time with them, like John Force. I can recall taking to Del Worsham for several minutes a few hours after he blew up a car in qualifying at Route 66 Raceway. I assume you meant NASCAR in your response. That seemed far less accessible than NHRA. Some drivers might be at the souvenir trailers, but you couldn't get garage or pit access without paying more high prices in addition to the expensive tickets you bought. Maybe that was different on a track by track basis. NHRA is very consistent in that every ticket is a pit pass and you can talk to any driver that wants to talk to you
Now Camping World is the series sponsor. Camping World is leaving NASCAR but sticking with the NHRA.
Big loss for Camping World lmao. Truck series is easily more popular than NHRA
Well now is a great time to get to work on those companies (that were forced to sit on the sidelines during the Coke reign) to build a stronger and ( I hate this word) - better.
But with the politically alignment that they are leaning it might be appropriate.
Idk what a camping world is, but I wanna find out an go visit
Winston was nascars sponsorship as well. Before nextel
Winston got pushed out by our government.... they went after big tobacco for advertising to children and they made it illegal to advertise tobacco products totally......then they went after the Brewing companies made that illegal to advertise...that's why you don't have Winston drag racing and the big Bud shoot out and all the racers they sponsored....the government made it legal tobacco and alcohol and then the liberals and progressives didn't like it but they still tax grab these companies ....but you can promote drug's (Pfizer)
NHRA loses a lot of the fan base that can't afford cable channels, since they moved away from the channels over the air I have wondered why and in this video it showed that the sponsors are the reason. So if the sponsors control where NHRA is viewed, then I guess that fans have to go without seeing the NHRA on over the air channels.
They get more money outA your pocket when you pull into the parking lot than they ever would if you stay home… folks are talking about the flo racing stuff going on keeping folks out of the stands at lots of tracks… some tracks won’t be selling time to flo no more
@@patrickharper9297 I quit going the the local track because of the lack of TV coverage. Why should I go there when I can't see any part of the rest of the season.
@@mike77tmc2 lol that's some goofy logic
People didn't give 2 shts, government shut down those sponsors.
Didn’t know Coca Cola was such a deadbeat company. They’re awful!
Thank you Marcus Lemonis and Camping World!
And...above all...buy 7-Up
I stopped drinking coke the same day!
Why does it sound like you are talking from down the hall from your set up? Then the audio goes quiet than loud. It's annoying enough so I stopped the video.
The elephant in the room is that Coke went woke and when the Trump stickers starting appearing on the race cars Coke wasn't having anything to do with that !!! That's how it looked on the TV.
Go WOKE,,,,,, go BROKE!
I've put up with coke for to long. Coke went woke now they're going broke!!! Bye bye broke coke!!!
There's no way Coca cola couldn't afford to pay for it's sponsorship.
The bottom line (unfortunatly ) IT'S ALL ABOUT THE $$$$$.............. PERIOD ............Just ask any of the sportsman racers
Camping World cant have 3 miliion a month for Nhra.
Of course the individuals making remarks here probably have never watched TOP FUEL Racing live before i have many times nothing else can duplicate Fuel Racing especially at night I will take
a Fuel Funny Cars and Top Fuel
Or even Top Alcohol Funny Cars
Over type of Racing
Still rushing through the sentences. READ. SLOWER. It's like you're holding your breath and the faster you get to the end of the sentence the faster you can get some air. You also mumble because you rush. Articulate, take your time, no one's going to interrupt you. Listen to it yourself before you upload, if it's too fast, just re-record.
The end of Tobacco sponsorship in Motorsport and Sport in General was because of Laws enacted that made Tobacco Sponsorship illegal.
Making Videos and knowing not enough about the topic and making up content from non factual information is not a good thing, Unless you produce absolute unreliable rubbish. Lies does not make truth. Neither does fiction become fact: Or reading from pages of Wikipedia
》》 SHAMEFUL..!!!
Good for Coke!
Never
Had
Racers
Attitude
Drag racing is circling the drain in Southern California....where it all started
I feel like the 1000ft bullshit is doing real damage as well!