If you Google ‘Danica Patrick NASCAR,’ over 2 million handy links are at your fingertips. That’s because two days ago Patrick finally confirmed what had long been suspected: she was ready to compete on NASCAR’s second tier, the Nationwide Series. Her contract is with JR Motorsports, putting her under the same umbrella as Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Mark Martin and on occasion, Tony Stewart.

At a time when American car companies are struggling and NASCAR is feeling the pinch from cash-strapped sponsors, Patrick’s announcement was a welcome shot in the arm. The GoDaddy.com spokeswoman has been a mainstay on the IndyCar Series, becoming the first woman to win an IndyCar race when she took the 2008 Indy Japan 300. Mainstream race fans may know her better as the woman with the highest finish ever at the Indy 500, a third place showing earlier this year, while non-fans know her from her commercials for GoDaddy.com, SportsCenter, or Boost Mobile.

Patrick has risen to stardom due to a combination of skill, luck and good looks. A photogenic brunette competing against a bunch of men on the IndyCar circuit, the pressure was on her to make good on her talent. Even before getting her first win in 2008, the marketing push was on. Now she’ll be in the big leagues, at least for a few races a year. She’ll compete full time on the IndyCar circuit, get her feet wet in at least one third-tier ARCA race, and then move up to the Nationwide Series. NASCAR marketers must be salivating, as they are assured a rise in media coverage for any closed-wheel race that she competes in.

The question is: Will interest in Patrick stick it out if she doesn’t get an early win? Juan Pablo Montoya wasn’t a consistent performer until his third year on the circuit. How much time will she be given to learn the nuances of these cars? They are much heavier and less responsive than the open-wheel cars that she’s used to. Also, her competitors will have the extra incentive of not wanting to be beat by a girl.

In interviews over the last two days, Patrick has talked about this season as a learning experience and the ‘next challenge.’ What she should expect is plenty of bumps and being pushed into the wall. The other drivers will try to test her mettle and see if she can be rattled. And while NASCAR execs are raising a toast to an (unexpected?) boost to their bottom line, many race fans will take a ‘wait and see’ attitude. If they get bored in the meantime, there are those 2 million links to keep them occupied.

Admittedly, I do not follow NASCAR very closely, but the news of Carl Edwards’ crash at Talladega this weekend and the injured fans is something that catches my attention.  As a casual fan, the idea of a big crash in the middle of a race is the type of exciting event that would actually get me to tune in or even attend a race.  However, a basic foundation of this sentiment is that the crash is contained on the track and my safety as a spectator is never a concern.  At some level, this crash changes this fundamental belief.

Historically, NASCAR has done a great job ensuring the safely of their ticket buyers, and they have been very proactive in their efforts to improve driver safety.  One specific measure has been to require restrictor plates on cars to keep speeds down on certain tracks, with the idea that this would reduce the risk of injuries from crashes.  However, some people, including Carl Edwards himself, believe that these efforts are either not enough or they are a part of the problem.  Take a look at this recent blog post from the Exhaust Fumes racing blog to learn more. 

The same level of effort needs to be directed at spectator safety.  I’m not saying they haven’t shown effort in this area – after all, the design of the fences and barriers did keep the car from going into the stands (debris from the car that caused the injuries).  I’m just saying that the focus might need to be shifted enough so that the public continues to feel safe with the product.

My ethics professor always used the line “dead customers is bad for business.”  It might seem like an ridiculously obvious statement, but even the idea that a customer could be at risk is just as bad.  I’m sure NASCAR is going to investigate their options on how to improve spectator safety even more, and I imagine they’ll find a way to overcome the bad PR associated with this event pretty quickly.  But if another event like this happens within the next season or two, they’ll find themselves headed down a very steep slope with their customers.

The news articles just keep on coming!  Here are a few more recent ones:

• Poor Economy Starting to Shape Sports Landscape (New York Times, 11/14/08) – another smalled sporting event gets cancelled (Tour of Georgia cycling race) and NASCAR loses revenue while trying to cut their costs.
• Are the New Jersey Devils Stalling Their Creditors? (NJ.com, 11/16/08) – An NHL team is actually behind on their bills and may face actions from the city.
• NASCAR is about to face some tough times(FoxSports.com, 11/16/08) – Multiple race teams are making layoffs, including Chip Ganassi and Hendrick.
• Amid downturn in US, GM and other sports sponsors rethink their gameplans (IHT, 11/16/08) – Major sponsors are withdrawing their sponsorship dollars, and teams are going to pay the price.

Not a lot of good news out there right now.  I’ve also heard about other teams in the four major sports making staffing cuts.  I don’t expect a rebound anytime soon, but I do think we’ll hit a leveling-off point in the next 4-6 months.

One of the most valuable resources that you have, and that your corporate partners want to use, is your customer list.  When a company decides to sponsor your team or organization, there is little doubt that they want to communicate directly to your customers, most likely via email.  To that note, the amount of partner-focused emails has significantly increased in the last couple of years.  As the team/organization,  you need to balance the increased sponsorship value of giving this direct access versus the downside of driving your customers away, as unsubscribes and opt-outs are substantially higher for these types of communications.

I want to show a good and bad example of a partner-driven email that I’ve received.  First, I’ll start with the bad – this email came from the Los Angeles Lakers:

(NOTE: I could not find the email that I was originally thinking of, but this one is similar.  The original was actually worse than this.)

This email comes off as little more than sales pitch, which is ok if I’m in the market for a Hawaiian vacation at this moment.  But if I’m not (I wasn’t), than I’m very likely to unsubscribe or even mark this as spam.  There is hardly anything that connects this to the Lakers or my status as a Lakers fan other than some of the bullet points that are part of this package (for the record, I’m not actually a Lakers fan). 

Now here is a good example of a partner-driven email that I received yesterday:

The focus of this email is clearly on Coke Zero, but it is delivered by content that is very relevant (this went out to a NASCAR email list).  This email is connecting to me as a race fan.  And beyond just interesting content or imagery in the email, I can actually go play a racing game!  So this email is more visual, relevant to my status on the email list, and becomes interactive through a fun game.

If you are going to give your partners the ability to directly email your fans, make sure that the content always ties back to the reason they are fans to begin with.  Avoid “spam-ish” product pushes, and your subscribers will stay subscribers.