We sat there in the yard in Brownsburg, Ind., on the Fourth of July last year, enjoying the cookout with family and friends. Somebody brought up the name Jeff Gordon, and people nearly choked on their baked beans and potato salad.
No one had to summon the police, but the conversation certainly became animated in a hurry. Some loved Jeff Gordon. The Dale Earnhardt, Jr. loyalists chimed in, and it got even spicier when Tony Stewart’s name came up. Those were the best fireworks of the day.
It came from clever marketing.

Sell NHRA for its exotic nature, for its ultra-edgy, no-margin-for-error, put-up-or-shut-up, eye-blink passes. Give a nitro-laced spin to the advertising policy of “Don’t sell the steak; sell the sizzle.” Sell the smell. Sell the gauzy smoke. Sell the ear-blasting, ground-pounding launch of a Top Fuel dragster. Sell the power. Sell the speed.

The Brownsburg Barbecue Battle leaped to mind Saturday when the ESPN broadcast of the National Hot Rod Ass’n’s Thunder Valley Nationals from Bristol, Tenn., focused on funding and just how expensive it is to field a nitro Funny Car or Top Fuel dragster team.
The most elemental truth of motorsports is that racers can go racing with sponsorship money, and sponsorship money comes when an individual or company sees value in the operation because of television exposure, an extensive fan base and branding opportunities/marketing appeal.
Even drag-racing icon John Force said his multimillion-dollar business has only a few pillars.
“In 30 years of racing,” he said, “I’ve found only five strong players: Castrol, Ford, AAA of Southern California, Brand Source and Old Spice.”
Of course, he’s referring to his own sponsors, for companies such as Winston/R.J. Reynolds, Coca-Cola, General Motors, Budweiser, Lucas Oil, O’Reilly Auto Parts, Valvoline, U.S. Tobacco, FRAM, Oakley, Miller Brewing, Snap-on Tools, Matco Tools and McDonald’s have invested millions of dollars in the NHRA. So has no less powerful an entity as the U.S. Army.  
Just the same, Force — an abundantly blessed team owner — said, “It’s hard to find a sponsor who will get in this sport.”
Now, why is that?
One reason might be a classic can’t-see-the-forest-for-the-trees case. The NHRA needs to trade on the extreme nature of the sport.
X Games (originally Extreme Games) organizers amped up the “wow” factor, convincing the public to swoon over trendy sports such as skateboarding, skysurfing, street luge and bungy jumping. The first edition of the extravaganza — excuse us…the “x-travaganza” — drew an estimated 198,000 spectators and, more importantly, seven prime sponsors: Advil, AT&T, Chevy Trucks, Nike, Miller Lite Ice, Mountain Dew and Taco Bell.
Sell NHRA for its exotic nature, for its ultra-edgy, no-margin-for-error, put-up-or-shut-up, eye-blink passes. Give a nitro-laced spin to the advertising policy of “Don’t sell the steak; sell the sizzle.” Sell the smell. Sell the gauzy smoke. Sell the ear-blasting, ground-pounding launch of a Top Fuel dragster. Sell the power. Sell the speed.
Nitro-powered dragsters and Funny Cars get 750 horsepower from just one of the engine’s eight cylinders — the entire output of a NASCAR engine. Tell people that. Tell them that a dragster launches at nearly five Gs and stops with a reverse force of more than seven Gs. Tell them that nitro-class drivers compute their fuel in gallons per mile —16-20 gallons per quarter-mile pass — and that these cars blast the length of more than four football fields in less that five seconds. Tell people stuff like than, for crying out loud. And don’t preach to the choir — expand your audience.
The late Wally Parks established the NHRA to corral street-racing rebels. It has become a business, to be sure, but it still has a car-club feel. The cars are the stars.
But let’s face it — no one is going to bounce a hot-dog bun off someone’s head at the family picnic in a debate about the merits of a HEMI engine or the aerodynamic advantages of a Chevy Impala over a Ford Mustang or a Dodge Charger. You’ll have more than the grill sizzling if you make household names of the pro drivers.