Is winning the Daytona 500 not enough?

By Mike Smith

Friday, March 25, 2011 | 5:10 p.m.

Corporations use athletes from all types of sports to sell all types of products. And it’s common for athletes who have won the biggest prizes in their sport to land the big endorsement deals. Win the NBA Championship and the next thing you know that athlete is getting a check from Nike. Win The Masters golf tournament and the next thing you know a telecommunications company is at the doorstep.

Sponsorships in NASCAR are also partially endorsement deals. A company writes a check for a race team and that team’s car becomes a billboard and the driver becomes a pitchman for that company. And if a team is winning races and championships, then it’s logical that it’s easier for that team to get a big sponsorship and keep it.

But this isn’t happening yet for Trevor Bayne. OK, I know what you’re thinking: He’s still a rookie and it’s too early in his Cup career to accurately measure how good he will become. Therefore, you might say, it’s no wonder he doesn’t have full sponsorship for this year’s season.

But Bayne won the Daytona 500! He was victorious in NASCAR’s version of the Super Bowl, a race that can take years for top drivers to win and, for some drivers, is a victory that eludes them their entire career. Nevertheless, there were stories in the media this week that Bayne’s No. 21 car is still sponsorless for Richmond, Dover and the All-Star Race. The team wasn’t planning on running a full schedule this year, but it was hoping the Daytona 500 win would result in more sponsorship dollars that would allow the team to enter more races. So far that hasn’t materialized.

The lack of sponsorship for the All-Star Race is especially unsettling since Bayne earned a spot in that race by winning the Daytona 500.

In addition to being the winner of NASCAR’s most important race, Bayne has the personality and temperament to be a great representative for any corporate product. There has got so be a company with some cash that’s smart enough to see this.

Here’s an idea: I read in The New York Times today that General Electric, the world’s largest corporation, earned $5.1 billion from its U.S. operations in 2010 but paid no federal taxes. G.E. actually claimed a tax benefit of $3.2 billion. Maybe someone from Woods Brothers Racing should give G.E. a call.

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