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    Sears, the parent company of Craftsman, has announced that it will no longer be the sponsor of the NASCAR Truck Series after the 2008 season. At this time, NASCAR has yet to announce any replacement sponsor for the Truck Series, which has had Craftsman as its title sponsor since its inception in 1995. This will become the third change in title sponsors in 2 years for NASCAR. Earlier in 2007 Nextel and Busch announced that they will no longer be primary sponsors for the top two racing series in NASCAR.
  

     This move by Craftsman continues a negative movement in NASCAR, where sponsors are abandoning the NASCAR ranks. Winston moved away from the series in 2003, while Busch moved away in 2007. The renaming of the top class from Nextel to Sprint isn't necessarily surprising, as Sprint is the parent company of Nextel. But the fact that 2 companies have left the series in 2 years should be concerning to NASCAR, teams, and fans. Sears Manger of Marketing Partnerships Scott Howard stated, "While we will be relinquishing title sponsorship of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series at the end of 2008 we continue to explore new opportunities within NASCAR.” Is this a nice way of telling NASCAR "bug off"?

    I do not believe that the truth will officially come out as to why Craftsman chose to give up its sponsorship of the truck series, for political reasons, especially since it will remain as the title sponsor for one final year. Emails to Sears about the move have gone unanswered as of this writing.

    NASCAR has been dealing with low attendance to races and lower ratings of its television broadcasts, especially late in the long season. Worse off for the Truck series, all but a pair of races are broadcasted on SPEED, a cable network which is not easily accessable to people without cable/satellite or even with the basic cable packages. As a result, it is likely that these former title sponsors are jumping ship because their investment in NASCAR is no longer profitable.

    NASCAR needs to step up its enthusiasm of the truck series, and move to make the series more accessable to a broader market. The first move would be partnering with network television and bringing the exciting trucks series to broadcast television. That in itself will create a larger viewership and greater marketing potential for other sponsors/advertisors. Truck racing is among the most exciting racing and bringing that to a wider audience will generate interest in the top three NASCAR series.

    Whatever the case may be, NASCAR needs to do more to boost ratings and, more importantly, present the oppertunity to potential sponsors to increase profits while appealing to the NASCAR audience.

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