Big NASCAR souvenir sale to last longer this weekend

CharlotteObserver.com, NC
A day-after-Thanksgiving tradition at Lowe’s Motor Speedway will run through the weekend this year, due partly to the sour economy’s effect on spending by NASCAR fans.

The Concord speedway’s Souvenir and Race Ticket Blow-Out Sale usually is the Friday following Thanksgiving. Race fans across the region and from other states come not only to buy discounted merchandise, but also drive their own vehicles on the speedway oval.

But with NASCAR fans spending less on T-shirts, die-cast cars and other items in recent months – the result of high gas prices and the credit crunch – the speedway and race teams closed the season with more merchandise than usual on shelves. That was one factor in expanding the sale, now in its 16th year, to three days.

“It’s no secret that we have product we want to move,” said Don Hawk, vice president of business affairs for Speedway Motorsports, the parent company of Lowe’s Motor Speedway.

But, Hawk added, the annual sale also was ripe for a marketing boost – the speedway bought radio, print and Internet ads this year. And stretching the event through Sunday gives people who work Friday a chance to find bargains on NASCAR merchandise, with hats and T-shirts starting at $2.

“A lot of them are shopping for Christmas,” he said. “We decided to muscle up what we were doing already.”

Hawk oversees SMI Properties, a Speedway Motorsports subsidiary that designs, manufactures and licenses racing merchandise. The idea to hold the three-day souvenir sale came from speedway owner Bruton Smith, Hawk said. If turnout is light, he added, the event could revert to one day next year.

For now, though, the tough economy has left plenty of race teams with a surplus of memorabilia, clothing, posters and die-cast cars.

While merchandisers always have some obsolete items each season – especially when drivers switch numbers or sponsors – the current downturn has resulted in “somewhat more inventory” than last year, Hawk said.

When looking at sales for all 43 Sprint Cup drivers, “I have never seen it this tight,” said Hawk, who has been with Speedway Motorsports for a year and involved in NASCAR merchandising for 15 years.

Merchandise sales were strong early this season, Hawk said, boosted by demand for new Earnhardt items. NASCAR’s most popular driver switched from Budweiser to AMP energy drink and the National Guard as sponsors, and from No. 8 to No. 88.

But those gains soon were offset by fans who curbed spending as gas prices soared above $4 a gallon. Prices have since tumbled below $2 a gallon, but other economic pressures – from the Wall Street crisis to tighter credit – have led some fans to keep their wallets closed.

While the situation could be worse, Hawk said, SMI Properties and other merchandisers likely will stock fewer items next season, figuring it’s better to sell out than again have too much inventory on shelves.

“The old days of just ordering a boatload (of merchandise) and not worrying about” how quickly it will sell, he said, “we can’t do it that way.”