Has anyone heard of any new drivers who may be going to LOLMDS?

[Josh Bayko]

Agreed. But I guess my point was that if it doesn't move the needle, performance of the car is very unimportant.

I tend to agree. Relationships tend to matter more. And let's be serious here, Steve Francis hasn't exactly set the world on fire the last few years, but he's still fairly competitive on the national scene. Sure, Richards was better in 2016 and will be going into the future, but it's completely unfair to compare anybody's stats to Richards (other than Bloomer) at this point.

And I maintain that Valvoline will likely be on both Francis' and Richards' cars in 2017. Visibility on both tours that way.

[W2Racing09]

I doubt it moves the needle much, if at all for Valvoline. However, it certainly doesn't hurt them to give out a few sponsorship in DLM racing, because it's rather affordable (in the grand scheme of motorsport sponsorship) advertising.

Agreed. But I guess my point was that if it doesn't move the needle, performance of the car is very unimportant.

They use Josh Richards and the Rocket House Car quite extensively in the Team Valvoline "Club" that they have. You can join there and watch educational videos about things like changing gears in a DLM, etc. Josh Richards has done a decent sized series of videos for them on there. I do think unlike a lot of DLM cars there is a decent reach for Valvoline in conjunction with the Rocket House Car (which is pretty much the featured car on the WoO series and is in a lot of their advertising). It is definitely a small piece of the pie for them, but I would say they probably recognize the value of it as well more so than they do with some of the smaller teams they also sponsor.

[Barbecueboy]

If you are involved in this business then you should know that the "upside" you mentioned isn't exactly the type of stuff you list in a board meeting when you are explaining to your boss why you just spent $25-30k of the advertising budget on a Dirt Late Model - aside from the less expensive part, which isn't necessarily true since nobody knows the specifics.

Also, I made sure to quote the actual person who stated that Francis was taking the Richards/Sheppard sponsorship to clear up any confusion there. More power to them if they want to additionally sponsor someone -- like they have with the Conley's, Cody Mahoney, Gregg Satterlee and others in the past as well. I wasn't arguing that they shouldn't sponsor Francis, I was arguing that dropping your two high profile/marketable drivers and in exchange sponsoring Francis does not make much sense.

As I've said previously, the condescending part is coming from your head. My posts are not meant to be condescending, but there is nothing I can do to stop you from feeling that way beyond saying I'm sorry that you feel that way.

Thanks,
Jeff.

IF, I'm involved in the business of marketing??????

( insert long sigh here^^^^^^^)

I wouldn't know anything about sponsoring drivers, series or events either......please do learn me some stuff on that side of it.

( insert same sigh here^^^^^^)

[Barbecueboy]

That was going to be my point to Jeff when I got home from work, but you beat me to it.

Valvoline is a multi-national company with God only knows how much money going out for everything under the sun. Dirt Late Model racing is a pretty small segment of autosports. So I don't think Valvoline is as concerned about who the best in the business is as Jeff thinks they are.

As far as the sponsorship goes, there is a pretty decent history with Steve Francis the hometown guy, and I think Jeff is completely overlooking that. And as BBQ boy said, it wasn't that long ago that the big V was on his car. He only let it go because he was going to CBR with the Georgia Boot ride. It wasn't yanked from him by anyone.

Jeff said it was a long time ago.......so it must have been a long time ago.

Fugetaboutit........it's jeffs world, we are all students.in it.

[chupp n bloomer fan]

I think Jlacey has a man crush for Josh and tries to over come it with hate.O'Neal did it at Eldora under green to change tires and nothing was done. All mighty Bloomquist caused a caution under green at Portsmouth and drove away....didn't have a flat or anything. Josh had a LR tire going down and didn't get the two laps to change it because it wasn't completely flat. So I don't blame him. While we are condemning and b1tching I don't understand why Lanigan and Casebolt wasn't disqualified.... WOO rules state if you hit someone on the caution or after the race you are disqualified. That was pretty obvious after the race between those two.

Apparently you missed the part where Bloomer's crew guy put his kill switch in a spot very easy to hit on accident. That is what happened at PRP to Bloomer. He knew it needed moved and they never did it.

[W2Racing09]

IF, I'm involved in the business of marketing??????

( insert long sigh here^^^^^^^)

I wouldn't know anything about sponsoring drivers, series or events either......please do learn me some stuff on that side of it.

( insert same sigh here^^^^^^)

You are the one who capitalized the IF not me. I'm just pointing out that being involved in the business you know this stuff. You are overlooking your knowledge of this because you have a bias in the opposite direction (against Mark Richards). If you are not being biased then how could you say it would be a good decision?

28 Year old driver, with lots of fans who drivers for arguably the best team in DLM racing in terms of wins.

23 Year old up and coming driver, with TONS of fans and has a few wins including one of the biggest DLM races of the season.

Vs.

50 Year old driver, with a few loyal fans who had several solid top 5 runs this season but no wins (to my knowledge).

If you are going to spend the time and money to sponsor DLM racing to me it is only logical to get the most bang for your buck. If there are other factors at play then I totally understand the reasoning, but short of Francis being the last name of the decision maker here I couldn't imagine it happening.

I'm certainly not looking down on your DLM knowledge (I watched my first DLM race in 2012). You shouldn't act like my opinion does not matter just because of that fact though, our opinions are equally valid regarding DLM racing 2016 as I expect we have both watched and followed the racing about as much as anyone possibly could. My posts are me expressing my opinion, and explaining how I got there. That is how I learned to operate on the internet, if you don't want the explanation then skip it (it's often times in parenthesis which makes that pretty easy).

Thanks,
Jeff.

[Hoosier_Dirt]

Steve Francis switching to Rockets next season??

[Josh Bayko]

Steve Francis switching to Rockets next season??

Word on the street is that a chassis change is happening, and no, it's not Rockets.

[cutman]

You are the one who capitalized the IF not me. I'm just pointing out that being involved in the business you know this stuff. You are overlooking your knowledge of this because you have a bias in the opposite direction (against Mark Richards). If you are not being biased then how could you say it would be a good decision?

28 Year old driver, with lots of fans who drivers for arguably the best team in DLM racing in terms of wins.

23 Year old up and coming driver, with TONS of fans and has a few wins including one of the biggest DLM races of the season.

Vs.

60+ Year old driver, with a few loyal fans who had several solid top 5 runs this season but no wins (to my knowledge).

If you are going to spend the time and money to sponsor DLM racing to me it is only logical to get the most bang for your buck. If there are other factors at play then I totally understand the reasoning, but short of Francis being the last name of the decision maker here I couldn't imagine it happening.

I'm certainly not looking down on your DLM knowledge (I watched my first DLM race in 2012). You shouldn't act like my opinion does not matter just because of that fact though, our opinions are equally valid regarding DLM racing 2016 as I expect we have both watched and followed the racing about as much as anyone possibly could. My posts are me expressing my opinion, and explaining how I got there. That is how I learned to operate on the internet, if you don't want the explanation then skip it (it's often times in parenthesis which makes that pretty easy).

Thanks,
Jeff.

60+ year old driver? Are talking about Francis or Delmas?

[Josh Bayko]

60+ year old driver? Are talking about Francis or Delmas?

He must be talking about Delmas. Steve ain't even 50 yet.

[Clayton_Wetter]

60+ year old driver? Are talking about Francis or Delmas?

Neither I would say. Delmas won races this season. Francis is 49.

[NormP]

Word on the street is that a chassis change is happening, and no, it's not Rockets.

There aren't many left to try without going back to some of the ones he's run before. Pierce or Longhorn I guess, unless he wants to surprise people and go with something like a Swartz.

I'm not sure it's a chassis issue with him anyway.

[W2Racing09]

He must be talking about Delmas. Steve ain't even 50 yet.

I was talking about Francis, I meant to type 50+. Im pretty bad at judging ages I thought he was at least early 50s

[W2Racing09]

There aren't many left to try without going back to some of the ones he's run before. Pierce or Longhorn I guess, unless he wants to surprise people and go with something like a Swartz.

I'm not sure it's a chassis issue with him anyway.

I would really like to see someone run a Swartz on a national series. I think they would make some noise.

[ready2rd]

Far as the Valvoline Deal if my memory serves me correct a very very close friend of The Francis Family brought VALVOLINE into dirt racing and still remains a family friend now how many know who this family friend is, if its true that the Valvoline Sponsor does return to Francis i am confident that same friend helped with this deal.