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Branding and the Pro Series |
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Page 1 of 4 August 31. For today’s Menards Infiniti Pro Series drivers who want to
make it to the top level of open wheel racing, the IRL IndyCar Series,
it’s all about branding! 21st century drivers need to be more
than just good, fast drivers who can win poles, races, have podium
finishes, bring home championships and those sort of things.
On-track accomplishments in themselves are no longer decisive factors
in getting a seat in an Indy car, they merely qualify the driver for
consideration by a team and potential sponsors. 
Consider Thiago Medeiros, who last year ran off eight poles, six wins
and the Pro Series Championship, while driving for Sam Schmidt
Motorsports. We haven’t heard anyone say that he isn’t a good
driver, but we don’t see him in an Indy car yet either, even though
that’s where he wants to be. But, then there are some other good
drivers around at that level who want the same thing – Buddy Lazier,
Jaques Lazier, Jeff Ward, Adrian Fernandez, Felipe Giaffone, Richie
Hearn, Jeff Bucknum, and now, Darren Manning.
The reality is that there is a surplus of available good drivers, and a
shortage of “seats” and sponsorship money. That means that good
drivers become interchangeable commodities because they are all the
same – they have all shown they can go fast and win races. So
drivers need to be able to differentiate themselves by branding.
What is branding? The concept is quite simple whether it is a
driver, a team, the IRL or a California wine. The driver is the
product and storytelling is the branding process that leads to the driver
becoming a brand name.
At the IndyCar level, e.g., the three most well known team owner brand
names are, alphabetically, Andretti, Foyt and Penske. You know
these legendary names and the stories that made them brand names.
[You can see and feel the Penske story just by visiting the Penske
Museum – see our earlier story, “Don’t Miss the Penske
Racing Museum in Phoenix.”]
But back to the drivers, because they are the ones the fans come to
cheer and buy the products made by the sponsors. There are the
huge legendary Indy car driver brand names that everyone knows,
Andretti, Foyt, Mears, Unser. And then there are today’s IndyCar
stars.
The biggest story and brand name this year in the IndyCar Series is
rookie Danica Patrick. She is fast, has won poles, led races,
including the Indy 500, which she came close to winning, and finished
4th. She was the Indy 500 Rookie of the Year. 
But then there were eight different guys in a row who won IndyCar races
this summer and who have great driver stats, which includes pole
winners, two Indy 500 winners [Castroneves and Wheldon] and three
Series champions [Hornish Jr., Sharp, Kanaan]. [Herta, Franchitti and
Scheckter round out the eight.]
What has given Danica the biggest brand name? Her story! It
is the story that Danica tells about herself. The story that her team
owners tell about Danica. The story her teammates tell about
Danica. The story the IRL tells about Danica. The
story the media tells about Danica. The story that sponsors and
advertisers tell about Danica. And the story that fans tell about
Danica. That is why she is such a big brand name.
Danica’s story is different from all of the other driver’s stories, and
separates her, differentiates her from all the other drivers. She
is a highly recognized name today in this country. And you can’t
say that it is just because she is a female driver. There were
three Indy car female drivers before Danica and they didn’t have the
Danica brand name impact. Danica understands branding extremely
well, and not by accident. She works hard at it.
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