Why chicks dig NASCAR

Sporting News, The, July 23, 2001 by Kathy Sheldon

Have you guys noticed you have company on the couch on race day lately? A recent Harris poll indicated that 48 percent of NASCAR fans are women, although NASCAR's stats say the number is closer to 40 percent. So why are women attracted to a sport that appears to be so firmly rooted in the male domain of the garage?

Getting into the sport doesn't require a pocketful of change. No nickel back or dime coverage. One guy: the driver. One play: Pass anyone in front of you.

Our favorite sponsors. That box of Tide and the piles of dirty laundry awaiting attention on Sunday night look so much less oppressive when images of Ricky Craven's bright orange Ford are racing through your head. (And, hey, women like Budweiser just as much as the next guy.)

Everyone likes power. Forty percent of SUVs are owned by women. Even Barbie had a Corvette.

Every car has a gas pedal. Only a handful of women will ever know what it's like to dunk. But we all know how zero-to-60 on an on-ramp feels, and that "120" is on the speedometer for a reason. So who can resist watching those 190s pop up in qualifying?

Dangers lurk everywhere. Think the usually kind, patient mothers among us know nothing about driving inches from other vehicles? You try maneuvering a minivan through a grade school parking lot at 3:30 p.m. One small mistake and you're getting sideways with some yuppie in a Lexus. Single women who have been spared that scene can tell you about conflict, too: The battle for prime parking spots at the grocery store makes that Tony Stewart-Jeff Gordon pit-road tussle look like child's play.

The bad boys. Speaking of Stewart, he reminds us of those guys we used to date when we were going through that James Dean-worshipping phase.

Trading point. Cruising down any city interstate can make you wonder if that old man going 40 in the fast lane might speed up if you just tapped his rear bumper.

The vicarious thrill. Sure, you tend to get the trucks with the Triton V8s, and auto dealers want to sell us crummy four-cylinder "economy" cars. Watching races gives us a vision of what highway driving might be like if we had enough horsepower to make some moves.

The history. We've all heard that guys played basketball with peach baskets back in the day. And we've heard about the Immaculate Reception. But a sport that started with moonshiners running from the law? Now that's a good yarn.

Miss Manners approves. These guys were raised right. It's nice to see competitors act like gentlemen on TV more often than not rather than utter a string of profanities and promise to maul, mutilate, mangle and mash their opponents. Plus, it's only polite to thank sponsors.

The suspense is better than any prime-time drama. Will Bobby Labonte ever win a race again? What will Brooke wear to Talladega? Will Greg Biffle and Kevin Harvick come to blows? Will Dale Jarrett race the big, brown truck,e

Jeff Gordon. We love him. You know it. That's really why you boo him.

In all seriousness, bringing women into the NASCAR fold is big business. In the past 10 to 12 years, the makeup of racing audiences has changed from a 75 percent male/25 percent female ratio to a 60/40 split, says John Griffin, a NASCAR spokesman.

NASCAR isn't trying to attract only female fans, but bringing women into racing has considerable financial impact for sponsors.

"It's a collaborative effort, as you'll see on the hoods of those cars," Griffin says. "Tide is in its 15th consecutive year of sponsorship, and not to slight females, but I don't think Tide is trying to get me to go into a store to buy their detergent."

Marketers and sponsors also are aware that 72 percent of NASCAR fans say they always or frequently buy brands that sponsor cars, according to Performance Research. A study by EPM Communications says women control 76 percent of a family's disposable income, which affects all kinds of sponsors from McDonald's (Andy Houston) to Kellogg's (Terry Labonte).

Racing has several other things going for it when it comes to attracting fans--men, women or children. It's accessible. Fans have access to drivers in the garage areas even up to an hour before races. The drivers are held accountable for their off-track actions by behavior and conduct contracts that many sponsors require. Network television broadcasts are bringing races into more homes than ever. Plus, the sport, more than any other, visibly demonstrates a sense of family values.

"One thing that might be attractive to females is that when you watch a driver, their spouse is always around them,' Griffin says. "The last thing Jeff Gordon does before he gets in the car, his wife is there with him and helps him get buckled into the car."

Good, clean, family fun. What's not to like? NASCAR has put out a big banner to all sports fans, and it reads "Welcome."

E-mail associate editor Kathy Sheldon at ksheldon@sportingnews.com.