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Tag: Dogecoin

  • The Final Word – Wide open fan vote to make Josh an all-star was not all that Wise

    The Final Word – Wide open fan vote to make Josh an all-star was not all that Wise

    Vote early, vote often, or so it seems when it comes to selecting the driver the fans want to see. I am talking about the driver more individual fans want to see than anyone else get a free pass to Saturday night’s feature race. If that is not good enough, how about selecting the one who can get more people to vote for him, hundreds or thousands of times each. Such great fans these voters, most of whom are all about voting but know zip about NASCAR. Many would not know the difference between Lee Petty, Leroy Van Dyke, or the Dutchman with the paint brush. Josh Wise got in the Sprint All-Star race, and at least managed to still be running at the end. His sponsor, Dogecoin, got all sorts of publicity, and Danica Patrick, Kyle Larson, and Austin Dillon got screwed.

    Jamie McMurray is not the winningest driver who has ever come down the pike, but he wins those that matter. Not only has he won such name events as the Daytona 500, the Brickyard 400, and now the Sprint All-Star race, all of his wins have come on tracks that matter. All seven points race victories, as well as the million dollar exhibition win last Saturday night, came either at Daytona, Charlotte, Indianapolis, or Talladega. You know, tracks that attract spectators, be they in the stands or watching from home. His wins have value…probably worth at least a gazillion Dogecoins.

    Sam Hornish Jr won the Nationwide race over the weekend. How sweet it was to see a junior circuit contest featuring not a single Cup guy. What I do not get is how Hornish, a three time IndyCar champion with 19 victories, has not done better driving these sedans. No wins in 131 Cup starts leaves him in Danica country, but she got the sponsor, the fans, and all he has is three Nationwide victories and a Sprint Showdown win in 2009. I’m guessing he needs longer hair.

    Next weekend is truly the big one in motorsports. Kurt Busch will not be attempting the triple, thus he will not be running in Sunday’s Monaco Grand Prix. He will leave that to Lewis Hamilton, who will be seeking his fifth consecutive win of the season. As for Busch, he will be starting 12th in the 98th Indianapolis 500, then winging it to Charlotte for the 65th World 600.

    As we return to racing for wins and points and a place in the Chase, Joey Logano and Kevin Harvick lead the parade with two wins each, but a spot is open to any of more than thirty drivers who can take the checkered flag in Charlotte. Even Josh Wise can do it…but I wouldn’t bet a whole lot of Dogecoins on it.

    1 Joey Logano 2 wins,  346 pts
    2 Kevin Harvick 2 wins,  302
    3 Jeff Gordon 1 win,  394
    4 Kyle Busch 1 win, 373
    5 Dale Earnhardt, Jr. 1 win,  368
    6 Carl Edwards 1 win, 367
    7 Brad Keselowski 1 win, 326
    8 Denny Hamlin 1 win, 318
    9 Kurt Busch 1 win, 211
    10 Matt Kenseth 379 pts
    11 Jimmie Johnson  340
    12 Ryan Newman  332
    13 Greg Biffle  328
    14 Brian Vickers  327
    15 Kyle Larson  318
    16 Austin Dillon  306
    17 Kasey Kahne  294 pts
    18 A.J. Allmendinger  293
    19 Paul Menard  292
    20 Marcos Ambrose  288
    21 Clint Bowyer  282
    22 Aric Almirola  278
    23 Tony Stewart  268
    24 Casey Mears  262
    25 Jamie McMurray  246
    26 Ricky Stenhouse, Jr.  240
    27 Martin Truex, Jr.  232
    28 Danica Patrick  213
    29 Justin Allgaier  198
    30 Michael Annett  163
    31 David Gilliland  159 pts
    32 Cole Whitt  147
    33 Reed Sorenson  143
    34 Alex Bowman  141
    35 David Ragan  137
    36 Josh Wise  130

     

  • Why the DogeCoin Car Means More Than Just A Simple “Meme”

    Why the DogeCoin Car Means More Than Just A Simple “Meme”

    When Dogecoin and the “NASCAR on Reddit” community announced their intention to crowdfund a sponsorship for a NASCAR team, some in the sport, myself included, thought it would never happen.

    Crowdfunding in NASCAR has happened before, such as America’s Racing Team, a team that was actually designed to be owned by racing fans. This was a complete failure by all accounts, never even getting a car onto the race track. The cheapest package one could buy, a $300 “partnership,” wouldn’t even cover the cost of a set of tires in the Sprint Cup series. The biggest package they offered, a $2000 “76 Pit Crew Partnership,” would go about as far in Sprint Cup as a Dodge engine would. It has been estimated that it costs about $10 million to run a Sprint Cup team full-time. This means they would have needed, by my calculations, 5,000 people to basically throw away $2000 in order to get a car on the track every year the team isn’t sponsored. And of course this isn’t counting expenses such as haulers and renting a garage to put the cars in.

    But unlike ART, Dogecoin has no intention of starting a team or sponsoring somebody for a full season. Rather, they took a safe risk with one of the cheapest teams in Sprint Cup (Not a dig, but I really doubt the Phil Parsons 98 car was/is as in-demand as the Dale Earnhardt Jr. 88 car), on a track where anybody can make the race or even win it.

    Dogecoin and “NASCAR on Reddit” raised $55,000 to become a partner sponsor for the No. 98 of Josh Wise and earn the right to put a Shiba Inu and such statements as “wow” and “much drafting” on the car for one race at Talladega. Not only did Wise make the race but he performed exceptionally well, running near the front often and getting a lot of nationally broadcasted television time. As a thank-you, Phil Parsons, the team owner, gave Dogecoin the opportunity, free of charge, to be a part of the All-Star race weekend which includes the Showdown, and if the community votes Wise in, the actual All-Star race. When NASCAR announced the top 10 vote- getters as of Monday, many were shocked to find Wise among the 10. Some believe that Wise might be able to sneak past popular stars Danica Patrick and Clint Bowyer to win the fan vote.

    This sponsorship might just revolutionize how many of the smaller teams will approach sponsorship with crowdfunding of cars now becoming an actual possibility. Obviously I doubt they would be able to find enough crowdfunding to sponsor a car for an entire season (Dogecoin would need to raise around 2 million dollars for an entire season), but it still leads to more fan interaction and more attention for smaller teams. Smaller teams are an important part of NASCAR; there are about 15 Sprint Cup cars that are not really affiliated with a big team. If we don’t support them and don’t give them attention, we may end up with four teams basically controlling the sport- Roush/Penske, Hendrick, Childress, and Toyota Racing Development. That’s bad for business and bad for competition.