Turn out the lights. The party’s over.

Almost.

Officially, those words from a Willie Nelson song (but sung most famously by Don Meredith on Monday Night Football), are true: The 2013 NHRA Mello Yello drag racing series is in the history books. Congratulations to the winners and champions.

Unofficially, though, there’s one more thing to be done: This column’s listing of the year’s Top 10 stories in the Business and Politics of Drag Racing. Buckle up.
 

Turn out the lights. The party’s over.

Almost.

Officially, those words from a Willie Nelson song (but sung most famously by Don Meredith on Monday Night Football), are true: The 2013 NHRA Mello Yello drag racing series is in the history books. Congratulations to the winners and champions.

Unofficially, though, there’s one more thing to be done: This column’s listing of the year’s Top 10 stories in the Business and Politics of Drag Racing. Buckle up.

10. Sportsman Stew: Cancellation of the O’Reilly Spring Nationals due to major flooding in the inadequate pit area at what seemed the appropriately named “Baytown” Texas track brought the long-simmering issues between NHRA and its sportsman racers to a full boil. (Chronicled in detail by CompetitionPlus.com.) Some even called for the under-appreciated sportsman racing to be divorced from professional national events. A few changes, including better recognition for class winners, calmed the situation but no doubt this story isn’t over.

 9. Story Telling:  NHRA is an under-reported sports league by the major national mainstream media. That’s a big problem the sanction has unsuccessfully -- and too passively -- faced for more than a decade. The late-season departure of longtime public relations/communications vice president Jerry Archambeault provides a new opportunity for NHRA to find The Right Person to create a much-needed friendly-yet-aggressive -- and certainly pro-active -- strategy to get its media-cooperative stars (and their sponsors) in front of the American public. How and who Tom Compton hires for this job will tell us a ton about how serious NHRA really is about becoming a major-league sporting attraction.

 8. The Voices: The two most important communications tools NHRA has, arguably, are its TV and PA anchors. In a rare occurrence, both changed in 2013. Capable Dave Rieff assumed the play-by-play job on ESPN2 when the network didn’t bring back Paul Page. Alan Reinhart and others shared the public address microphone following the retirement of popular Bob Frey. In a season full of complaints, few, if any, were heard about the sport’s new main voices. 

 7. Brother, Can You Spare $100,000?: The cost of racing is one thing. The willingness of some racers, especially in the Pro Stock class, to spend sums on things like shock absorbers that cannot be justified by any logical metric, is another. The depth of the field, not only as measured by car count, but by true competitiveness, is thin. That hurts the show and -- make no mistake -- fan interest. NHRA can’t legislate against stupid. But a more muscular sanction would be able to call a meeting and knock some heads together for the greater good of the sport.

 6. The Epping Upper: Congratulations to NHRA, New England Dragway, Auto-Plus and all others involved in the outright success of the inaugural Nationals. NHRA, its teams and sponsors, benefitted by opening the New England market and some very useful publicity in Boston. It didn’t hurt that Courtney Force beat dad John in the Funny Car finals, either.

 5. The Mello Sponsor: The Coca-Cola Co. continued to treat its NHRA title sponsorship like an unwanted step-child, punting the naming rights off to its wannabe Mountain Dew citrus soda brand. From Powerade to Full Throttle and now to Mello Yello, the one constant has been the lack of enthusiasm and meaningful activation and marketing support for the series. This was especially noticeable -- and offensive -- in light of Coke executive Sharon Byers’ promises of Big Things on a national media teleconference. In retrospect, Byers’ words rank with President Obama’s promise that if you like your doctor and health plan you can keep them. I’m not the only one in the Business of Racing community who wonders, “Why bother?”

 4. Biggie$ Bolt:  A blast of frigid air from the North Pole wouldn’t have a more chilling effect on the drag racing business community than the back-to-back announcements that Castrol and Ford are leaving pro competition after 2014. Although too many in Glendora don’t want to accept it, the fact is this represents a vote of No Confidence in NHRA as a sales vehicle that can deliver an acceptable ROI, at least in the short-to-mid term. Why? See Top Story Number 2. The real shocker is not Castrol and Ford letting 16-time Funny Car champion John Force go. It’s allowing the demographically-correct and potential mainstream celebrity/superstar Courtney Force to take her driving and marketing talents elsewhere. Wow!

 3. Courtney!: There she is, Courtney Force, All-America girl, magazine cover model, national event winner and with a generational opportunity to be the Next Big Thing. Not only in drag racing. Not only in auto racing. I’m talking as a breakout mainstream sports celebrity/superstar. It’s probably not fair to say the future of NHRA is riding on Courtney, but if the sport/industry is to shake-off its current audience doldrums, she’ll have to play a huge role. There’s a chance that could happen, especially with John Force Racing aligning with high-horsepower Hollywood PR firm Rogers & Cowan. Courtney needs to hit the talk show circuit. She needs to be featured in some prominent national advertising campaigns. Most importantly, she needs to make good personal and professional decisions.

 2. Eyeballs: More specifically, not enough of them. As reported exclusively by CompetitionPlus.com, NHRA’s TV audience numbers declined in 2013 for the third consecutive year. And anyone not wearing rose-colored glasses could see all those painfully empty seats at too many national events. (Successful and customer-service oriented events like Norwalk and Bandimere are the exception, not the rule.) Along with demographics and overall media coverage, these are the metrics that affect corporate decisions on sponsorship -- or non-sponsorship.

 1. Leadership: Will the nitro classes return to the historically-correct quarter-mile distance as most fans demand but racers resist? Will the dinosaur-era delayed-TV model be fixed? Can sponsors and ESPN be led into understanding a shorter, more fast-paced, TV presentation better fits today’s audience? Can track operators be convinced The Fan Experience means everything today and make the necessary facility upgrades? Will the sanction finally get on-board with the unstoppable social media reality? Can the national mainstream media be sold on drag racing as a consistently newsworthy story? As 2013 yields to 2014, all eyes -- at least those not on Courtney Force -- will be focused on NHRA President Tom Compton. As they should be.



Follow Michael Knight on Twitter: @SpinDoctor500