Alliance Truck Parts driving growth 'momentum' with NASCAR partnership

MIAMI, Fla. -- It's been a banner year for Alliance Truck Parts, the all-makes, private label parts brand of Daimler Trucks North America, and one that has seen them literally off to the races.

Coming into 2011 with a full product line, but with customers unsure of who the company was or what they stood for, Alliance opted to kick off a campaign to create some attention, said John O'Leary, senior vice-president of parts and service at Daimler Trucks North America, at a press event in Miami on Nov. 19.

The goal of the Momentum campaign was threefold: to fill in product line gaps with an "assault" of new product launches, to offer dealer support like never before, and to create visibility with its target demographic.

In order to zero in on that demographic, Alliance conducted an owner/operator survey to find a common thread. The result? Alliance found a huge segment of its customer base - some 70% - counting themselves among the 75 million NASCAR fans across Canada and the US.

Armed with this information, and knowing NASCAR junkies to be among the most brand-loyal fans in all of sports (three times as likely to purchase sponsor products as casual sports fans, according to O'Leary), Alliance decided it was high-time they sponsored a stock car on the circuit with the help of Penske Racing. Given Daimler's existing relationship with Penske Truck Leasing, DTNA's largest customer, teaming up with Penske Racing was "hard to turn down," O'Leary said.

The new partnership got underway in April, with Sam Hornish, Jr. manning the #12 ATP Dodge at a race in Dallas. Since then, Hornish, Jr., a former Indy racing star and winner of the 2006 Indianapolis 500, has turned out solid performances for Alliance this year, including a seventh place finish during the press event in Miami and a first place finish in Phoenix the week before.

In addition to the sponsored car, Alliance also lent its name to the ATP 250 at the Michigan International Speedway this summer, attracting some 70,000 fans at the event and 2.2 million watching from home.

Other NASCAR-themed features of the Momentum campaign, with the apt slogan "A pit crew in every part," include its Victory Lane Sweepstakes, ATP gift cards, mobile marketing (via Alliance's Trucker Net app and YouTube video) and increased visibility via trade shows and trade advertising.

The end result of Alliance's endeavours has seen revenues surge 19% over the past year.

"2011 has been a success. Our Web sites have garnered a 500% increase in traffic and we have four times the number of press mention as in any previous year," O'Leary said. "We have generated millions of dollars in media exposure from our NASCAR publicity. We have seen great redemption activity on our ATP gift cards. We have entertained tens of thousands with our mobile marketing; entertained hundreds with our trackside activities; built our product line significantly; seen revenues of ATP grow almost 20%; and helped to lift Daimler Trucks North America's share of the HD parts aftermarket by 2%."

So where do they go from here? O'Leary says that "2012 promises to be the Year of Alliance," with further product launches, even more racing, new Web sites and tools, and further dealer engagement, in order to "keep our competition guessing and customers happier than they have ever been."

For more information, visit www.alliancebrandparts.com.

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Trucks bring it: Even to NASCAR

Before becoming a long-haul driver I never really thought about trucks at all. As a four-wheeler, you see them on the road everywhere and just try to stay out of their way. But after hauling everything from fresh produce and potatoes from farm fields, to auto parts and FEMA trailers, I thought I understood just how important the trucking industry is in getting everything bought and sold in this country where it needs to go.

Still it wasn’t until we arrived at our destination and discovered that it was a NASCAR race track in Talladega that I realized that even events do not happen unless the semi-trucks of supplies, food and equipment arrive to supply important events. I have to admit it was pretty exciting to be a part of the action that was going to happen on the NASCAR circuit.

If you are going to Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama here are their tips and parking recommendations. (These are for the fans but could also apply to truckers as well)

NOTE: The speed limit on Interstate 20 from the Georgia/Alabama border to Talladega Superspeedway is now 55 mph! Leave the high speeds to the drivers on the track!

The Alabama DOT is currently doing construction on two different highways throughout the state that could affect your driving time to Talladega Superspeedway.

Information on I-20 construction between Birmingham and Talladega can be found by visiting http://www.progress20.com.

• Plan your trip in advance, and check the following web sites for traffic and road construction updates before you leave home: – ALABAMA: www.dot.state.al.us
• Make sure and study the route you want to take before coming to Talladega Superspeedway. Then, if traffic is backing up, consider taking alternate routes into the facility.
• Leave as early as possible and allow extra time to get here. This is the most important component in getting everyone parked and seated in time to see the Pre-Race Ceremonies.
• Please note: Traffic flow on Friday, Saturday and Sunday is subject to change.

Directions:

If you are coming to Talladega Superspeedway from the EAST then after the race we are going WEST

Entry – The best route is to exit I-20 at Exit 173 Eastaboga and proceed west on Speedway Blvd.

Exit – Exit by proceeding east on Speedway Blvd. Once you reach I-20, enter the Interstate going west toward Birmingham.

For other directions are found at the web-site

Most people that I meet these days have a friend or someone in the family who is a truck driver and seem to know something about what life on the road is like. But I wish there was a way to make everyone aware of just how important trucking is to economy of the nation and how important transportation issues are to everything we enjoy and take for granted in our lives. Whatever stuff you have and enjoy, Trucks Bring It!

Come to think of it, there is a campaign to promote the trucking industry’s image using the “Trucks Bring It” motto that might help. Trucking companies, state associations and affiliates across the country can use the “Trucks Bring It” campaign creatively to promote the industry. Download the “How to Get Involved”  brochure here.

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Nascar Returns To The Rock

The Camping World truck series will be coming back to “The Rock” in 2012. Rockingham North Carolina was once home to North Carolina Speedway also know as the rock but the track was taken off the Nascar schedule and the race date moved to the Texas Motor Speedway by the track owner Speedway Motorsports Inc. Rockingham sat empty and void of all sounds of horsepower for three years. Then came Andy Hillenburg, a former Nascar driver who had a little cash. Andy bought the track at auction for a little over four million dollars and opened it up to local events and annual racing extravaganza’s like the Polar Bear 150 and the American 200. The Polar Bear 150 is a November race for the Frank Kimmel Street Stock nationals. The American 200 is a UARA and USRA late model pro cup event also in November. If I remember correctly the Polar Bear 150 last year drew an eighty car count for that race including Kurt Busch from the Nascar Sprint cup ranks.

            Now on April 15th 2012 the Nascar Camping World truck series will return to the rock and run the “Good Sam Roadside Assistance Carolina 200 on a Sunday when the Nationwide and Sprint cup series are running Friday and Saturday out at the Texas Motor Speedway. Track owner Andy Hillenburg said that he wanted a date where the two higher series in Nascar were running west of the Mississippi and out of the market in the south east, yet close enough that some of the cup or Nationwide drivers could come out on Sunday and run the first race back at the rock. Weather could be a factor as springtime in the Carolina’s can sometimes be a bit wet but everybody is hopeful for great weather. In order for this event to come about Hillenburg had to invest an additional million dollars in track upgrades including safer barriers, which will be installed in two separate stages. The backstretch will have safer barriers installed by the time the two late model events are ran in November and the turns will get their treatment by the end of January.

With a Nascar event coming back to Rockingham, Teams will no longer be able to test there after December 31. Nascar teams have been able to test there as the rock was not on the schedule for any Nascar sanctioned events. There is a half mile short track behind the rock affectionately named “Little Rock” and since Nascar does not run on it team will still be able to test on it. Little Rock was built to resemble Martinsville Speedway and many teams can be found testing there before the Martinsville races.

This could be a great event, I mean it will be a great event to watch on Television and in order for it to succeed for additional years the fans have to come out and support it. Rockingham was falling on hard times before SMI bought the track for around a hundred million dollars. Fans were not coming out to the races there much anymore and as sanctioning fees continued to climb out of site, (See Nationwide Claim Jumpers) there just wasn’t enough money coming in to warrant continuing racing there. SMI didn’t buy the track to revamp it and save the racing there. They bought it with the express intention of taking the race dates and moving them to other SMI tracks. They must have thought that they were going to make a killing at the other tracks because it cost them a hundred million to do just that. Hillenburg isn’t in it to get rich, he is a true fan of the sport and wants to see racing come back to the rock. Scheduling issues like over saturating the market killed the rock before and now it has a truck series date that the fans can get on board with, we shall see if they show up and support this legendary track.

           I really hope that Andy Hillenburg can pull this off, but his success is going to be riding on ticket prices in an economy that is still in the tank. Nascar needs to step up and chop some of the sanctioning fees off for this event so it can get a leg up and come back to life. There will be plenty of truck parking there and I have heard Hillenburg talk about being able to park trucks there, you just need to call because he needs you to come in through a certain gate. Get out there to Rockingham this spring drivers, show your support for this track. You wont be sorry you did. If I can get a load out there for a Monday delivery I may try to go myself. Nascar fans in general need to get out there and support this track! Its time to step up people.

Stay safe

TW

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Danica Patrick Announced Her Move To Nascar Full Time

The Indy Racing League is licking it’s wounds today as it’s most famous driver at the moment, Danica Patrick, announced her move to Nascar full time starting with the 2012 season. Bob Parsons, the founder and CEO of GoDaddy.com was by her side today in Phoenix as they announced that they would be the primary sponsor on her number seven JR. Motorsports Nationwide car. Gee, that really wasn’t a surprise was it? Danica will also compete in eight to ten Sprint cup races with Stewart/Haas Motorsports but those dates are yet to be determined. All of this hoopla is just the official release of information that the entire Nascar world already knew. I guess red tape gets in the way of everything, not too much stays hidden in this world of Nascar racing.

Here is some of what she had to say at the press conference.

Danica said climbing out of the ARCA car at Daytona in 2010 was “the most fun I had ever had in a race car.” So making the transition to stock cars was the next natural evolution in her career.

“The experience was something I’ve really, really enjoyed,” Patrick said. “The time is now. The opportunity is now. Bob and GoDaddy have made that possible. I want to do it.

“I don’t want to wait years. I want to do it now. And I’m lucky enough to have a sponsor that will stand behind me and allow me to go.”

When asked about starting her cup career with next years Daytona 500 Danica had this to say.

“We’re definitely considering that, but the schedule right now for the Sprint Cup races next year is not set,” Patrick said. “It’ll probably be about eight to 10 races. But the actual races themselves have not been chosen yet.”

I heard Claire B. Lange on Nascar radio ask Tony Stewart if Danica would start her cup career with him in the Daytona 500 and he too hemmed and hawed about the dates. I’m going out on a limb right here and now and say that she will start the Daytona 500 for Stewart/Haas racing. They just won’t announce it yet because they haven’t finalized the paper work yet i.e. her contract with Stewart Haas, or they want another big press day to announce her Daytona 500 debut with her in front of the car, which probably hasn’t been built yet. I’d still put money on her starting the 500 next February.

In other Nascar News, Kevin Harvick won the truck race last night at Bristol in what was an exciting, tempers flaring race. Kyle Busch has been dominant at Bristol in just about all three series but last night he got shut down by Elliot Sadler and his own temper. Now I have watched the video of that incident between Kyle and Sadler and I have to tell you that I think Kyle was wrong here. He was not clear and he ran into Elliot Sadler when he tried to get into the top groove. The retaliation after the fact should get him a penalty from Nascar but you and I both know that wont happen. They would rather have the television ratings first and hope nobody gets hurt later.

At any rate this makes three in a row for Kevin Harvick in the truck series. He can’t compete for the championship points in that series as he has declared that he is of course running for the Sprint cup, but he is eligible for the owners points in the truck series. Actually his wife Delana owns the truck team so in the end if they win the owners point’s championship it will be her name on the trophy. Kyle was heard in a post race interview after being asked why saddler dumped him and Kyle’s response was “Where does his paycheck come from?” meaning that Elliot Sadler works for Kevin Harvick. That may be true in the nationwide series but that truck that Elliot was driving for Joe Denette last night, not Kevin Harvick. Joe Denette was just a normal race fan, and then he won the lottery and decided to start a Camping World truck series team. The Truck Sadler was driving was built by Kevin Harvick Inc. but it was owned by Joe Denette Motorsports.

When Kevin Harvick was asked about the incident between Kyle and Elliot after the race he said, “ You can’t fix a crybaby”. I was laughing so hard last night when I heard him say that I almost couldn’t see the road for the tears in my eyes. Kyle Busch and Elliot Sadler will both be in the Nationwide race tomorrow night so you might want to get stopped somewhere and watch that one. Good luck finding a truck stop that will actually have it on the television in the drivers lounge though. The Nationwide race will be on ESPN2 Friday night at 7:30 P.M.

Me? I’m heading to Indianapolis as soon as this shipper decides that they want to load me. My 1700 appointment got pushed back to 2200. Nice. By the way remember when I said I wanted to ask Mr. Peters why he made such a screwed up clutch pedal? Well I got to looking at it today and there was a bolt under it that needed to be adjusted in order for it to feel right. One minor adjustment and I was back into comfortable clutching. Even with my shoes off lol! The two closets now I still can’t figure. I’m off down the road. Stay safe out there.

TW

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Nascar Heads To Kentucky

Nascar is headed to an inaugural event in the Bluegrass state. Kentucky motor Speedway is finally on the cusp of a Sprint Cup weekend. It wont just be the Sprint cup racing there this week, all three series will be in action at the Kentucky Motor Speedway starting with the Camping World Truck Series on Thursday. Kentucky Motor Speedway was opened in 2000 and is a 1.5 mile tri oval and is located near Sparta Kentucky on I-71. Initially the speedway hosted Nationwide and truck series races but only after a lengthy court battle was fought against Nascar to provide race dates. Kentucky Motor Speedway is owned by Speedway Motorsports, which is a Bruton Smith company. From the beginning of Nascar there has been two major track owners in the sport, ISC, and SMI. The founders of Nascar, the France family, own ISC or Speedway Motorsports Inc. These two entities have been at odds with each other from the beginning, fighting over race dates, inclusion of new tracks and many other issues. It is like two brothers fighting over everything in their lives. This feud has cost both sides millions of dollars and I would bet that they will be at odds with each other in the future, over what is anybodies guess. But at least they finally agreed on the subject of Kentucky Motor Speedway and we now have a full weekend of racing not far form the Cincinnati metro area.

            The truck series is loading into the garage this morning and will have their first practice session at 4 P.M. eastern time with a second practice at 6 P.M. they have an additional practice on Thursday starting at 10 A.M. and qualify at 3:05 P.m. eastern which will be tape delayed for 6 P.M. All of this weekends Camping World truck series racing action will be on SPEED TV. Race time for the University of North West Ohio 225 will be at 8 P.M. eastern time on Thursday. What makes this university special is the fact that they are connected to the racing community with their Applied Technologies degree program. This is a program that covers automotive training along with a high performance Motorsports program. That’s right folks, you can go to college and learn to build, pit and repair various forms of racecars! If I could go there I would be “All In” for this kind of learning!

            After the truck series we have the Nationwide series loading in for their race on Friday night. They will load in on Thursday and practice at 6:10 P.M. before the truck race and again 9 A.M. Friday morning. Qualifying for the Feed The Children 300 will be at 3:30 P.M. on Friday and green flag coming shortly after 7:30 P.M. Friday night. Qualifying will be on SPEED TV and the race will be on ESPN. Last year the race was the Meijer 300 and Joey Logano took the checkered flag for that one. The “Onion” (Todd Bodine won the truck race there last year.

            Sprint Cup action begins with the cup teams loading in on their usual Thursday morning. With all three series there and in the garage area on Thursday I would assume that they have three garages although I could not find any information to that effect on the track web site. The first Sprint cup practice starts at 11:05 eastern time on Thursday morning; the second session is scheduled for 4 P.M. Thursday. Final practice for the cup series is Friday at 11:30 A.M. and this one will be live on SPEED TV. Sprint Cup qualifying is set to run at 5 P.M. eastern time and will also be aired on SPEED TV. The Quaker State 400 will run Saturday night with television coverage on TNT starting at 7:30 P.M. eastern time. I love the Saturday night racing action, I can get a race in and still be with my family on Sunday.

            I’ll be back with more Nascar news and reports as the weekend progresses.

Stay safe out there

TW

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Nascar Is Now North Carolina’s State Sport. Really?

North Carolina Gov. Bev Perdue signed a bill Tuesday at Charlotte Motor Speedway that makes NASCAR the state’s official sport. The bill was an idea that came from North Carolina elementary school students, who discovered that their state lacked an official sport. Really? Did it take this long to figure this out because they thought that there was something else going on in North Carolina? I wonder what the “Tar Heels” think about this? Or how about Duke basketball? Don’t get me wrong, I think its great that Nascar is now the official sport of the state that held its racing roots. I am just shocked that they didn’t have an official sport. As a matter of fact I wonder how many states have an official sport. I live in Illinois now and according to Wikipedia there doesn’t seem to be an official sport for my state. If I had to guess it would be “Attempting to put Governors is prison”. Just sayin.

Among those on hand for the signing were 2011 Hall of Fame inductees Bobby Allison and Ned Jarrett, current Sprint Cup Series driver David Ragan, and the students who originated the bill. “Sometimes it takes really bright kids to tell all of us grown-ups what we ought to be doing,” Perdue said. “And that’s what these students are about today.” The students had worked over a year to get the bill passed. According to a Charlotte Motor Speedway release, the motorsports industry employs nearly 20,000 people in the Charlotte, N.C. region.

            in other news Dover Motorsports Group announced that it is going to move it’s spring race back to it’s original June setting due to soft attendance at it’s recent spring race. I have news for them, it had nothing to do with the date and everything to do with the poor way they manage their race track properties. Dover Motorsports Group has not dropped ticket prices on any races that I know of and in light of this awful economy that is just plain stupidity. They have lost touch with the fan bases at their only two remaining facilities, Dover and Nashville, and fans are trying to tell them about it through lack of ticket sales. I don’t know who is in charge up in there but they must be completely ignorant or just so in debt that they have no choice. They already had to sell Memphis Motorsports park and last year shut down Gateway in my back yard, what is next to get the axe? Nashville? Dover itself? Somebody up there in Dover needs to wake up and smell the coffee because they truly are not getting the message. They can try all they want to blame the rain or lack of it, on the weathermen up there but I’ll tell you this much had there been no threat of rain at all you would have still seen the same empty grandstands.

            This weekend Nascar heads out to wine country. Running at Infinion raceway, a road course that,,well I think is a wasted race date. I’ll make no bones about it, I think road course racing in Nascar is just plain boring and I will be looking at something else to do besides watch a freight train of stock cars chase each other around a road course. I would however love to go out there to see wine country and all that it entails. I imagine there are some really nice places to eat up there as well as the great vineyards. As far as stock car racing goes up there it might be cool to see it live, sort of walk the course and watch it from different turns but it is really boring to watch it on television. If I had to pick a driver to win out there this weekend it would be Carl Edwards. Maybe I would go with Juan Pablo Montoya or Jeff Gordon. Carl seems to take to road courses like a duck to water and Juan came to Nascar from a racing dicipline that predominantly ran road courses. I would however stay away from the road course ringers like Patrick Carpentier and Boris Said due to the fact that these so called road course ringers have not done well for the most part when it comes to Nascar. I hope you all enjoy the racing this weekend including the Nationwide race at Road America in Elkhart Lake Wisconson. I will be working in my garden or watching a movie. its just not my cup of tea.

Stay safe out there.

TW

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