I’m not sure how much stock IZOD IndyCar Series fans put in the reports and opinions of Indianapolis Business Journal reporter Anthony Schoettle these days. After all, he dared to put out a report card for Randy Bernard back in June — just four months into Bernard’s current tenure as IndyCar CEO. He did return to that piece later in August and amended RB’s grade, but I wonder if Schoettle’s name is still mud to many in the IndyCar base after he tagged Bernard with a “C” on the first article.
But yesterday on his Twitter account (@IBJTheScore), Schoettle revealed that a major, high-profile sponsor would be heading to IndyCar and that officials with the Indy Racing League sanctioning body would make an announcement within two weeks.
According to League commercial division president Terry Angstadt, the new sponsor will rival the promotion already carried out by title sponsor IZOD and that the pact with IndyCar will be a “category-exclusive deal with mega activation.” Those comments are in Schoettle’s latest IBJ piece, which comes out today.
I immediately tweeted Schoettle about whether this would be a legit secondary sponsor like DirecTV was in 2008 (remember the “IndyCar Series in DirecTV HD” logos?). But a fellow IndyCar blogger, “JP IndyCar,” quickly pointed out that this was likely the set-up for Verizon to take a bigger role in IndyCar. He may have a point.
This past offseason, Verizon became the main backer for Will Power on his No. 12 Team Penske machine. Since then, the wireless giant has attempted to push Mr. Power to the public (along with their NASCAR Nationwide Series driver, Justin Allgaier) and has created an IndyCar app for Android mobile users.
But Verizon can only go so far with promotions in NASCAR due to the heavy influence of fellow wireless company Sprint. With that in mind, Penske officials said earlier this month that Verizon will put forth more effort in the IndyCar arena.
An expansion of Verizon’s work in IndyCar would be a nice feather in Bernard and Angstadt’s caps. But as always, activation — getting the series out in front of the mainstream — would be the key. And that goes for Verizon or any other prospective company that chooses to go into IndyCar.
