MMA Junkie reports that UFC announcer Bruce Buffer will introduce drivers at Sunday’s NASCAR event at the Homestead-Miami Speedway. The move may be seen as a way NASCAR is trying to attract a younger demographic.
This past weekend, UFC Bantamweight Champion Dominick Cruz was the honorary pace car driver at the Phoenix International Speedway. The speedway also announced a sponsorship deal with Cruz.
Bringing in Buffer to do the introductions provides a main event feel for the race. He will fly from Montreal where he will intro the UFC 154 card to Miami on Sunday.
Payout Perspective:
The use of UFC notables in NASCAR may be synergy between Fox properties. It also could be a sign that the sport is looking to skew its demographic to a younger audience. A recent Wall Street Journal article notes that NASCAR business is down. Sponsors have left or have curtailed its support, attendance is down and so are television ratings. Dodge, a NASCAR and UFC sponsor is doing away with its NASCAR sponsorship after this year according to the WSJ article. No word on whether the automaker will keep the UFC as a sponsor.
Although we have scrutinized MMA and its downturn in ratings and PPV buys, this is shows that the other sports are suffering a downturn too. It appears that the UFC is lending its promotional arm by cross-promoting at NASCAR events. With the NASCAR crowd generally in its 50s, it makes sense that NASCAR promoters would like to have a younger audience with disposable incomes. Thus, the UFC demo. Certainly the Fox relationship between the two has helped foster this relationship but it will be interesting to see how much this will help both sports.
Dodge pulling out of NASCAR after this year is due in part to Penske deciding to switch from Dodge to Ford. When Toyota came in they provided extra resources to teams that switched. After a couple years the way things ended up Penske was the last multi-car Dodge team and while that should have meant getting the full resources of Dodge it also left doubts of not having other good Dodge teams to benchmark their cars against. So Penske made the decision early this year to make the switch back to Ford which he had a previous relationship with 10 years ago.
However this year Penske driver Brad Keselowski stepped up and now in the last race of the season has to finish 15th or better to clinch the Sprint Cup Championship. Which would give Penske his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship. Might leave him wondering if leaving Dodge was necessary but a real nice way to say goodbye to Dodge as a partner.
Thanks for the info Matt C.
It would be good for FOX and both UFC and NASCAR if they can create a large cross over fan base. Right now they really have no hwere to go to reach each fanbase. MMA fans are not really big into anyone other single thing. A large cross over would allow Fox to reach UFC fans with ads during races and reach NASCAR fans with ads during UFC. Since they have the rights to each itsw a win win for them. Now its just creating that cross over. Not sure you can reach the die hards of either sport. BUt both have a large casual base that should easily be converted into causually tuning into the other. This will boost ratings for both sports. Be interesting to see if there is a cross over or if they can create one.