Name the last time Hooters had a major presence in NASCAR at the top level of the sport. Several of you were still hitting your mom’s hooters, and if you were old enough, you probably didn’t have a firm grasp on the brand. 25 years after sponsoring Alan Kulwicki during the 1992 season, Hooters is back as a two-race primary sponsor for 21-year-old Chase Elliott.
Even though it’s a two-race primary deal, it’s a big deal and is something I’ve been saying NASCAR has needed for the past five years or so. They need the redneck brands to jump in with full force. They need Hooters Girls on starting grid hanging out, posing with fans. They need Hooters girls slingin’ wings at the tracks.
Hooters couldn’t have picked a better location to kick off their 2017 race season with Elliott — the Talladega May race. The second primary sponsorship race will be the November Phoenix race. Yeah, we need Hooters at more than two races as a primary, but it’s up one from 2016 when they made one appearance via Greg Biffle’s car at the Darlington throwback race.
The great news though is that the May race will be on Fox. I assume there will be some actual fun coverage.
From NASCAR.com:
“It’s definitely (a sponsor) I wasn’t going to turn down, that’s for sure,” Elliott, heading into his second Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season, said. “I had a lot of fun with it and they’re certainly a fun group of people. Not just the brand, but the group of people that they have to work with behind the scenes. Easy to work with; great to work with. Had a lot of fun. Got to stare, I didn’t get to eat, but got to stare at a lot of chicken wings yesterday. It’s probably good that I didn’t eat ’em. I need to get back in the gym.”
Busch Light came back strong last season as a primary sponsor for Kevin Harvick (I was there in Talladega for the fishing car scheme and it was sweet). Hooters is starting to come back. Hell, give me a Chick-fil A car. Give me a Marlboro car. Go back to regionalized brands. Give me a Skoal car. Just imagine a Skoal car back in the game. The crowds would go out of their minds, piles of samples like the old days. Skoal stopped sponsoring in 2015, but I can’t even remember the car.
NASCAR’s going to need the return of that nostalgia. TV ratings took a beating in 2016. Tracks were empty. Tony Stewart retired. Junior is headed that way – fast. And you have 25 drivers who are pretty much the same robot.
Just maybe the Hooters Girls can save the sport for a couple weeks this year.
