The National Guard spent $26.5 million to sponsor NASCAR racing in 2012 to bolster its marketing and recruitment but failed to sign up a single new soldier to its ranks, according to data provided to USA Today. Even though the Guard spent $88 million as a NASCAR sponsor from 2011 to 2013, it is unclear how many new recruits, if any, signed up because of it, according to documents. The Guard on Wednesday would not confirm the figures on prospects and recruits developed through its NASCAR sponsorship. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., who will hold a hearing on the recruitment program Thursday, assailed the Guard for ‘wasting a bunch of money on a very expensive sports sponsorship.’ The Guard received 24,800 recruiting prospects from the program in 2012, documents show. In those cases, potential recruits indicated the NASCAR affiliation prompted them to seek more information about joining. Of that group, only 20 met the Guard’s qualifications for entry into the service, and not one of them joined. In 2013, the number of prospects associated with NASCAR dropped to 7,500, according to briefing materials for the Senate subcommittee on Financial and Contracting Oversight led by McCaskill. The National Guard needs 1 million leads to meet its annual recruiting goal of 50,000 soldiers. The NASCAR initiative, along with the $38 million spent on an IndyCar racing sponsorship, over the same period, will be the target of the hearing led by McCaskill. Rick Breitenfeldt, a National Guard spokesman, said 90% of Army National Guard soldiers who enlisted or re-enlisted from 2007 to 2013 indicated that they had been exposed to information about the service through NASCAR-related recruiting and retention materials. Sponsoring NASCAR and driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. puts the Guard’s name in front of 77 million fans, he said.(USA Today)(5-7-2014)
UPDATE: Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., questioned the Army National Guard’s sponsorship in NASCAR and IndyCar during a subcommittee hearing Thursday afternoon, and the official overseeing those programs said he planned to evaluate them. The National Guard will sponsor Dale Earnhardt Jr. for 20 Sprint Cup races this season. Military contacts are done on a yearly basis. Sen. McCaskill said that the National Guard’s budget for NASCAR amounts to $32 million from a sports marketing budget of more than $56 million. The National Guard does not differentiate between what goes to the team and what goes toward activation. No decision has been set by the National Guard for next season. ‘I will be ‘¦ reviewing all these programs in the next, probably, month,’ Maj. Gen. Judd Lyons, acting director, Army National Guard, said during the hearing.
At one point during the hour-long hearing Sen. McCaskill said: ‘I don’t understand ‘¦ how you can justify the fact that nobody is getting recruited from the NASCAR. The facts speak for themselves. the data is very clear. You’re not getting recruits off NASCAR. This is data you gave us. The reason we know is this because you told us.’
Said Maj. Gen. Lyons: ‘I’m trying to analyze these programs for exactly the reasons that you’re saying. Are they achieving the intended affect? Are they the best use of our our taxpayer dollars? Is that the right thing to be doing? These are things I’m considering as the acting director as a path forward.’(Motor Racing Network)(5-9-2014)
