All things Ryan
Thu Jul 19, 2012 9:16 am
Interesting that this article didn't mention the #39 team.
NASCAR and bass fishing can count on the military to keep the sponsorship money coming. The House voted Wednesday night to continue spending millions for the military to back sports to attract recruits for the all-volunteer force. On a vote of 216-202, the House rejected an amendment by Reps. Jack Kingston, R-Ga., and Betty McCollum, D-Minn., that would have trimmed $72.3 million for sports sponsorships from a $608 billion defense bill for fiscal 2013. The measure had targeted the money the National Guard spends to sponsor Dale Earnhardt Jr., NASCAR's most popular driver, as well as IndyCar Series driver JR Hildebrand. It also would have cut money the Army spends on the National Hot Rod Association drag racing, funds the Marine Corps uses for the Ultimate Fighting Championship and money spent on bass fishing. The House spent most of the day and night debating the far-reaching defense legislation that provides money for war, troops and weapons next year. Yet talk of Earnhardt's #88, bass fishing and NASCAR dominated the discussion. Kingston, a Georgian who says he hails from NASCAR and military country, insisted the sponsorship money was ineffective, attracting few recruits,and made no sense as the Army shrinks from a peak of 570,000 to 490,000 and the Marine Corps drops by 20,000, to 182,000. The end of the Iraq war, the drawdown in Afghanistan and the nation's fiscal woes have reshaped the defense budget, which has nearly doubled in the last 10 years
Thu Jul 19, 2012 1:49 pm
I think the Army has decided on it's own to cut money for the sponsorship of the 39 in their proposal budget to Congress... no matter how the vote from Congress turned out...now maybe, because they have allocated the money, the Army, may choose to keep the their sponsorship on the 39. It is the idea, if you don't use the money you loose the money......Congress always votes money allocated for things the military doesn't want or need, but if they don't use it they loose it.
Thu Jul 19, 2012 7:20 pm
On RACEHUB they confirmed that the decision to not run sponsorship on the 39 is totally the Army's. They decided to go with the NHRA to sponsor Schumacher.... That is very interesting in that the bang for the buck isn't there. NASCAR reaches a far bigger audience than NHRA........hmmmm!
Thu Jul 19, 2012 10:59 pm
The Army paid 7.4 million to sponsor the 39 SHR car and 3 million to the NHRA for Schumacher car. Sometimes you get what you pay for? But I must say the congresswoman from Minnesota, McCollum was delighted with the news the Army decided to cut NASCAR from their budgets. Remember this the next time you go to vote NASCAR fans from Minnesota .....
Fri Jul 20, 2012 9:09 am
Sounds like they just wanted to stop sponsoring either the 39 car or NASCAR in general.
They have been sponsoring NHRA all along...not a new thing.
Fri Jul 20, 2012 12:46 pm
Lets hope SHR remembers when the Prelude is looking for someone to donate Foundation money to. Politics is just that. POLITICS.
