(source): www.NASCAR.com

"Our grower-shipper base sees this as a great opportunity to help themselves, help us and help NASCAR," Bertagna said. "The PR that we've gotten from this has been phenomenal. We've placed ads on this in our industry newspapers and the response has been tremendous. NASCAR has national scope and strength. I'm a big fan, and it was easy for me to relate to it.

"The passion that people have for NASCAR is what got us really excited. People like the NFL, people like baseball, but the passion that NASCAR fans have for their sport is just phenomenal. The numbers are just unbelievable."

In addition, Bertagna said professionalism played a big part in Castellini's desire to hook up with NASCAR.
"The drivers, the fact that you don't have these hotshots who do some of the crazy things that other professional players do in the NFL and baseball, you're looking at squeaky-clean, professional athletes with the NASCAR drivers," he said. "It's just amazing the difference between the professionalism of NASCAR drivers as opposed to any other professional sport. We won't offend anyone by putting NASCAR on any of our fresh produce."

As licensed products go, the produce line is not expected to pull down the kind of revenues associated with die-cast or apparel, but it is a niche that NASCAR can use to expand its overall reach in the consumer market as a whole. The margins on produce are razor-thin, and royalties will contribute something toward the bottom line on annual licensing revenue, but NASCAR isn't in this for the money. So why are they doing it?

"It's good to be in the produce aisle," Giangola said. "It's great visibility. It's great exposure for NASCAR. We're basically now in every other aisle in the supermarket."

From Tide detergent to Coke and Pepsi to meat products, NASCAR's reach in the commercial supermarket is impressive, especially when you consider that 15 years ago, NASCAR wasn't much outside the Southeast in terms of influence. Programs like this one with Castellini increase overall awareness of the sport, especially in areas where it isn't quite so visible.

"We have a sport that has different levels of penetration all over the U.S.," Giangola said. "It's in grocery stores in places like Greenwich, Conn., and in some of the tonier parts of New Jersey. Wal-Mart is also one of the key vendors in this program. We're constantly challenged with making NASCAR visible and relevant to casual fans and non-fans who might not be exposed to the sport on a regular basis. This is another way to get that NASCAR logo out there in front of the casual and non-fans, while also giving the avid fan something that might brighten their day and make them more excited about NASCAR. If the NASCAR logo makes the potatoes taste a little bit better, then that's a good thing for everybody."
One interesting aspect of this licensing agreement is the fact that produce is perishable. Having your name on a bag of rotten tomatoes is not good for the brand, and that was one of NASCAR's concerns when approached by Castellini.

"Certainly, with produce, you have the concern that some of the items do spoil," Giangola said. "It's not like die-cast or motor oil, doesn't have that shelf life. But we got to talking to Castellini, and they assured us they do have a pretty good turn and the produce is competitively priced and the items do move off the shelves."

While NASCAR's main business is racing, it's good to remember that businesses grow by increasing brand awareness. Marketing produce is one way of doing that, especially in light of today's low-carb diets that use fresh vegetables as a staple.

Bertagna is already focused on the future, developing new products to license. "Somewhere in the near future, I'm working with some salad companies that we deal with out in California to come up with a NASCAR salad blend," he said. "That's down the road a bit."