How to Get Sponsored by Lucas Oil

Few companies have backed as many racers as Lucas Oil. At its peak, Tom Bogner told me, he was "supporting close to 600 teams through Lucas Oil," from tractor pullers to Top Fuel. Bogner ran Lucas Oil's motorsports marketing for 15 years, and his group went through something like 15,000 decks and proposals in that time. I worked alongside him for most of a decade selling sponsorships for the Team Lucas program. Here is what he says got a racer's request off the pile and into the program. ▶ Watch Bogner on the Drag Racing Summit panel

Show you already use the products

Bogner started out as a Lucas customer himself, buying product and racing his own car before the company ever supported him. So the first thing he looked for was a racer who was already running Lucas. "You can tell by looking at their program and reading through their deck, they're already using your products," he said. "And they researched it and they understood, and maybe they didn't win every race, but they were just very active. And I take a chance at them. It's like a gamble." ▶ Watch Tom Bogner explain this

He also wanted a reason tied to the business. If Lucas was launching a new ATV and UTV oil, he was looking for "a guy that maybe his family has a parts store. There's a connection there." Grassroots racers often made the best partners because "they're the ones that are hands-on and they're the ones that their friends are hands-on." Send them a case of product and they share it in the pits, sometimes with someone who later becomes a big influence on sales. ▶ See the full episode

Ask for the product, not "money"

Lucas is an oil company, and Bogner wanted proposals that read like it. "What I used to really enjoy was when I would receive a proposal or a marketing deck from someone and they would list out how many quarts of oil they needed to really support their product," he said at my Drag Racing Sponsorship Summit. "They didn't ask for money, because oil is money. They asked for a specific product." The opposite frustrated him: "I used to receive proposals for people that just would mark monetary. We're an oil company. Like, tell me what really will support you. And then how can you help me sell it?" ▶ Watch Bogner on this

That means knowing the catalog. "Know the products that you're seeking support from," he said. "Don't put a deck into somebody or try to call somebody and you don't even know what the products, what they manufacture." He also picked racers to launch specific products. Tractor pulling, for example, reaches farmers, "so why not put a huge stabilizer, Lucas stabilizer bottle on the side of that big four engine heavy tractor?" ▶ Watch the clip

Be proactive and help with R&D

Lucas didn't want a sticker that just goes down the track. "Are they proactive? Are they just going to put a decal on a car and run a quarter mile or an eighth mile down the track?" Bogner said. "I wanted people that would actually help me on the R&D side while building a brand of excitement with racing." Most of his deals started in person. "It was probably more of a personable like meeting somebody in person and then following them and seeing what they were doing." To make those meetings happen, he went where racers were: "Go out to racetracks, go to events, speak on a seminar, whatever it took." ▶ Watch Bogner on networking

Business connections count too. Lucas Oil measures success by whether sales keep growing, and Bogner pointed to the Sam Schmidt IndyCar team as a model: "Sam Schmidt made a connection to 7-Eleven and now we're doing some private labeling... And now our products are on the shelf in 7-Eleven." ▶ See the full episode

How a champion got the deal

Ryan Beat, a two-time Pro Lite champion, didn't land Lucas Oil with a deck. "It literally started with a flatbed trailer and an off-road truck going to the Lucas Oil off-road races," he said. He and Bogner hit it off, and the series helped by "saying good things about me. That I was a hard worker and a good guy." The order matters, in his view: "First, it's a relationship, and then it grows into a sponsorship, and then you become like family." ▶ Watch Ryan Beat tell the story

For a new racer with no track record, Beat suggests asking for a small test: "Let me prove to you, let me show you what I can do with just a product... help me out with the 500 bucks in product and let me show you how far I can stretch that product." Bogner agreed that a new team is hard to back: "If there's no history it's hard to take a chance on them... maybe I'd start them on a product deal and give them a shot at it." ▶ See the full episode

What turns Lucas Oil off

Bogner named a few things that hurt a request right away. Empty grandstands in your photos: "I want to see the crowd. Don't send me your super comp dragster at Las Vegas Motor Speedway with nobody in the stands at a Lucas Oil Divisional." Brand conflicts on your car: "It could be another oil company, it could be a conflict with a fuel company... So look at the brands that you're affiliated with already before you approach somebody, because that could definitely turn me away right away." And a careless copy-and-paste: "There's people that send out generic ones that may have forgotten to take off a previous brand." ▶ See the full episode

Once you're in, protect the logo. Even product sponsorships get a style guide, Bogner said, because the company works hard to keep its original logo consistent. And if Lucas says no, keep going. "I say no a lot to people over the years," he said. "And then our marketing strategies change and all of a sudden we need that category or that person or their racing has changed. So never give up." ▶ Watch Bogner's final advice

Your checklist for Lucas Oil

• Run Lucas products before you ask, and say so in your deck.
• Ask for specific products and quantities instead of checking a box for money.
• Learn the catalog and offer to help launch a new product.
• Bring a business connection: a family parts store, a repair shop, a retailer.
• Use photos with crowds, and check your current sponsors for oil, fuel or other conflicts.
• Proofread every deck so no other brand's name is left in it.
• Expect to start with product, and follow the style guide once you're in.