Perhaps Rick Santorum should have taken a little closer look at some of NASCAR's top couples before sponsoring car.
I understand that the reason folks watch a NASCAR race is to gain a respite from the subject I’m about to discuss. But the irony of what I’ve noticed is just impossible to ignore.
Presidential candidate Rick Santorum sponsored Front Row Motorsports driver Tony Raines in the Daytona 500, and has returned to the track to back Front Row’s David Gilliland at Phoenix.
On the surface it’s understandable for Santorum, a Republican, to seek votes in NASCAR, a demographic that certainly leans red. That’s why America Israel Racing is sponsoring a car for J.J. Yeley in the Sprint Cup Series, and why American Majority’s Pledge to Vote campaign is backing Jason Bowles in the Nationwide Series. By any standard, it’s fair to say that these teams are promoting a conservative message. And that’s fine. When it comes to marketing, you go where your message will be best received, whether said subject is beer or the Bible.
My only question is whether Santorum’s team took a moment to look at what NASCAR’s most prominent couples are up to. The candidate has taken what could be reasonably deemed by just about anybody as a less-than-progressive view on the subject of birth control.
No problem. That’s his right. I’m just wondering, considering his strategy of influencing voters, whether NASCAR is the best place to promote his candidacy. Richard Childress Racing driver Kevin Harvick and wife DeLana are currently expecting their first child. They were married in February of 2001. DeLana, who came from a racing family, participated in activities like dance to appease her relatives but had a yearning to succeed at the track.
She did, playing a major role in her husband’s racing operation, Kevin Harvick, Inc. Then she decided she wanted to be a mom, and now a baby is on the way. What do you think happened in the interim between the wedding — 11 years ago — and the current blessed event?
For that matter, why don’t we look at Ryan and Krissie Newman? They married in January of 2004. In November 2010, their first child was born, just before Ryan competed in the season-ending Ford 400.
OK, let’s go all the way to the top and five-time Sprint Cup champ Jimmie Johnson. He and wife Chandra married in December 2004. They welcomed their first child in July 2010.
There are several possible lifestyle/medical reasons for the time gaps between these marriages and starting a family, and those are the couples’ business and no one else’s. But do you see a pattern here?
Maybe’s Santorum’s media buyers should.
Follow Josh Stewart on Twitter @JoshNASCARWWE
