Bob Pockrass: Pennzoil launches new product, but are Kevin Harvick, Richard Childress Racing part of its NASCAR future?
Kevin Harvick's Pennzoil-adorned car and helmet. // Dale Mattila, NASCAR Illustrated
COMMENTARY
LAS VEGAS – Pennzoil’s launch of a new product Friday night at Las Vegas Motor Speedway was a pretty elaborate affair, with a nice dinner and plenty of smiles from team owner Richard Childress to Kevin Harvick to Pennzoil and Shell executives.
It could have been one of those feel-good sponsor-team-driver moments that make you think that this partnership has a long future. But this wasn’t a normal event, not with the invisible 800-pound elephant in the room.
Amid all the smiles, it was hard to ignore the fact that both Harvick and Shell/Pennzoil have contracts with RCR that run out at the end of 2010. A casual observer would never have known that Friday as Harvick, Childress and Lisa Davis, the president of Shell Lubricants North America, all dined together.
Just how in sync are these folks? Davis said this when asked about whether Pennzoil will stay with Harvick and/or Childress next year: “Right now, we’re focused on winning on Sunday. That’s really our priority.”
This is what Harvick said a few months ago about the situation: “It’s all about winning races, and that’s all I care about. We’re going to come into the season, and we’re going to race a lot this year, and we’re going to have fun.”
What can’t be debated after attending the product launch of Pennzoil Ultra on Friday is that Shell/Pennzoil seems committed to its NASCAR program. It uses RCR to help develop products, and the new oil was used in the team’s car for Harvick’s Budweiser Shootout victory at Daytona.
“This is a good example of why NASCAR is so important to us,” Davis said. “It enables us to develop products like this and bring our innovation and technology to the market.
“This is key. … It really gives us a neat environment to test our oils under the harshest of conditions. That’s important for our customers.”
Davis even joked during the car unveiling that the car wasn’t one Harvick drove because it didn’t have a scratch on it. Harvick had scraped the wall in his race car earlier in the day.
It would have been hard to joke about anything with Harvick eight months ago when things between him and Childress were unraveling. But things have gotten much better since then and Harvick leads the points standings after two races.
It’s hard to imagine that Harvick still isn’t leaning toward a fresh start somewhere else. But with each good run and each happy sponsor appearance, it makes one think there is still a chance he will stay at RCR.
Of course, Shell/Pennzoil could move with Harvick to a new team, but the testimonials of engine builders Richie Gilmore and Danny Lawrence, as well as Childress, could make it hard for the company to leave.
In an age when sponsors have so much influence on which driver is in their car, Shell’s influence on Harvick’s future, as well as the future of RCR in general, can’t be ignored.
Right now, Pennzoil apparently is helping RCR win races. Now the big question is if the sponsorship can keep the RCR organization’s engine running.
