What A Stupid Idea to Name the Brickyard 400 After Brantley Gilbert
This Sunday (7-23), NASCAR fans in their NASCAR hats and their NASCAR shirts and with their little die-cast NASCAR knickknacks will either make their way to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indiana, or huddle around their television sets to witness the running of the annual Brickyard 400. Though not the oldest NASCAR race, the Brickyard 400 has always held a special reverence in the NASCAR season since it’s held at the same racetrack as the Indianapolis 500. “Brickyard” comes from the row of bricks in one section of the racetrack that the winner ceremoniously kisses at the conclusion of the race.
NASCAR and country music have always had a close kinship, including Mike Curb and Curb Records sponsoring cars and races in the past. If you want to flaunt your money and success on Music Row, one good way is to do it through NASCAR sponsorships. Surely that’s one of the reasons Big Machine Records CEO Scott Borchetta has been throwing his cash around in NASCAR recently, including the decision to become the title sponsor of 2017’s Brickyard race.
Calling this year’s race the “Big Machine Brickyard 400” is probably not the most savory development for true country music fans in itself. Since Big Machine is the home of acts such as Florida Georgia Line and Thomas Rhett, they would probably rather not be reminded that such musical vermin exists on Sunday when they’re trying to get their NASCAR on. But such is the way of things in NASCAR, where anything is up for sale if the money’s right.
But Big Machine has announced they’re going the extra mile with their 2017 Brickyard sponsorship, at least for one of their artists: Brantley Gilbert. That’s is right, a country music star will be the named sponsor for a NASCAR event, and Brantley Gilbert and his B-level career is the beneficiary. Brantley will also perform as part of the pre-race festivities, of course.
“We know a fella named Scott Borchetta who can pull some crazy things off,” Brantley said about the honor, likely while slurring his speech like he has a mouth full of marbles because he’s too cool for school to talk normally. “I mean, hell, I’d have been happy with tickets, but he put some ideas together and said he was gonna work on some stuff. I figured we’d may be able to play a song or attend a race like we have in the past, and he came back with this and I was just blown away.”
Of all the great country music artists who had a direct link to auto racing over the years, like Marty Robbins who was a race car driver himself, or Kenny Rogers through his appearance in the movie Six Pack, it’s got to be the semi-successful Brantley Gilbert to land this distinction, and via a big pile of money from his record label no less. I guess Big Machine believes that NASCAR fans are just the right type of Luddites to buy into Brantley Gilbert’s music.
One thing’s for sure, Gilbert needs all the help he can get. While his last two records both sold over a million copies and he was considered the mainstream’s version of a grassroots star, his latest record The Devil Don’t Sleep is struggling mightily, not yet selling 200,000 copies, and yet to launch a Top 5 single. Brantley has always been slightly overlooked by the industry while quietly selling tons of records. Lately though, he’s just been downright quiet.
It’s hard to get too revved up over this development since NASCAR has been open to the highest bidder for so many years, and now that Jr. is retiring, continues to give old school fans serious doubts of why they’re even still paying attention. In many races this season, you look down the running order and often ask, “Who?” which is exactly what many NASCAR fans will be asking when they see Brantley Gilbert’s name emblazoned on every damn thing this Sunday.
He’s the guy that helped write Jason Aldean’s country rap breakthrough “Dirt Road Anthem,” just in case you’re wondering. Yeah, that guy.
July 20, 2017 @ 8:17 am
Instead of pre-race can tbey get him to perform during the race? On the track. In turn 3.
July 20, 2017 @ 8:23 am
NASCAR ain’t been the same since we lost JD McDuffie.
July 20, 2017 @ 8:23 am
“with their little die-cast NASCAR knickknacks”
Ouch.
July 20, 2017 @ 8:28 am
I’m not trying to bag on NASCAR fans here. I’m just trying to illustrate how all-encompassing NASCAR fandom can be, and then when NASCAR forces you to stomach something like naming a race after Brantley Gilbert, how much that’s gotta suck.
July 20, 2017 @ 9:25 am
I really don’t think the name on the race means much to most people. I’m watching the race and couldn’t tell you who the sponsor was for last weeks race or next weeks race. The only reason I might remember this weeks sponsor is this article. But as I’m typing this I’m having to look up to see what the guys name is. Bradley Gilbert? Brantley Gibson? Totally lost on that one.
July 20, 2017 @ 10:45 pm
For most races you’re correct. Fans don’t usually care, but for Indianapolis Motor Speedway and The Brickyard 400 it’s a bit different and this is a travesty.
July 20, 2017 @ 6:18 pm
To Lazy’s point, many times the TV networks completely ignore the sponsored name of a race because that money goes to the track, not the TV network. I guarantee you’ll hear the race referred to the Brickyard 400 way more than by the official name or any name that involves Brantley Gilbert or BMLG.
July 20, 2017 @ 8:44 am
I had hoped to attend, but got too busy at work to break away.
I am happy to be missing it now.
NASCAR and big label Nashville country music are a good pair and are following a similar trajectory (in that many former fans of their respective products have voted with their feet as to how they now feel).
At precisely the time that NASCAR decided to pursue a race at Indy (which is hallowed ground to me), it embarked on an endeavor to jettison the sport’s historical Southeastern roots and try to make it a global phenomenon.
It closed out about 7 – 8 races (and in some cases tracks) in the South and started building staggering new facilities up North and out West.
NASCAR worked very hard to also change its culture from the Southern fan base which had helped make the sport’s 2 owners (the Bill France family and the Bruton Smith family) billionaires.
From my perspective, I felt unwelcome.
So I quit going for ~10 years.
At the request of buddies, I eventually found my way back to the tracks and I now attend ~10 or so races per year.
I go only because, once the green flag drops, all Hell breaks loose and I am drawn to the spectacle like a moth to a flame.
I feel no kinship with the sanctioning bodies and families.
I try to patronize the private vendors who travel from track to track and not the NASCAR-owned vendors.
The people who now run NASCAR are driving it into the ground.
Now, as a result of their globalist vision, they are knocking down large swaths of stands and seats so the vastly sinking attendance isn’t so apparent.
I see entire backstretch stands I have sat in many times and Charlotte, Daytona and Talladega demolished.
The people who started NASCAR actually twisted wrenches and raced cars.
After 2 subsequent generations born on 3rd base who think they hit a triple, the sport is shrinking.
They spent lifetimes in private schools and country clubs, but don’t connect with the fans like their fathers and grandfathers did.
NASCAR was hoping to land a $25 billion tv contract a few months ago (I forget how many years it covered) and it got around $9 billion.
I mingle with the folks in the crowd in the parking lots and camper areas, which is where the real NASCAR culture is today.
The same way that I eschew the Nashville big label music, but love the East Nashville country and folk scene and, of course, most Texas country music.
When I was at the Daytona 500 a couple of years ago, the pre-race concert, which took place right in front of our grandstand, was FGL.
I suffered through it, but it was tough. That sound is awful. Ditto for Brantley.
I can certainly see the affiliation between big labe. Nashville country music and NASCAR – they are both heading in the same direction.
July 20, 2017 @ 10:38 am
You know things are bad when the Bristol night race no longer sells out. For years, that was one of the toughest tickets in all of sports. Hmmm, maybe the Turnpike Troubadours 500, in Thunder Valley. That might get me back…
July 20, 2017 @ 2:46 pm
Bravo Chris, I’m from Winston-Salem and I Saw good racing growing up. I also tend to the “think” I know a good song the first time I hear it. Why I visit this site, most everyday!
July 25, 2017 @ 3:53 pm
Spot on man. Though, I do understand why they had to close a few tracks in the South. One virtue of modern NASCAR is the racing is usually really good. But not always. Now I just want the culture to come back, which was just as much a part of it.
July 20, 2017 @ 10:26 am
my interest in NASCAR has been waning for about a decade now. I still ‘watch’ (at least has the tv on in the room, volume down because the announcers suck… lookin’ squarely at you Darrell Waltrip) but even with the sound off, i feel compelled to not even tune in with a name like that (and i’m pretty sure i watched a race called the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 400…). The Brickyard 400 has also been a shitty race anyway. As hallowed as the venue is, it’s not well suited to cars that big.
July 20, 2017 @ 11:28 am
So now it’s the Shityard 400.
Who’s with me?!?
July 20, 2017 @ 1:15 pm
I do watch Nascar and they need to get Brantley Gilbert off but anyway I still call it Brickyard 400.
July 20, 2017 @ 2:30 pm
NASCAR has basically killed what attracted many to the sport to begin with. It’s all about squeezing as much blood out of this turnip as you can. I can’t tell you the last time I sat through a whole race, or paid enough attention to be able to tell you who was in the points lead. Rules are so convoluted now, it’s just not worth trying to keep up with.
and don’t EVEN get me started on restrictor plate racing.
July 20, 2017 @ 2:46 pm
I hope Clint Bowyer breaks out his George Jones helment in protest
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bj-jGRGIgAAPZte.jpg:large
July 20, 2017 @ 2:51 pm
And numbers for this race has been very dismal the last couple of years,I don’t see Brantley Gilbert helping any.
July 20, 2017 @ 3:12 pm
NASCAR used to have a connection to country music. Corporate types are too high brow to appreciate the music, the lyrics or the story, and lets face it, money is what makes the world go round, and in this case the cars. Not many drivers are country fans either and it has 0 to do with NASCAR. It’s mostly demographics spelled geographics and I assure you sponsoring a race is not going to change peoples minds on the music they like.
I watch the races because I understand what it takes to make those cars do what they do, but, really good racing is local and regional and sprint cars. Ask them how much they or their sponsors spend.
A top tier World of Outlaws team which is a national sprint car series is a multi-million dollar/year effort. A local sat night racer is pay check to pay check. A regional effort is 10’s of 1000’s. Lucas Oil and Craftsman sponsor entire series, ASCS (which is regional and national) and World of Outlaws respectively. It ain’t cheap to buy that advertising.
NASCAR does what it believes to be in its best interest, as does any business. If it fails, so be it. Someone else can ‘try’ to replace it.
July 20, 2017 @ 3:45 pm
Perfect. NASCAR sold out even before Country Music. Cant say I watched a race since I was young, and Cale Yarborough was racing.
July 20, 2017 @ 4:39 pm
Am I the only one who thinks Brantley Gilbert sounds like he is doing an impersonation of Def Leppard? I put him in the Jason Aldean “I can’t take hearing another song” category.
July 21, 2017 @ 9:24 am
I think they record him on the toilet.
July 20, 2017 @ 4:45 pm
as Sunny Ledfurd says “hell no i don’t watch racin’ no more,it ain’t the same since we lost Sr”
July 23, 2017 @ 5:33 pm
Props for the Sunny Ledfurd reference 🙂 I believe he was the first one to sing about pontoon boats, so that has to count for something! Of course, on the other hand, he’s done songs with Colt Ford and the Moonshine Bandits, so let’s not get Kyle too fired up lol.
July 20, 2017 @ 5:37 pm
I understand what the message is here and I love this website for the most part. I am not even a huge Brantley fan but to say Brantley Gilbert is “struggling” or The Devil Dont Sleep is struggling is very misleading and if you go by album sales, as you did, than its just wrong. Since the release of The Devil Dont Sleep in January Brantley has the 4th most selling country album of the entire year. Only Chris Stapelton, Zac Brown Band & Reba have albums this year that have sold more units, and those are huge names. I will leave a link to this information but I dont really think making false statemnts about an artist because this writer personally doesnt like him or her is good writting. Thats just me.
http://www.nashcountrydaily.com/2017/07/14/so-far-the-best-selling-country-albums-released-in-2017-are/
July 20, 2017 @ 6:23 pm
@straitouttanashville,
None of my statements were “false.” What I said was, and I quote:
“While his last two records both sold over a million copies and he was considered the mainstream’s version of a grassroots star, his latest record The Devil Don’t Sleep is struggling mightily, not yet selling 200,000 copies, and yet to launch a Top 5 single.”
All of this is completely true. I appreciate that his sales are still strong compared to some of his peers, but as has been stated repeatedly about 2017 and the mainstream, there really hasn’t been that many blockbuster albums, and most of the bigger names (Luke Bryan, Sam Hunt) are likely waiting till the Winter to release. Yes, Gilbert is still doing fine, but historically, his sales are way down. I also think this is the impetus for putting his name on this race, which is why it was relevant to the conversation.
July 21, 2017 @ 1:41 am
NASCAR and Nashville corporate a match made. The Brickyard is a long boring race. Just so someone can say they won Indy! Debris caution will be early if BG is singing pre-race, it will take awhile to get that off of the track.
July 21, 2017 @ 2:25 am
The racetrack is referred to as the Brickyard because originally it was paved entirely with bricks. When they went to the paved raceway, they left the yard of bricks at the start finish line for tradition.
Yeah, it is a long boring race with no passing and the fans haven’t forgotten the tire fiasco from several years back either.
I guess a silly sponsor is better than no sponsor as far as the race track is concerned. Those are track deals too, by the way.
-W
July 21, 2017 @ 4:53 am
Yeah what’s the matter with these fuckin people? It should be sponsored by Chris Stapleton, Cody Jinks, or Sturgill Simpson just so the guys on “that” website will be happy……LOL Who gives a fuck? I’ll take Brantley any day.
July 21, 2017 @ 7:26 am
Actually I think one of the points is its weird to name it after any individual country artist that doesn’t have direct ties to the sport. Calling it the Sturgill Simpson 400 would be even more weird in my opinion.
July 21, 2017 @ 8:02 am
You know what Trig it’s becoming so ridiculous with everything having to be named after or sponsored by some company just for extra cash. Brantley has a good manager, all your boys should be so lucky. Granger Smith’s manager had him playing an acoustic in store at a K-Mart by my house to 100 people. A store which had 0 copies of Granger product to sell, promote, or sign! For what? K-Mart is a losing brand that’s going under!! The radio station has K-Mart as a sponsor. He’s now doing the county fair circuit playing to 400 in Bum fuck Wisconsin last week. WTF? He’s being mismanaged. They just let him put out some pop single co written by the FGL guy that’s horrible. (Btw thanks for not reviewing it and tearing it apart…lol) The point is sometimes in this business a manager makes a great decision and sometimes not. Good for Brantley, it can’t hurt him but I know it hurts you guys….lol
July 21, 2017 @ 8:53 am
In the business, eh JB?
Considering that NASCAR is a dying sport and the traditional Nashville music business is dying as well, this just seems like hand-holding in adjacent hospital beds to keep each other company until the inevitable happens.
Not so sure that’s a great idea by a manager but you continue to milk that cow until the sod is laid o’er you, K JB? 😉
July 21, 2017 @ 9:38 am
I’m no longer in the business and you are correct I know nothing about NASCAR it just sounded like it wouldn’t hurt him but I do see what you’re saying. I have no idea how many people that race draws live or on TV. I know it’s better than playing an in store at K-Mart to 100. …lol A truly Spinal Tap moment! Poor Granger.
July 21, 2017 @ 5:11 am
I never cared much for NASCAR, but I completely lost interest when the cars were no longer stock cars and started looking like plastic spaceships. Richard Petty’s Dodge Charger looked pretty much like a Dodge Charger. Cale Yarborough’s Olds Cutlass looked pretty much like an Olds Cutlass, metal bumper and all.
Nascar’s PC bullshit was the final offense. When tobacco sponsorship waned and was finally banned, it was pretty clear that the jig was up. I wish I still has my die-cast Skoal Bandit car….
July 23, 2017 @ 7:09 pm
Tobacco sponsorship (in particular that of so-called ‘smokeless’ tobacco) was stopped because tobacco is a harmful product; it wasn’t done to be ‘PC’ or anything else obdurate unprogressive white people like want to call it. And I personally don’t really see what’s wrong with today’s stock cars other than safety features and the fact that some of them are made by Toyota or Nissan. If you don’t like this guy or any sponsorship, that’s fine, but the other stuff is just petty bullshit on your part.
July 24, 2017 @ 8:07 am
Best(probably first) use of obdurate on this site. Congrats on being superfluous.
July 24, 2017 @ 10:55 am
Racing is harmful to some. Also, beneficial to some. Like tobacco.
And NASCAR cars used to be actual stock cars. You could go to the dealer and buy the same base car that Petty or Yarborough used to make their racers. Now they’re all tube frame cars with nearly the same plastic silhouette body. As far from stock car as Brantley is from country music.
July 21, 2017 @ 5:28 am
Brantley Gilbert is fucking douchebag loser. I didn’t even read the article but I feel like this is relevant.
July 21, 2017 @ 5:39 am
I grew up going to NASCAR races with my grandfather in Alabama so I have a respect for the sport. I can’t say I’m surprised to say the least, it’s been getting further away from what it used to be already so I’m not surprised. I’ve grown to love rally/canyon racing these days. Maybe we will get lucky and see a “Metamodern Sounds Rally Race” to counter this bullshit. Pointless morning rant complete. Hahahaha
July 21, 2017 @ 5:43 am
It is a little bit weird, but I could care less.
People can put their money behind anything they want to advertise it.
July 21, 2017 @ 6:04 am
Popularity is cyclical, just like anything else.
July 21, 2017 @ 8:21 am
I was never a big NASCAR fan but I always appreciated the culture behind the sport. It was truly a love affair between fans and racers. But NASCAR wanted to be bigger nationally and to do so they had to dial back the Southern Culture because God forbid, the new fans couldn’t adapt into the existing culture. And thus you have the struggling product today. Like Country Music, NASCAR wanted to be cool instead of being comfortable in its own skin. So the results are a sterile product, sterile culture and sterile cars.
I recommend the book, “Driving with the Devil.” It is the real story of NASCAR’s roots not that the sanitized corporate version presented by France and his heirs.
July 21, 2017 @ 12:12 pm
I never heard of the book.
I will order it right now.
Thanks.
July 21, 2017 @ 12:27 pm
You are very welcome.
I found one day in my local library and devoured it.
Cars 3, in fact, mentions the moonshine running past for race cars.
July 21, 2017 @ 8:51 am
What’s next, a “Midland / Big Machine Vintage Western Wear – Inspired” line of clothing sold at Urban Outfitters. It could happen….
July 21, 2017 @ 9:41 am
LOL……. I KNOW that would work in the suburbs of Chicago but not with Midland. Easy $$$!
July 21, 2017 @ 10:07 am
As an avid reader, and open Brantley Gilbert fan, his most recent album is awful and he has become a caricature of himself. He is not aging well. His career is on the way down.
July 21, 2017 @ 10:24 am
“Brantly Gilbert” sounds like a name from “Gone With the Wind” that got tossed in the trashcan in favor of “Ashley Wilkes.”
amirite?
July 21, 2017 @ 12:08 pm
Its from the Country Music Name Generator (CMNG.) Its a giant centrifuge that takes a mix of stereotypical Southern names, moon pies, sweat tea, and Duke’s mayonnaise. Then it whirls them around and spits out crafted names like Thomas Rhett, Blake Shelton, Luke Bryan, Dierks Bentley, etc. You can use the names in any order, or even switch them around. Rhett Thomas, Shelton Blake, Bryan Luke, Bentley Dierks, etc.
July 21, 2017 @ 12:39 pm
Truly one of the worst acts out there…Brantley blows.
July 21, 2017 @ 4:55 pm
Love some country rap. Brantley is a good dude Trigger. #stopthehate
July 22, 2017 @ 9:53 am
Paint chips: they’re not for eating.
July 22, 2017 @ 9:14 am
This a douche move even taking Scott Borschetta’s and Brantley Gilbert’s established doucheness into account!!!
July 22, 2017 @ 8:54 pm
Yeah, back in the NASCAR ‘n country music were great. Now everything’s gone down the tubes with the corporate shill shit, ‘n foreign drivers. It just ain’t made in the good old USA like it once was. It’s millennials and their iPhone corporate worship ‘n shit that’s the problem. We need to punch ’em in the face and make country music great again! Teach ’em Sturgill Simpson, Johnny Cash, and the old legends of country music! No more PC rigged shit!
July 23, 2017 @ 2:18 pm
Brantley’s the man. I think he’s a good face for NASCAR. Great country music singer and reinventing the term at the same time.
Go BG Nation!
July 24, 2017 @ 5:34 am
Way to go Kasey Kahne! My in-laws favorite driver finally gets a win after a 102 race drought. And I still have no idea who that Bradley Garnett fellow they keep name dropping is and could care less.
July 24, 2017 @ 6:46 am
Did anybody watch the race? I tried to watch the last 3 laps and I got tired of waiting. I did manage to catch the ‘end’ of it by chance, when flipping around what–maybe an hour later? And you call that a finish??
NASCAR fans could squash the stereotype of being stupid by rising up and completely boycotting the sport until they fix it.
17 cautions?? And what the fuck are these stages all about??? I guess it’s better than ‘competition yellow’ which caused me to turn the channel the first time I heard that term.
People are still ‘drawn to this spectacle’??? Why? For 5 or 6 minutes of loud noises followed by a 10 car mashup of a collision, then 25 minutes of slow speeds and tire changes?
If they started running these things like late model, with 2 semi-features feeding into a feature race, and they got the cars out of these nose-to-tail packs they run in, I might watch that. In the meantime if I had to go to the track I would try to slip out after the Brantley Gilbert concert–before the queasy stomach he would cause turned into an ulcer from having to actually sit through the race.
In the meantime I’ll just play the NASCAR Home Game–watching my brother-in-law work on the piece of shit cars he buys. He’ll fire them up and rev the motor up until it konks out. Then he’ll beat on it with a hammer for a bit. Then he’ll rest a spell and drink a Busch Light and yell and cuss some. Then he’ll put some more gas in it. Then he’ll fire it up and make some more noise until it konks out. Repeat.
Same effect as Nascar at half the price. Sometimes he even paints numbers on the door.
July 24, 2017 @ 11:07 am
One of the funniest moments in NASCAR selling bits of it’s heritage was quite a few years back when Gatorade started sponsoring the winners circle. This time the winner’s car was sponsored by competitor Powerade. So the winning driver pulls into the winners circle, sponsored by Gatorade, and gets out of his car for the interview. A NASCAR employee puts a bottle of Gatorade on the winner’s Powerade car.
With out missing a beat during the interview the driver sweeps his arm back and knocks the Gatorade bottle off his Powerade car. The NASCAR minion finds the Gatorade bottle, picks it up and puts it back on the Powerade car. The driver, again without missing a beat or turning away from the interviewer reached back and knocked the Gatorade bottle off again. This was repeated four or five time during the interview, with neither NASCAR minion or the driver saying a word about it. Just one picking it up and the other knocking it down during the course of the interview, each battling for their sponser.
July 25, 2017 @ 5:30 pm
Longtime lurker here…so my thoughts will be over the place.
Just announced today that Cody Jinks will be the prerace concert for the Bristol Night Race.
I hated the name of this race when I saw it for the first time. But I’m not gonna lose sleep over it.
However its not NASCAR that names the races it was IMS.
They had a concert on Saturday on the IMS grounds with The Chainsmokers, Major Lazer, Mac Miller, Pretty Lights, DNCE and Cheat Codes
Not a country act.
Back in the day there was a NASCAR Busch Series race named the Trace Adkins: Chrome 300
Yes it sucks to endure the hell of prerace concerts of some garbage country acts..I had to endure Brantley Gilbert at Chicagoland Speedway…but i was there for the race not him. also had my ear plugs in lol.
I have really strong mixed feelings for Mike Curb and Scott Borchetta. While they are not helping the progress of country music. The support they bring to racing is unreal. I’ve seen so many cars sponsored by Curb Records and Mike has been in the sport for more then 30 years. And Big Machine Records helps the late model division at Fairgrounds Speedway.