Ashley scored a coup, bringing Menards aboard his Davis Motorports as an associate sponsor for the remainder of the season.
That’s “oceanfront property” in motorsports sponsorship, and Ashley’s B2B approach reflects the Ithaca College graduate’s love for the business and marketing side of racing.
“The world is changing, but the basic principles stay the same,” he said. “My goal is to provide value for our marketing partners by making them money. Winning on the track is great and it’s an added bonus, but ROI is what counts. I’ve taken that principle and worked backward from there. Most of the time, I’ve found B2B is the way to get that done. We were focused a lot on that during the downtime. Menards was huge for us. Our program is working in tandem with Menards on a B2B level. I’m excited to work with them.”
For Jack Beckman and Antron Brown, family was front and center during the shutdown.
Brown participated the Jr. Dragster exploits of his sons, Anson and Adler, and their performances were something he definitely didn’t want to miss. In four starts, Anson Brown won the first two, was runner-up at the third and finished the fourth with a semifinal appearance.
Younger brother Adler Brown registered a runner-up finish and, dad said, “a whole bunch of semifinal finishes.”
Antron Brown won 16 races in the Pro Stock Motorcycle class before earning 50 victories and three championships in Top Fuel.
“The ongoing joke is, ‘Dad, we’re going to catch up with you this year.’ I said, ‘I’ve got to start first,’” Brown said.
Anson Brown has been his father’s toughest critic, even asking him during the practice before the season restart if he shut his engine off because he was scared.
But the playful champ got in his own zinger, telling his son during a Jr. Dragster debriefing, “If your sister (Arianna) was still driving, she’d get it right.”
Beckman showed his love of the sport’s history, sharing results from his studies that go back to 1951.
“I’m up to 1960,” the 2012 Funny Car champion said. “And what I’ve discovered is there’s a ton of bad information out there and a ton of people who were there at the time and got it wrong. I’m trying to corroborate and be factual. It’s been an amazing trip through history. I talk to Ohio George Montgomery on the phone often, and Tommy Ivo, Don Garlits, Don Prudhomme, Roland Leong. All that has made the 400 hours of research worthwhile.”
But Beckman’s son, Jason, 13, and daughter Layla, 9, had dad to themselves whenever they wanted.
“It was awesome, just getting to wake up each morning and see my kids and hang out with them,” Beckman noted. “If I was working in my garage and my son said, ‘C’mon, dad, I want to play knee hockey,’ I sat down the tools and went inside and we played knee hockey. If my daughter wanted to play hide-and-seek, we played hide-and-seek.”
Nitro-class champions J.R. Todd (Funny Car) and Shawn Langdon (Top Fuel) said they wanted to make sure they could slide back into their cockpits when racing resumed, so they incorporated an exercise routine into their daily lives.
“Over the last few years,” Todd said, “I’ve believed the training I’ve done in the gym has helped me with my success. We do a lot of high-intensity circuit training mixed with reaction work to try to simulate me being inside the car and see how I perform.”
Once stay-at-home orders went into effect, his work-at-home regimen included work on the stationary bike, rowing, resistance bands, core exercises or “just getting outside and walking around the neighborhood.”
Langdon had some fun with iRacing and even gained some driving tips. But he was serious about cooking at home.
“Every pound counts on the race car and I am definitely watching what I eat,” he said. “I am cooking more at home, which is cutting down on the fast-food meals. I wasn’t eating a lot to begin with, but home cooking is better for everyone, I think.”
He, too, burned off his meals.
“I have some personal workout equipment in my basement, so I have been able to exercise at home since my regular gym is closed,” Langdon said. “I have a little more time to exercise, which is good and also helps to break up the day. I just try and stay mentally and physically sharp.”