NASCAR licensing VP says card deal progressing
By Chris Olds | Beckett Sports Card Monthly Editor
A dozen races into the Sprint Cup season, NASCAR‘s search for a replacement for Press Pass continues.
Blake Davidson, NASCAR’s Vice President of Licensing and Consumer Products, told Beckett Media in an email on Thursday that the organization is still gaining traction on a deal with a future trading card licensee.
“Still finalizing a new agreement in the space,” he said. “Making good progress, but not there quite yet.”
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As it stands right now, the sport isn’t without new cardboard for 2015 — Press Pass’ final release was its flagship released closing its doors on Jan. 5. The move came after 22 years in cardboard and the company had been NASCAR’s sole trading-card licensee for several years.
Of current trading-card manufacturers, only two have previously issued NASCAR cards. Upper Deck created sets from 1995 to 2000, while Topps tried with eTopps in 2003. Rittenhouse produced a card set for the Indy Racing League back in 2007.
Panini America has not produced NASCAR cards, but the Action Packed and Pinnacle/Score brands that were produced throughout the 1990s are part of its portfolio. Panini also recently hired Press Pass’ former VP of Operations, Nick Matijevich, to work in product development. Matijevich built NFL products for Donruss/Playoff while working for the company from 2000 to 2005 before he moved to Press Pass.
Chris Olds is the editor of Beckett Baseball and Beckett Sports Card Monthly magazines. Have a comment, question or idea? Send an email to him at colds@beckett.com. Follow him on Twitter by clicking here.
I hope this is true, I am rooting for pannini because they believe in promoting their product. This should allow for more to collectors to become aware of the hobby. They also as said above how a few employees there that have worked racing before or are fans/collectors themselves.
I hope it’s Upper Deck. They have the capability of producing excellent quality collectible cards that I think NASCAR fans will demand. If it is any of the other companies, I am afraid they will cheese out on design, because it isn’t their main bread and butter, and the cards will look just like all their other brands in football and baseball.
This year marked the first time I wasn’t able to rip open a new hobby box of racing product while watching the Daytona 500. I’m hoping they get a deal in place and cards to market before next seasons race so I can begin the tradition again. Though this break has allowed me to fill in some cool cards as singles so there’s always a plus.
This hobby also needs… The small 10 card sets like there were in 1992-95 for Grocery stores, Fast Food Restaurants etc.
They are really needed to enhance get the word out about NASCAR.