NASCAR Diamonds in the VHS Collection

For the last few months, I’ve been working to preserve the past for the enjoyment of the future.

Less eloquently put, I’ve devoted hours to slowly digitizing my family’s large collection of VHS tapes that for years sat in a cabinet in my parent’s living room, going unwatched and forgotten.

Why is this relevant to this week’s column?

Well, mixed in among tapes that include the two-hour series finale of Star Trek: The Next Generation, family home videos and recordings of Flight of the Navigator and Rio Bravo are a fair share of tapes with NASCAR and IndyCar history on them.

There’s the tape that has the full CBS broadcast of Dale Earnhardt Jr.‘s first NASCAR Cup Series win in the 2000 DirectTV 500 at Texas Motor Speedway.

That tape also has the post-race show aired by the Dallas-area CBS station, complete with a feature on Adam Petty and how he fared in his first, and what would be only, Cup start.

After that?

The next day’s broadcast of ESPN2’s “RPM 2 Night,” covering Earnhardt’s win and everything else that happened over the preceding weekend in motorsports.

And on those tapes, which include the 1999 Pepsi 400 at Daytona International Speedway and the 2007 Daytona 500 qualifying races, are commercials.

Glorious, hilarious, dramatic and forgotten commercials.

Thirty-second and 60-second gems from when the marketing departments of NASCAR sponsors gave a damn.

This week, I’m going to share some with you.

First off, from 2007.

Dale Jr. was still with Budweiser and at the height of his marketing powers.

And DirectTV was still broadcasting channels with on-board cameras and radio communications.

So this little diddy was produced.

Seventeen years later, I don’t think many other drivers could have sold that closing line quite like Dale Jr.

Now time to go back to 1999.

Before Dale Jr. and Budweiser, there was Jeff Gordon and Pepsi.

There was also the Pepsi Girl, aka Hallie Kate Eisenberg — the sister of actor Jesse Eisenberg.

Twenty-five years ago, their powers combined for this commercial.

A classic NASCAR-related commercial where the sport or the driver isn’t being made fun of and everyone’s in on the joke.

Anyone out there taking notes?

Now let’s switch our attention to NASCAR’s other Jeff.

Before I digitized it, I had no memory of this Exide commercial featuring not just Jeff Burton, but team owner Jack Roush.

The ad does a great job of putting together a 30-second narrative with a beginning, middle and end.

Including Roush as folsky, small-town judge is a just the perfect touch.

This was also during a time when a good chunk of the Cup Series field could be seen in ads and not just the one or two we see today.

Heck, in 2007, Bill Davis Racing’s No. 22 Caterpillar team — which had Dave Blaney as a driver — got air time in a commercial for the sponsor.

Of course, the 2008 financial crisis happened, the internet blew up and yada-yada-yada.

Anyway, I’ve had a blast digitizing what I have so far.

I still have more tapes to bring online.

Including these tapes from NASCAR’s prime.