Richard Rawlings isn’t a quiet sort of guy. Not all that long ago the American entrepreneur from Texas was a fixture in NASCAR, and just about everywhere else it seemed.
Known for his trademark slogan “Get ya’ some of this,” Rawlings has amassed an automotive kingdom that includes “Gas Monkey Garage” an automotive repair and customizer along with restaurants, a bar, and even an energy drink. He’s best known for his starring role in the hit reality show "Fast N' Loud" that aired on the Discovery Channel cable network.
Rawlings has spent a great deal of time in the NASCAR world: he drove a pace car before the NASCAR races at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, and at Daytona. He also partnered with a couple of NASCAR drivers for car builds featured on Fast N’ Loud, and even sponsored driver Corey LaJoie.
It all seemed to change however when Covid shut down the world in 2020: "Fast N' Loud" ended its run, and as the world shuttered, including NASCAR, Rawlings seemed to fade from view.
Now with sports, including NASCAR, back to full capacity, former NASCAR sponsors are returning, and new ones are jumping on board.
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Richard Rawlings and Gas Monkey Garage aren’t among them though. At least not in NASCAR. Instead, Rawlings is now focusing his sponsor dollars on other motorsports, chief among them an annual motorcycle race on the Isle of Man a tiny country between England and Ireland. The island closes its public roads once a year to hold the Isle of Man TT (Tourist Trophy) race. It’s an event that’s been going since 1907. Rawlings through Gas Monkey Garage will be sponsoring FHO Racing with rider BMW Peter Hickman, a five-time Isle of Man winner in this year’s event.
“We were trying to do this as far back as 2015,” Rawlings said. “We just weren't able to ever really make it happened…I was signed up for 20 and 21 and those didn't happen. And now we're just fulfilling on about a seven-year gig.”
Through the years Rawlings has sponsored everything from Super Cross teams, Monster Trucks, and even a snow mobile team along with sponsorships in the NHRA and NASCAR.
Rawlings said for him motorsports sponsorships allow him to be a part of racing.
“Sadly, because I've spent so much time of my life working, working, working, I haven't gotten the opportunity to have the seat time that I would like to have to be a driver or a rider or a whatever,” he said. “So, sponsorships allow me to be a part of it, be in the mix and let the guys that are really, really good at what they do, do what they do.”
With the deal for the Isle of Man TT finally done, the question becomes, why?
“This is just a natural extension,” Rawlings said. “Being that it's one of the oldest motor sports events in the world, and one of the most watched motor sport events in the world, I'm just super excited to be a part of it and to be a part of it at the level that I am with FHO Racing and Peter Hickman and BMW.
“You know, a Gas Monkey doesn't do anything on the on the low scale,” he added. “We just walk into the top, kick the doors in and go ‘here we are.’”
When it comes to motorsports sponsorships Rawlings said he doesn’t look for any sort of ROI.
“Well, I don't call it ROI. OK. That's return on investment. I call ROA, ‘Return on Aggravation’” he said chuckling. “When you decide to do something like this, it is a pain in the rear. But you know, they've all been great; it shows that we're out there.”
Spreading their sponsorships out across various motorsports disciplines isn’t something that is in any sort of business plan for Rawlings. According to him it’s just always been the way Gas Monkey operates.
“Gas Monkey is one of these few things that's not pigeonholed,” he said while walking around his busy shop in Dallas. “I'm not a Camaro guy or a Mustang guy, you know we really do do anything. I mean, we're building a freaking 87 Chevrolet bus right now—don't even why. You know, it allows us to really have the leeway to play in all fields.”
And he doesn’t see much of a difference between auto racing, and motorcycle racing.
“Quite realistically, we're just motorheads,” he said. “We like what we like, and we are comfortable with what we feel comfortable with. Lucky enough, I get to be both.”
The sponsorship is one of the first for Rawlings since the end of Covid restrictions. He said that Discovery leaving and the show ending at the end of 2020 and the Covid locking down most of the world actually helped his business.
“Now we live in the social media world and on all those platforms,” he said. “We've found that the amount of work and the amount of chaos that it took to make the TV show is not needed as much, and we've actually grown.”
And he expects that growth to continue.
“We're getting ourselves well versed in the metaverse, so to speak and fixing to launch some NFTs and starting quite a few new initiatives and everything else like that,” he said. So, getting rid of Discovery we were able to chase down some of our dreams, so to speak and worlds are oyster right now. We're very much in a great spot.”
He doesn’t dismiss the legacy of the show, however.
“You know I wouldn't be here without the show and Discovery,” he said. “At the same time, we couldn't be more pleased with where we're actually at. It's a great spot to be in.”
That great spot to be in not only applies to the business, but to Richard Rawlings himself.
“I just recently found the love of my life, so things there are really good,” he said. “That makes a lot of difference; if you're happy at home, you come to work happy. And, at the end of the day, I get paid to drink beer and play with cars. I mean, come on. I would be the biggest, a hole in the world to say that my life's no good.”
For the immediate future, the Gas Monkey Garage sponsorship efforts will be focused on the Isle of Man which takes place in late May and early June. However, as Richard Rawlings and the Gas Monkey Garage branding have shown in the past, they could show up anywhere at any time. No one should be surprised if a NASCAR sponsorship is racing around a track and Richard Rawlings is walking around telling people to ‘Get ya’ some of this,’ sometime soon.
“Sir,” Rawlings said is a rare serious tone. “What we do as Gas Monkey as a business and as a brand, and hopefully as myself, in the next 24 to 36 months is going to make the last 10 years look like child's play.”
