By Tripp Mickle Special to the Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service On a cold day in mid-November, Josh Burgett and Dennis Bickmeier, Michigan International Speedway’s top sales executives, met for the first time with a local account executive from ESPN. After lunch at a tavern in East Lansing, Mich., the trio marched into the office of a large local corporation and pitched the company on a race title sponsorship. Burgett and Bickmeier explained signage and hospitality opportunities, and ESPN’s Matt Tamborini fielded questions about the demographics of ESPN’s race audience. The meeting, which many in the sales industry might consider routine, represented a revolution in the world of race title sponsorship sales. It was one of the first jointly developed and delivered Sprint Cup race title sponsorship presentations in recent NASCAR history, and though … Read entire article »