Road tour and No. 16 car promote census at BMS

Census participation rates
During the Food City 500, Sprint Cup driver Greg Biffle’s No. 16 Ford Fusion is taking on a special paint scheme to boost participation in the 2010 census. Participation rates in the Mountain Empire’s 14 cities and counties in 2000 were:

Virginia
Buchanan County – 64 percent
Bristol – 78 percent
Dickenson County – 67 percent
Norton – 63 percent
Russell County – 66 percent
Scott County – 66 percent
Tazewell County – 64 percent
Washington County – 75 percent
Wise County – 64 percent
Wythe County – 68 percent
State average – 73 percent

Tennessee
Carter County – 65 percent
Johnson County – 66 percent
Sullivan County – 76 percent
Washington County – 73 percent
State average – 69 percent

Sprint Cup driver Greg Biffle has a simple message for the thousands of fans who will watch him zip around the Bristol Motor Speedway this weekend: Fill out your 2010 census forms, mail them back and save taxpayers millions of dollars.

Earlier this month, Biffle and the Roush Fenway Racing Team announced a $1.2 million three-race sponsorship that involves putting a special paint scheme on their car that promotes the U.S. Census Bureau’s efforts to count the country’s entire population.

That paint scheme, which reminds people to mail back the 10-question forms they received in the mail this week, will appear on Biffle’s No. 16 Ford Fusion as it takes part in Sunday’s Food City 500.

“I honestly had no idea that just by mailing in your form you can save taxpayers millions of dollars,” Biffle wrote in a March 3 blog post about the sponsorship. “If you don’t mail it in then they have to send someone to your house and that costs a lot of money.”

The bureau started its most recent effort to count the population last week when it mailed census forms to 120 million homes across the country. Those forms, which started hitting Mountain Empire mailboxes Tuesday, are due back to the bureau by April 1.

“With 2010 Census forms hitting mailboxes across the country this week, it is imperative we get the message of participation out,” Census Bureau Director Robert Groves said in a written statement released Tuesday that announced Biffle’s sponsorship.

In the statement, Groves stressed the importance of participating in the census. He said the census count is ultimately used to dole out $400 billion of federal money each year.

The count also is used to distribute the 435 seats in the U.S. House of Delegates among the states and to set the size and shape of each district.

If someone fails to turn in their form by the April 1 deadline, he said, the bureau will send a census taker to personally visit that person’s house at a cost of about $57 a form.

During the 2000 census, only 72 percent of the country’s residents mailed back their forms in time to meet the bureau’s deadline that year. Many Southwest Virginia localities had participation rates of 64 percent to 68 percent.

Groves said taxpayers can save almost $86 million every time the participation rate goes up by one percentage point from last year’s level.

As part of the sponsorship deal, a Post-It Note bearing the bureau’s logo and the phrase “Mail It Back!” will appear on the hood, rear quarter and rear bumper of Biffle’s car as it takes part in Sunday’s Food City 500 at the Bristol Motor Speedway. The message is on a Post-It note, according to Groves’ statement, because that is an easily recognizable product manufactured by 3M, the normal sponsor for Biffle’s car.

The same paint scheme appeared on Biffle’s car when the Roush-Fenway racing team driver took 8th place in the March 2 Kobalt Tools 500 at the Atlanta Motor Speedway. It also will appear on the car when Biffle takes part in the March 28 Goody’s Fast Pain Relief 500 at the Martinsville Speedway.

“NASCAR reaches millions of Americans and our sponsorship of Greg and the No. 16 Roush Fenway Ford is a practical one,” Groves said.

The three-race sponsorship includes a public service announcement featuring Biffle, television spots when the races are broadcast on the Fox Network, and 10 show-car appearances scheduled to take place throughout the U.S.

The deal is the latest in a series of steps the bureau has taken to boost participation rates, and that involves a $133 million advertising campaign it kicked off in January.

The campaign involves placing census-related advertisements in several key sporting events, including the Super Bowl, the Winter Olympics and the current NCAA basketball tournaments. It also includes the 2010 Census Portrait of America Road Tour, a series of 13 specially outfitted vehicles making special appearances at 800 events, and traveling more than 5,000 miles across the country to promote the bureau’s counting effort.

One of the road tour’s vehicles will be at the Bristol Motor Speedway this morning before it travels to the Carter Family Fold at 2:30 p.m. for an event featuring Biffle’s car and live music.

That vehicle will head back to the speedway Sunday morning where, from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., it will give race fans all of the information they might need about this year’s census.

gmclean@bristolnews.com | (276) 645-2518