Jeff Gordon won Sunday's Daytona 500 in front of
160,000 as team owner Rick Hendrick completed a sweep of the
top three finishers with runner-up Terry Labonte and Ricky
Craven. Hendrick was home in NC, where he is being treated
for leukemia (Mike Dame, ORLANDO SENTINEL, 2/17). The main
car sponsors for the top three include Gordon with DuPont,
Labonte with Kellogg's, and Craven with Budweiser ("Daytona
500," CBS). Gordon will appear on the "Late Show" with
David Letterman tonight (HOUSTON CHRONICLE, 2/17). ESPN's
Kenny Mayne examined the marketability of Gordon. Hal
Price, Gordon's marketing consultant: "We're a year and a
half away from really making him national. ... our new deal
with Pepsi is really going to help us take him on a broad
scale ... We want to take him beyond racing. Our goal is to
let the public know Jeff the person and the celebrity, not
just the race car driver" ("SportsCenter," ESPN, 2/17).
ROOM TO GROW? NASCAR is profiled in BUSINESS WEEK under
the header, "Caution, Sharp Curves Ahead for NASCAR."
BUSINESS WEEK's Keith Dunnavant notes most racing execs
credit TV for increased interest in NASCAR, helped by CBS
Sports coverage, which is for a reported $80M over four
years. But Dunnavant notes an "identity crisis. ... NASCAR
has little room to expand its schedule. ... With growth
comes growing pains and a dilemma for NASCAR: How to expand
without lengthening the season." T. Wayne Robertson, Jr.,
President of Sports Marketing Enterprises, a division of
NASCAR-sponsor RJR: "To justify the kind of money we're
spending, we need greater access to the big cities."
BUSINESS WEEK's Dunnavant: "One solution would be to split
the circuit in two, but sponsors and TV nets oppose diluting
the product by dividing star drivers between different
schedules" (BUSINESS WEEK, 2/24 issue).
TRACK NOTES: In Daytona, the NEWS-JOURNAL's Maryanne
Murray wrote on Terry Labonte's sponsorship deals. Labonte
is mainly backed by Kellogg's and he estimates he'll do 20
to 25 visits for them over the year, as well as about "three
or four other appearances for each of the team's associate
sponsors," Quaker State, Starburst, Chevrolet and GM
Acceptance Group (Daytona NEWS-JOURNAL, 2/16)....In TX,
Texas Motor Speedway developer Bruton Smith said he is
willing to post a $4M purse to have a second NASCAR Winston
Cup race at his new Ft. Worth facility. But NASCAR
President Bill France, Jr., said the '97 schedule is "a done
deal" ("Speedweeks," 2/16).
