Although IMG "wants him," along with "three or four
other individual agents," PGA Tour player Carlos Franco
"prefers to cut his own deals." Franco: "I'm my own boss"
(AP, 5/12)....Budget has become the official rental car and
truck of Lowe's Motor Speedway for '99 (LMS)....CART has
retained N.Y.-based Burson-Marsteller PR on a six-month
project basis. Jon Stern, Stu Miller, John Patterson and
Suzie Pileggi will head Burson-Marsteller's account team
(CART)....CNN/SI's Vince Cellini, on NASCAR's "Screen Test"
movie trailer (See THE DAILY, 5/6) hitting theaters this
summer: "You know, they criticize our acting" ("Sports
Tonight," 5/12)....OK-based Sonic Corp. and KS-based Sprint
are "both in discussions about becoming" the title sponsor
of the Music City Bowl in Nashville (NASHVILLE BUSINESS
JOURNAL, 5/10 issue)....USA TODAY's Christopher Winner
profiles the cricket World Cup and writes that Indian
batsman Sachin Tendulkar "earns a mere" $500,000 a year from
his team, but sponsors such as adidas, Pepsi and Visa "hike
his earnings to" $4M (USA TODAY, 5/13).