A "brouhaha appears to be growing between Winston Cup
car owners and NASCAR over marketing rights," as NASCAR, in
"some of the fine print" in the Daytona 500 entry blank, is
"requiring" race teams "to let NASCAR have marketing rights
to every aspect of every 500 team if they want to run in the
race," according to Mike Mulhern of the WINSTON SALEM-
JOURNAL. Mulhern wrote that while drivers and car owners
have "long held all marketing rights to their images,"
NASCAR "now wants a piece of the pie ... or perhaps the
whole pie, something like the NFL." One Ford team source
said NASCAR "just added a little clause about rights and
apparently figured we'd gloss right over it without noticing
it and sign the thing. But I don't see how our lawyers are
going to let us sign that, because our sponsors themselves
own some of those marketing rights. And we're going to
check on how the NFL and NBA handle that situation."
Mulhern wrote that NASCAR's "plan may face an uphill battle
to get the sport's big five sellers" -- Dale Earnhardt, Jeff
Gordon, Dale Jarrett, Mark Martin and Rusty Wallace -- to
agree, "because they might not only lose control of their
own products but also lose some revenue," as NASCAR "would
likely pool" the money generated. But the "rest of the
field ... might like" the plan (WS-JOURNAL, 1/22).
WAIVER WIRE: In Daytona, Ken Willis reported that
NASCAR "included a new provision" in a waiver that must be
signed by members of the media to obtain annual credentials
that gives NASCAR "rights to everything gathered at its
events -- any photo, quote, tape, or video capture." The
provision, which was "inserted quietly by someone in Legal,
... somehow, ... ended up costing" former Winston Cup
Manager of Communications Tim Sullivan his job, as he was
"caught ... by surprise" by it and "found himself taking
thuggish blows from above, below, and both flanks." NASCAR
claimed the provision is "nothing they don't do in other
sports -- the NFL, NBA, etc. It's nothing new. It's new to
us." NASCAR Communications Dir John Griffin, on the
provision: "You have partnerships out there and those
partners want to protect their investments. It's part of
doing business" (WINSTON-SALEM JOURNAL, 1/23). In
Indianapolis, Anthony Schoettle reports that Indy Motor
Speedway execs "could find themselves at the center of this
controversy," as IMS VP/PR Fred Nation said that "NASCAR
guidelines will be followed" for the Brickyard 400 held at
the facility. Nation: "I really have no feel for what
NASCAR will do, but I'm sure they are taking note of the
criticism." Nation added that while "video and photos" at
IMS events taken for "news purposes" are not regulated, they
"can't be used for commercial purposes without IMS consent"
(INDY BUSINESS JOURNAL, 1/18).
