NASCAR Announces Change Of Top Series To Sprint Cup In '08

NASCAR and Sprint Nextel on Saturday formally announced that NASCAR's top series will be renamed the Sprint Cup Series beginning January 1.  The  branding change from Nextel to Sprint coincides with the July 1 launch of the company's new "Sprint Ahead" marketing campaign (Sprint Nextel).  SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL's Michael Smith notes Nextel's original contract with NASCAR, which began in '04, "allows for one name change over the lifetime of a 10-year deal" (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 7/9 issue).  With the series getting its third name in six years, NASCAR Chair & CEO Brian France said, "In a perfect world we would change the name as infrequently as possible.  But, there comes a time when the opportunity outweighs that issue" (K.C. STAR, 7/8).  Sprint officials said that they spent 18 months with focus groups and surveying NASCAR fans "to decide if Sprint Cup would 'resonate.'"  The annual all-star event held at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Charlotte will now be called the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Challenge.  France and Sprint Nextel officials "expressed confidence that the changed name would not cause confusion with sprint cars, which have been run in U.S. Auto Club competition for decades" (CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, 7/8).  France, on potential confusion with the USAC series: "We feel pretty comfortable they're building the Sprint brand in the telecom industry very differently than anybody else has in auto racing. ... We're very comfortable that the unique branding that will be done in this series ... will help to mitigate any kind of confusions" (South Florida SUN-SENTINEL, 7/8).

NOTES: In Dallas, Richard Durrett reported the change was announced now "because NASCAR and Sprint Nextel wanted to give the tracks, souvenir vendors and everyone else involved with the series plenty of time to make the necessary adjustments before next season."  NASCAR officials said that Sprint Nextel "could spend an estimated $2[M] just to change all of the Nextel Cup signs to Sprint Cup before next season" (DALLAS MORNING NEWS, 7/8)....France said that the change "will have no effect" on NASCAR's $100M lawsuit against AT&T regarding changing the logo on Richard Childress Racing's No. 31 Nextel Cup Chevrolet from Cingular (USA TODAY, 7/9).

RUN FOR A MILLION: The SprintSpeed Million presented by Motorola Sweepstakes, in which once race fan will win $1M, will launch July 15, and SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL's Smith reports TV ads for the promotion are expected to begin on ESPN around the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard with a 30-second spot featuring driver Denny Hamlin.  Also, "almost all of Sprint Nextel's presence at the track ... will be branded with the 'SprintSpeed Million'" beginning this week at Chicagoland Speedway.  In the promotion, one fan will be paired with each of the 12 drivers in the Chase for the Nextel Cup, with the fan aligned with the winning driver receiving $1M. Sprint Nextel Dir of NASCAR Marketing Dean Kessel said that the company is "working with ABC/ESPN to incorporate the promotion's climax into race coverage" (SBJ, 7/9 issue).