Wheels & Deals: Brawn GP Seeing Boost In Sponsorship Interest

Button Popular With Sponsors After Winning Team's First Race Last Sunday

In London, Kevin Eason wrote sponsors are "beating a path to the door of Brawn GP after" driver Jenson Button's victory last Sunday in the F1 Australian Grand Prix, the team's first race. Brawn GP CEO Nick Fry said that "many of the approaches have been from British household names keen to maintain the national link with the team." Fry: "People sense that this is a British team and they want to have that link" (LONDON TIMES, 4/2).

COMMERCIAL APPEAL: SI.com's Bruce Martin reported Izod, which sponsors IRL driver Ryan Hunter-Reay, "will have a major presence on all IndyCar telecasts on Versus in addition to the races that will be on ABC as well as print ads in Sports Illustrated, ESPN The Magazine and New York Times, newspapers, billboards, movie theatres and a clothing line at Macy's" (SI.com, 3/30).

ENGINE REV: Texas Motor Speedway President Eddie Gossage said ticket sales for Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Samsung 500 are "doing quite well." Gossage: "Fans have held onto their money, but in the last 30 days or so, it's really broken loose. We're going to have one of those big, big crowds that you expect when you come to the Great American Speedway. The story this week will not be about the size of the crowd; it's going to be about the competition that takes place on the racetrack. Pretty much every seat in the house is going to be full Sunday, and we're real proud of that" ("NASCAR Now," ESPN2, 3/31).