Wheels & Deals: Wood Wins Presidential Race; AT&T Update
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Graham Campaign Hits The
Craftsman Truck Series |
The Presidential campaign of U.S. Senator Bob Graham (D-FL) has signed a two-race deal as primary sponsor of Roush Racing's No. 50 Craftsman Truck Series team of Jon Wood, whose Ford carried "Graham for President" decals at Saturday's O'Reilly Auto Parts 250 at Kansas Speedway. The deal marks the first time a Presidential candidate has sponsored a NASCAR team. Wood picked up the victory in Saturday's event (THE DAILY).
NEXTEL: Prior to Saturday's Winston Cup Pepsi 400 at Daytona, Nextel President & CEO Tim Donahue, whose company recently inked a ten-year deal to supplant Winston as the series' title sponsor, was introduced during the drivers' meeting, and "was greeted with a standing ovation" (Raleigh NEWS & OBSERVER, 7/7). AT&T's sponsorship of BAM Racing's No. 49 Winston Cup team of Ken Schrader is in question due to the Nextel deal, and in NC, Mike Mulhern wrote, "One hot debate is paint — AT&T's blue-and-white globe logo." Nextel execs said that the team cannot use the logo on the car next year "because it's also a logo used, under lease, by AT&T Wireless." BAM Racing Program Manager Gus Larkin said, "AT&T wants to expand its program long-term. But we have to be sensitive to NASCAR's deal with Nextel. We have to be very careful we do this properly. ... AT&T has been on our car all year long, ... and this entire program was based on building something they could expand. That means running several different brands within the AT&T consumer group." Larkin said of talks between the parties, "Right now everybody's friendly, we're getting along, we're just trying to find how we can do this the correct way" (W-S JOURNAL, 7/6). But AT&T execs said, "This thing could heat up very rapidly." The execs added that "word has come from 'the very top' that the company wants to play a prominent role in Winston Cup racing, and not necessarily under the restrictions NASCAR and Nextel want to lay down." In a separate piece, Mulhern wrote, "Another concern is that NASCAR and Nextel don't want AT&T to have any 'at-track presence,' that is, no marketing booths" (WINSTON-SALEM JOURNAL, 7/6).
BIFFLE: In Charlotte, David Poole wrote that Ford execs "expressed concern" with Roush Racing's decision to let Winston Cup driver Greg Biffle compete in the Busch Series Winn-Dixie 250 for Evans Motorsports, which fields GM cars. While Evans Motorsports said that the deal with Biffle was for "select races for the remainder of the year," Roush Racing spokesperson Stephanie Smith said that Biffle's participation "has been approved only at Daytona, and that the team and Biffle would discuss any future races next week" (CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, 7/4). In Atlanta, Rick Minter wrote Biffle "redeemed himself with his Ford bosses by winning" Saturday night's Winston Cup Pepsi 400 at Daytona (ATLANTA CONSTITUTION, 7/6).
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