Friday, February 13, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

JEFF WOLF: Sponsors shouldn't be in enlightenment business

By DAMON SEITERS and JIM GODFREY

Fans and workers file into Daytona International Speedway on Thursday under a sign noting a new sponsor of NASCAR's top racing series. The Winston Cup has now become the Nextel Cup. Photo by K.M. Cannon. The Nextel track scoreboard and the Sunoco gasoline sign at Daytona showcase two of NASCAR's top new sponsors. Photo by K.M. Cannon.

NASCAR will usher in a new era for the country's hottest racing series this weekend at Daytona International Speedway.

The Great American Race -- a phrase that is trademarked, by the way -- opens the season this weekend, as the Nextel Cup series starts the year with its biggest race.

This year's Great American Race also kicks off more great American marketing campaigns.

It looks a lot different today at Daytona -- perhaps four miles from the Atlantic coast -- than it did 50 years ago, when NASCAR hosted races on hard-packed beaches.

On a sunny day with temperatures in the low 80s, winds from the east brought the sweet smell of the ocean.

But monetary winds of change keep Daytona from providing the warm, fuzzy feeling of home we're accustomed to on the Cup circuit.

Winston's red and white colors are gone, replaced by Nextel's yellow and black.

The giant "76" antennae ball that hovered above the fuel pumps at the speedway for four decades now sports the arrow logo of Sunoco as the official gasoline of NASCAR, replacing Unocal 76.

Pontiacs can be seen only in parking lots, since General Motors is fielding only Chevrolets in the Cup series.

And for the first time, Toyota Tundras are thundering in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, joining DaimlerChyrsler as foreign-based auto manufacturers in NASCAR.

The sport that once attracted only companies pitching automotive products and beer and cigarettes has been pushing Domino's Pizza and Hershey's Kisses heavily this week.

NASCAR is a hot commodity when it comes to marketing, but not for all products. Beer companies can sponsor stock cars, but hard-liquor brands cannot. NASCAR must not want to remind the public of its moonshine-running roots.

Viagra, the male potency enhancing drug, can sponsor Mark Martin's Ford, but it's unlikely you'll see the logo of a condom manufacturer wrapped around a car in the Cup series. You can promote having sex but not safe sex, apparently.

NASCAR's thought process for determining who can sponsor teams has been muddled in double standards when it comes to offending special interest groups.

Perhaps NASCAR just doesn't want to offend right-wing, evangelical Christians.

In the case of religion, NASCAR always has supported pre-race invocations where believers need to "pray in Jesus' name" if God is to hear them. So it's not a surprise that a plug for Mel Gibson's new movie "The Passion of the Christ" adorns the hood of Joe Gibbs Racing's No. 18 entry, driven by Bobby Labonte.

Gibbs, Labonte and the owner of the company that sponsor's the car are all born-again Christians. All are entitled to their opinions and religious convictions, but the movie has drawn criticism as being anti-Semitic, and some religious historians say portions of the film are not entirely accurate.

But as long as it's Christian, regardless of how right-wing, it's all right by NASCAR.

Just like nothing can be too Republican.

It's hard to rail against President Bush attending Sunday's race. After all, he is the leader of the free world, and he let NASCAR park some of its top cars on the White House South Lawn in December.

In today's Busch series qualifying, one owner is expected to use a red, white and blue car with a Bush-Cheney re-election logo on the hood.

To Tony Stewart, all this indicates the magnitude of the series' growth.

"It shows even in politics that politicians are smart enough to realize how big of a marketing tool that NASCAR and its cars and drivers are," Stewart said.

But sometimes, it's just nice to see oil products, car parts and beer on the side of a race car.

Racing, after all, is meant to be entertaining, not necessarily enlightening.

Jeff Wolf's motorsports column is published Friday. He can be reached at 383-0247 or jwolf@reviewjournal.com.