October 13, 2007
By Rebecca Gladden

Rebecca Gladden

I had an appointment today and while sitting in the waiting room, I was browsing through a local magazine that featured an ad for Phoenix International Raceway and the upcoming Nextel Cup race being held there in November.

Included in this ad was a "Did You Know?" section with interesting facts about NASCAR, and one of the facts listed was, "Did you know NASCAR is the most sponsor-oriented sport in the world?"

I mention this because I was already planning to write my article this week about the state of NASCAR's relationship with some of its sponsors, and in this context I found the term "sponsor-oriented" an interesting choice of words.

Most NASCAR fans are aware of the lengthy battle that NASCAR and its Cup series title sponsor Sprint/Nextel recently waged with AT&T, a company that took over sponsorship of Richard Childress Racing's No. 31 car after merging with the car's previous sponsor company, Cingular.

The battle went through several ugly turns, with AT&T logos being put on and taken off the car several times, and an astonishing $100 million dollar lawsuit being filed. An eventual settlement allows AT&T to stay on the 31 car until the end of the 2008 season, though the company was originally intending to sponsor the car through 2010. As part of the settlement, AT&T can't sponsor the 31 car or any other car after next year.

Effectively, AT&T was pushed out of NASCAR by NASCAR.

Now comes word that a similar problem is occurring in the Busch series, where Nationwide Insurance is set to take over as title sponsor next season.

Geico Insurance is currently sponsor of the No. 7 Busch car driven by Mike Wallace and had been planning to sponsor that car at least through 2009. With Nationwide taking over as title sponsor, NASCAR has informed Geico that it will not be allowed to extend its sponsorship in the Busch series after the '09 season.

Mike Wallace is understandably upset.

"I'm really, really frustrated about it," said Wallace last week. "It caught us all off guard. (We) knew nothing about it, then you hear about it ... on Wednesday morning. And I honestly thought, 'Well that is no big deal. We'll be grandfathered in like Alltel and everybody was in the Cup deal.' And then all of a sudden that changed."

The decision comes at a particularly bad time for Wallace and Geico, as their current series of TV commercials featuring Wallace's fictional younger cousin Loren Wallace has reached cult status in popularity.

And Wallace contends that the decision is a particular blow to Geico because of the way they entered the sport. "To tell a sponsor that has been in the sport for seven years - they were the first insurance company in this sport, they kind of forced other insurance companies' hands to get in this sport - you think would get a little more respect than that," he said.

What NASCAR doesn't seem to comprehend is that, while decisions such as the ones involving AT&T and Geico might be helpful to them from a business perspective, they are certainly harmful from a public relations perspective. Right or wrong, fans interpret these tactics as money-hungry, corporate giant NASCAR putting the all-mighty dollar ahead of values like fairness and loyalty.

And that doesn't sound very "sponsor-oriented" to me.

The thoughts and ideas expressed by this writer or any other writer on Insider Racing News, are not necessarily the views of the staff and/or management of IRN.