Sponsors rule road in NASCAR

By Times staff writer

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 4, 2000

At 5:30 p.m. Friday in the Winston Cup garage at Daytona International Speedway, crew members began peeling the primary sponsor's decals off Johnny Benson's car.

It was a publicity move, one designed to show the team's primary sponsor was being dropped because of a lack of payment, but a good example of what's going on in NASCAR.

Earlier that day, Roush Racing and Pfizer announced that Mark Martin's No. 6 Ford would be sponsored by Viagra beginning next season. Though team and sponsor officials declined to release exact figures of the sponsorship's worth, reports placed the value around $60-million over three to five years.

While top Winston Cup teams sign sponsorships for $10-million or more that allow for better equipment and better research and development, others in the lower tier are working with sponsorships worth much less.

NASCAR is aware of the issue.

"There's an incline on everything we do, and it's no different in NASCAR," said Mike Helton, chief operating officer for NASCAR. "In this garage area there's an evolution of being successful and there is an opportunity there. Somebody raises the bar and it goes to this level, and that sets the benchmark others must compare themselves to.

"NASCAR's biggest challenge is to make it so that a guy who has a sponsor who may not be double digits in the millions can still be competitive. That's what we have to work on."

Driving a plain white car Saturday in the Pepsi 400, Benson led 11 laps and managed a 13th-place finish at Daytona.

Afterward, he was more concerned about the future of his team.

"We need the money," Benson said. "We need the sponsorship bad to run the rest of the year. We could run a couple of races. We've got some things working and hopefully something comes about, and we're able to finish the season. If not, we're still excited about 2001, but right now, we're just trying to get down the road."

PETTY OPTS OUT: Instead of driving on the same track where his son was killed in a crash on May12, Kyle Petty has chosen not to compete Sunday in the Jiffy Lube 300 at New Hampshire International Speedway.

Steve Grissom, who drives for Petty Enterprises in the Craftsman Truck Series, will fill in for Petty in the No. 44 Pontiac. Adam Petty, 19, died after hitting the Turn 4 wall at the 1.058-mile track in preparation for a Busch Grand National race.

"I believe everyone can understand Kyle's feelings right now, and I'm glad I can help out again," said Grissom, who also substituted for Petty in the Coca-Cola 600. "All I want to do is help out as best I can. The guys and I have talked, and we're going to work hard to make Kyle ... proud of us."

ZANARDI TEST: Alex Zanardi may be returning to CART. The two-time series champion will test the Mo Nunn-owned Reynard-Mercedes this weekend at Sebring and may drive in the Molson Indy on July16 at Toronto.

Zanardi left CART after the 1998 season to return to Formula One only to leave that team at the end of last season. Bryan Herta is driving for Nunn right now as a replacement for Tony Kanaan, who broke his ribs and his left wrist in a crash last month at Detroit.

PIT STOPS: The 2001 Formula One season will start a week earlier than usual with the Australian Grand Prix scheduled for March4 at Albert Park. For the past five seasons, the race has been scheduled for the second weekend of March. ... Greg Biffle's third-place finish Saturday in the DieHard 250 at the Milwaukee Mile ended his bid to become the first driver to win four consecutive races in the Craftsman Truck Series. Still, he pushed his lead in the points standings to 82 over Jack Sprague, who finished eighth.

- Information from other news organizations was used in this report.

© St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved.

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