Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Interest Declines Among Nextel Cup Sponsors

From: Marcelrf <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 19 Feb 2004 18:02:33 -0500

Interest Declines Among Nextel Cup Sponsors
Source: Augusta Chronicle, The
Publication date: 2004-02-16
Arrival time: 2004-02-19

Along with all the optimism being generated this week at Daytona
International Speedway, there is also some concern.
Sometime this season, and it could be soon, a Nextel Cup series race
could go off without a full field.

This week at Speedweeks, only 45 cars showed up to qualify - only two
more than a full field of 43 and dozens fewer than the number of cars
that used to show up here a few years ago.

And, that number could drop significantly - perhaps by seven - for this
week's race at North Carolina Speedway in Rockingham.

Hence, there is a real possibility that the Rockingham race will not be
able to race with a full field of cars.
The reason is funding. Not enough sponsors have signed up to put their
names and logos on the sides of race cars at this point.
"The economy is not great right now," said Eddie Wood, co-owner of the
Wood Brothers Nextel Cup racing team. "It's hard to get money. And it
takes so much of it."

During a visit to the infield media center at Daytona In-ter- national
Speedway, NASCAR chairman Brian France was asked about the situation.

France claimed to not be overly concerned.

While he agreed that the sluggish economy was taking its toll on
sponsorships, France still sees interest from prospective sponsors.
France said there was another side to the car-count issue.

"We had too many cars," he said. "We were sending, a lot of times, home
quality teams, quality sponsors and that's a bad experience. You want to
be just right.

"More important, you want to have the quality in the whole field instead
of the quantity of cars. I think we got the quality perfect."

Told that France was not concerned with the low car count, some in the
garages raised their eyebrows.
"I think anytime you have fewer cars show up, it's a concern, said Matt
Borland, who is Ryan Newman's crew chief.
France said there might be teams that didn't want to come to Daytona
because of the cost of running in restrictor-plate races.
Wood said he's sure the fields will fill up at other racetracks as it
becomes evident that the numbers are down.
That's because some lesser teams will come knowing that they have a
better shot of making a race when they don't have to qualify against a
large contingent of other competitors.

Just making the field can pay a lot of bills. Last year, for example,
Newman won $195,000 for finishing 43rd in the 500.

http://cnniw.yellowbrix.com/pages/cnnmoney/Story.nsp?story_id=47287254&ID=cnnmoney&scategory=Business+and+Finance&

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