Nascar Double Standard

So much of NASCAR business is double minded and hypocritical that this really doesn't surprise me.

The current Cup sponsor is Nextel. Sprint bought Nextel in 2005 and now they are rebranding the company as a whole. So it's no surprise they want to change their sponsorship name to the NASCAR Sprint Cup series instead of the the NASCAR Nextel Cup ¹. What is shocking is they are allowing this after throwing an absolute fit about AT&T wanting to rebrand their Cingular Cup car.

NASCAR and AT&T have been battling all season over NASCAR's refusal to allow AT&T to put its logos on Jeff Burton's car. Burton and his Richard Childress Racing team have a sponsorship agreement with Cingular, which has since been purchased by AT&T.

AT&T is re-branding the company, but NASCAR would not allow the logos to be changed, citing its agreement with Nextel. Cingular and Alltel were grandfathered into the sport when Nextel entered in 2004, but no changes are permitted to their deals and no other telecommunications companies are allowed into the sport. ²

The whole thing stinks of sour grapes on NASCAR's part. What's next? Are they going to forbid the Pepsi car from driving at the Coca-Cola 600 or the Coke family of drivers from competing at the Pepsi 400? Will Chevy's be banded from driving at the Toyota/Save Mart 350?

Tony Stewart was right at the start of season to point out the inconsistencies in NASCAR's rule enforcement. NASCAR does whatever they believe will get them the most exposure and money at the time without consideration for tradition or sportmanship. I am not surprised veiwership is down ³. The rules keep changing. The sport keeps "tweaking" and no one wants to play the guessing game anymore. In the long run though it really will not matter what the title sponsor is since everyone has taken to calling it the Cup series. Compare that designation with the Busch series. Any question about who is sponsoring the Busch series? Fan and commentator focus rests on the Cup itself now and not the sponsor.

1 Nextel Cup to be called Sprint Cup in 2008

2 NASCAR Sues AT&T for $100 Million

3 NASCAR pulling in younger TV viewers

EDIT: NASCAR certainly realized the impact switching from Winston to Nextel had on the Cup series brand. This switch to Sprint will only further dilute the Cup series brand value. Good job NASCAR. Let's see you get your premiums now. Ten dollars says the next sponsorship talks for the Cup won't be worth near the 700 million dollars Nextel paid.