BY TEAM FORD RACING CORRESPONDENT

Joliet, Ill. — In the two weeks since Citgo announced it was leaving the sport of NASCAR Winston Cup auto racing, the phones at Roush Racing have been ringing. The calls are inquires from potential sponsors to take the primary sponsor place on Burton’s No. 99 Ford Taurus.

“In just two weeks we’ve got three prospects already,” Roush Racing President Geoff Smith said, today. “Two of them are from outside of the sport, and we feel good about that.”

Smith added, “Hopefully next week there’ll be another one. We feel pretty good about it.”

Interestingly, calls from the new-to-the-sport sponsors came as a result of advertising agency recommendations. This trend of agency involvement, if it should continue, will help owners market their team more easily as the ad agencies frequently can help a third party realize the value of NASCAR type racing.

“Both of [the new companies to the sport] work with agencies we work with. They view this as a great opportunity for bringing in a couple of clients that they’ve been working on in other projects.

“Over time, probably the last five years, the mainstream agencies are more familiar with motorsports now and will take a look at it now.”

COMMUNICATION
NASCAR will hold a teleconference with car owners this week to review the meaning of the new Nextel deal to the sport and, more importantly to the owners, the sponsor pool.

According to one owner, the NASCAR teleconference this week will cover in more detail what Nextel has purchased from NASCAR, and what the owners will have to steer clear of when they’re speaking to potential sponsors

In a letter to the teams that was issued two weeks ago it was explained, in fairly clear-cut terms the definition of “competing with Nextel.” And the list of exclusions is lengthy, according to team sources.