W
Ward Burton
Guest
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 #99 Ford. “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.”