Better Series Sponsor, Winston or Sprint

The Nature Boy said:
NASCAR circa 2003 was also seen as a growing commodity. If Nextel wanted a Chase as a condition for sponsoring the series, France could've told them to piss up a rope. A lot of Sprint/Nextel's "failures" are on Brian France.

When Winston left the sport, NASCAR also should've come up with a permanent name for the championship that isn't tied to a sponsor. The NFL has the Lombardi Trophy, the MLB has the Commissioner's Trophy, and the NHL has the Stanley Cup. NASCAR is the only major sport where the championship itself has a corporate sponsor but that's a different rant.
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Interesting point - what would be the deserving name in NASCARs case?

Maybe the France Trophy? :D
 
Greg said:
Winston even classed up Britney Spears. View attachment 19219
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Evel would have liked that suit.

Whizzer said:
Absolutely!! And I wonder how many remember when Lucky Strikes were sold in a green package? How many recall the motto: "Lucky Strike green goes to war!"

A great historical reminder. Lucky Strike green was a myth for advertising by saying the green was needed for the war effort when in fact it was not true. Lucky Strike changed the color of the pack from green to white, retaining the red bullseye, in order to appeal to women who were taking up smoking in large numbers during WWII.
But the myth notwithstanding, "Luckies" became quite a bit more popular. Back in the day, many of my friends who smoked, smoked "Luckies" and rolled them up in the sleeve of their tee shirts. The red bullseye could still be seen. Shades of Grease!
I liked the old myth better than the true story.
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(waiting)
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Winston tastes good like a cigarette should..........I would rather die early doing things I enjoy as opposed to eating bean sprouts and drinking water.

The Nature Boy said:
NASCAR circa 2003 was also seen as a growing commodity. If Nextel wanted a Chase as a condition for sponsoring the series, France could've told them to piss up a rope. A lot of Sprint/Nextel's "failures" are on Brian France.

When Winston left the sport, NASCAR also should've come up with a permanent name for the championship that isn't tied to a sponsor. The NFL has the Lombardi Trophy, the MLB has the Commissioner's Trophy, and the NHL has the Stanley Cup. NASCAR is the only major sport where the championship itself has a corporate sponsor but that's a different rant.
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I hate it that Ned Jarrett, Dale Earnhardt and Jeff Gordon are referred to as Sprint Cup champs.

The Nature Boy said:
Maybe the Bill France Cup or something like that. I haven't thought that far ahead.
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The France Family Concentrated Gene Pool Cup.
 
LOL reading comments from some of the folks on here who don't bother to research before they spout an opinion...
Lucky Strike was never a RJ Reynolds brand (as Winston was and Camel still is).
Sprint bought Nextel, so Nextel never really left.

“there's no way in hell Winston could have it should have stayed on as sponsor for much longer. NASCAR would be hurting way worse right now if Winston was still sponsor. Nobody today wants to support the tobacco industry by watching their sponsored sport”
RJ Reynolds could have stayed longer – it still needs the mass media outlet – but corporate raiders along with the deaths of Reynolds executives who were pro-racing caused it to change direction. Yes tobacco is losing popularity, but it is rapidly being replaced by vaping – and Reynolds owns two vapor product lines. Even while Reynolds was sponsoring NASCAR smokers were the minority of its fans – more people appeared interested in the racing than cared about how dangerous the sponsor’s product was.

Whether you like RJ Reynolds' products or not, Winston was majorly responsible for creating the NASCAR Modern Era that you see today. Reynolds needed a mass media marketing outlet (after getting banned from the airwaves and most print advertising) - and NASCAR needed cash and direction to raise it from its being known only as a regional second-tier sport. Reynolds convinced NASCAR to focus upon big weekend races at paved tracks (which were more presentable to TV), helped it gain TV coverage, and helped convince TV to carry live full races. Reynolds pumped money into race tracks to clean up their images, even paying for track improvements and raising purses. Reynolds brought in other corporate executives who became race and team sponsors. Reynolds sponsored lower level series down to local track racing. Before Reynolds came in, NASCAR was going broke and might have died.

Sprint has had more of a what-can-NASCAR-do-for-me attitude. It may not have the advertising ban problem that Reynolds has, but it also does not devote as much resources. Sprint has allowed NASCAR to take the lead in promotions and contracts, and has no presence in racing outside of the Sprint Cup. Instead of growth, during the Sprint tenure we see crowds shrinking, tracks downsizing, car counts reduced, and TV ratings falling. That’s not all Sprint’s fault, but they are not helping. After 13 years Sprint / Nextel is leaving – compared to 32 years for RJ Reynolds.

So who has done more for NASCAR? Without Winston there might not even be NASCAR today.
 
gone said:
LOL reading comments from some of the folks on here who don't bother to research before they spout an opinion...
Lucky Strike was never a RJ Reynolds brand (as Winston was and Camel still is).
Sprint bought Nextel, so Nextel never really left.

“there's no way in hell Winston could have it should have stayed on as sponsor for much longer. NASCAR would be hurting way worse right now if Winston was still sponsor. Nobody today wants to support the tobacco industry by watching their sponsored sport”
RJ Reynolds could have stayed longer – it still needs the mass media outlet – but corporate raiders along with the deaths of Reynolds executives who were pro-racing caused it to change direction. Yes tobacco is losing popularity, but it is rapidly being replaced by vaping – and Reynolds owns two vapor product lines. Even while Reynolds was sponsoring NASCAR smokers were the minority of its fans – more people appeared interested in the racing than cared about how dangerous the sponsor’s product was.

Whether you like RJ Reynolds' products or not, Winston was majorly responsible for creating the NASCAR Modern Era that you see today. Reynolds needed a mass media marketing outlet (after getting banned from the airwaves and most print advertising) - and NASCAR needed cash and direction to raise it from its being known only as a regional second-tier sport. Reynolds convinced NASCAR to focus upon big weekend races at paved tracks (which were more presentable to TV), helped it gain TV coverage, and helped convince TV to carry live full races. Reynolds pumped money into race tracks to clean up their images, even paying for track improvements and raising purses. Reynolds brought in other corporate executives who became race and team sponsors. Reynolds sponsored lower level series down to local track racing. Before Reynolds came in, NASCAR was going broke and might have died.

Sprint has had more of a what-can-NASCAR-do-for-me attitude. It may not have the advertising ban problem that Reynolds has, but it also does not devote as much resources. Sprint has allowed NASCAR to take the lead in promotions and contracts, and has no presence in racing outside of the Sprint Cup. Instead of growth, during the Sprint tenure we see crowds shrinking, tracks downsizing, car counts reduced, and TV ratings falling. That’s not all Sprint’s fault, but they are not helping. After 13 years Sprint / Nextel is leaving – compared to 32 years for RJ Reynolds.

So who has done more for NASCAR? Without Winston there might not even be NASCAR today.
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I was already aware that Lucky Strike was not a R.J. Reynolds brand. I just liked the poster and posted it.
 
gone said:
LOL reading comments from some of the folks on here who don't bother to research before they spout an opinion...
Lucky Strike was never a RJ Reynolds brand (as Winston was and Camel still is).
Sprint bought Nextel, so Nextel never really left.

“there's no way in hell Winston could have it should have stayed on as sponsor for much longer. NASCAR would be hurting way worse right now if Winston was still sponsor. Nobody today wants to support the tobacco industry by watching their sponsored sport”
RJ Reynolds could have stayed longer – it still needs the mass media outlet – but corporate raiders along with the deaths of Reynolds executives who were pro-racing caused it to change direction. Yes tobacco is losing popularity, but it is rapidly being replaced by vaping – and Reynolds owns two vapor product lines. Even while Reynolds was sponsoring NASCAR smokers were the minority of its fans – more people appeared interested in the racing than cared about how dangerous the sponsor’s product was.

Whether you like RJ Reynolds' products or not, Winston was majorly responsible for creating the NASCAR Modern Era that you see today. Reynolds needed a mass media marketing outlet (after getting banned from the airwaves and most print advertising) - and NASCAR needed cash and direction to raise it from its being known only as a regional second-tier sport. Reynolds convinced NASCAR to focus upon big weekend races at paved tracks (which were more presentable to TV), helped it gain TV coverage, and helped convince TV to carry live full races. Reynolds pumped money into race tracks to clean up their images, even paying for track improvements and raising purses. Reynolds brought in other corporate executives who became race and team sponsors. Reynolds sponsored lower level series down to local track racing. Before Reynolds came in, NASCAR was going broke and might have died.

Sprint has had more of a what-can-NASCAR-do-for-me attitude. It may not have the advertising ban problem that Reynolds has, but it also does not devote as much resources. Sprint has allowed NASCAR to take the lead in promotions and contracts, and has no presence in racing outside of the Sprint Cup. Instead of growth, during the Sprint tenure we see crowds shrinking, tracks downsizing, car counts reduced, and TV ratings falling. That’s not all Sprint’s fault, but they are not helping. After 13 years Sprint / Nextel is leaving – compared to 32 years for RJ Reynolds.

So who has done more for NASCAR? Without Winston there might not even be NASCAR today.
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I agree that Winston was much better and great for the grass roots. Those red and white walls at the local tracks are still engrained into my thoughts and expectations.

I still say the Winston All star race. Probably would still be saying the Winston Cup series if the Sprint Cup Series name wasnt pounded into the ground every week.
 
NASCAR Winston Cup was a much better sounding name mostly because it sounded less corporate than "NASCAR Sprint Cup" or "NASCAR Nextel Cup." Sprint Cup is a marginal improvement over Nextel Cup but it still sounds like a corporate sponsorship.
 
The Nature Boy said:
NASCAR Winston Cup was a much better sounding name mostly because it sounded less corporate than "NASCAR Sprint Cup" or "NASCAR Nextel Cup." Sprint Cup is a marginal improvement over Nextel Cup but it still sounds like a corporate sponsorship.
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So hopefully we don't get the NASCAR Genworth Financial Cup?
 
BOWTIE GUY said:
yes, to long time fans it will always be.WINSTON CUP. I still say Winston cup and busch series..
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I still say Busch series because 'Busch' is much less of a mouthful than 'Nationwide' or 'Xfinity'. That doesn't mean I think Busch was a better sponsor, just an easier one to pronounce.


'Winston Cup' just sounds right to some of y'all because that's what you spent decades becoming accustomed to hearing.
 
Acs said:
Nah sprint cup definitely has a nice ring to it. I can see how it would get confusing with sprint cars though.
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Oh, yeah; I forgot about that. I'm also not going to miss having to explain the difference between 'Sprint Cup' cars and 'sprint cars'.
 
Not all Winston Cup fans smoked. Washington interfered and messed up the sport.
 
Charlie Spencer said:
Another thing we don't know that Winston would have continued if they were still in the game today. Just because they did it then doesn't mean they'd still be doing it now.
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If the sponsor is signing the checks they can make it happen.
 
Something missing from this thread so far is that Winston perfectly embodied what racing was about. It was a bit redneck. It was born in the Carolinas. It was a bit dangerous, but fun. Sprint was just an antiseptic, faceless corporation.
 
29-4 said:
Something missing from this thread so far is that Winston perfectly embodied what racing was about. It was a bit redneck. It was born in the Carolinas. It was a bit dangerous, but fun. Sprint was just an antiseptic, faceless corporation.
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I agree with this, and I don't even smoke cigarettes. But I liked it better when the title sponsors were cigarettes, beer, and tools versus cell service, a cable provider, and camping world (I just say "trucks"). The old sponsors just felt better.
 
It's funny people call sprint too "corporate" yet every time i mention sprint cup to an outsider they have no clue it's sponsored by a telephone company until they see the logo. At least the word sprint innately has something to do with racing.
 
it really all went downhill after Winston was forced out. Nascar got a surge in popularity and then decided to cater to the casual fan thinking they were going to become hardcore fans. When the casuals were over their nascar curiosity the hardcore fans that have been fans forever dident even recognize the sport anymore. So many stupid changes to try and compete with stick and ball sports when any idiot had to know it never would. I always think back those few years or year i dont even remember when they moved all the races to 3 o'clock and making the stupid chase as some big "WOW nascar has no clue what they are doing anymore" moments.
 
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