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pettyfan4life
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# McDonald's, Powerade Join Forces To Reward, Recognize NASCAR Pit Crews BUT: McDonald's, the official Drive Thru of NASCAR, and POWERade, the official sports drink of NASCAR, have teamed to sponsor an award program that celebrates the unsung heroes in NASCAR's three major racing series - Cup, BGN and CTS. The McDonald's Drive-Thru Pit Championship fueled by POWERade will offer prize money in excess of $1.2 million during the 2003 season, making it the largest monetary contingency program in NASCAR history and the first season points championship for pit crew teams. The program will award $20,000 per week to the top-performing participating NASCAR Winston Cup Series pit crew. In addition, results will be tabulated throughout the season to determine the program's championship crew, which will take home $200,000. During each 2003 NASCAR Winston Cup points event, the participating crew whose car spends the least amount of aggregate time off the race track will be named the weekly winner provided their driver took the green flag at the beginning of the event and checkered flag at the conclusion of the event. The winning crew each week will receive $20,000 and a traveling trophy to proudly display during the next event. Following every race, participating crews will be ranked in order of pit performance, with 43 points going to the top finisher, descending to one point for the last-place team. The crew with the highest cumulative score at season's end will win the annual championship and take home a $200,000 prize. NASCAR will measure times using the official scoring transponders that monitor the cars on the track. A timing line at the entrance and exit to pit road will trigger the transponders and record the total time each car spends off the race track. Fans can keep track of their favorite crew's performance during Winston Cup television broadcasts, which will feature a pre-race recap of the previous week's competition and review of official standings, a mid-race update and a post-race announcement. Points determining weekly and year-end awards will be based on a combination of qualifying position, pit stops and finishing order.(McDonald's PR, NASCAR.com adds "participating crews" meaning those who choose to particpate in the program)(2-15-2003)
However: the Winston Salem Journal reports.......NASCAR's new pit-crew competition has a flaw this season: the man with the fastest pit crew on the stock-car tour, Matt Kenseth, has sponsorship contracts with Gatorade, a Pepsi product. The NASCAR pit-crew competition is sponsored by rival Coca-Cola and PowerAde. So when NASCAR releases weekly standings, Kenseth's team isn't included, which makes the award competition all but useless. In fact, according to one report, Kenseth was so displeased in Victory Lane at Las Vegas when Coca-Cola sponsorship promoters put bottles of PowerAde on his car that he deliberately knocked them all off.(Winston Salem Journal), wonder waht Jeff Gordon will do? and also of note, there are a few contingency awards that are like this, such as the Bud Pole award, a team must carry the Bud sticker to get thee award, the Petty teams [#43, 44 and 45] do not and some teams do not carry the USG sticker for the USG Driver of the Race. See past winners of the award on my Pit Crew page and see my Pit Crew Chart.(3-11-2003)
However: the Winston Salem Journal reports.......NASCAR's new pit-crew competition has a flaw this season: the man with the fastest pit crew on the stock-car tour, Matt Kenseth, has sponsorship contracts with Gatorade, a Pepsi product. The NASCAR pit-crew competition is sponsored by rival Coca-Cola and PowerAde. So when NASCAR releases weekly standings, Kenseth's team isn't included, which makes the award competition all but useless. In fact, according to one report, Kenseth was so displeased in Victory Lane at Las Vegas when Coca-Cola sponsorship promoters put bottles of PowerAde on his car that he deliberately knocked them all off.(Winston Salem Journal), wonder waht Jeff Gordon will do? and also of note, there are a few contingency awards that are like this, such as the Bud Pole award, a team must carry the Bud sticker to get thee award, the Petty teams [#43, 44 and 45] do not and some teams do not carry the USG sticker for the USG Driver of the Race. See past winners of the award on my Pit Crew page and see my Pit Crew Chart.(3-11-2003)
