Playing the name game

Bruton Smith's decision to sell the naming rights to his Charlotte Motor Speedway to Lowe's Companies Inc., was one that was long overdue, according to Las Vegas Motor Speedway general manager Chris Powell.

Under a $35 million, 10-year agreement announced Tuesday, Charlotte Motor Speedway became the first major auto racing facility to sell the naming rights to a corporate sponsor and will be renamed "Lowe's Motor Speedway."

"I think this is inevitable in motor sports," Powell said. "You might even say that it's sort of ironic that motor sports seems to be the last bastion to sell naming rights since motor sports is so synonymous with advertising."

Powell added that LVMS, which also is owned by Smith's Speedway Motorsports Inc., could follow suit in selling its naming rights if SMI was to find the corporate partner.

"I think this is the wave of the future," Powell said. "We'll certainly entertain thoughts about doing the same thing here."

SMI president H.A. "Humpy" Wheeler agreed with Powell.

"This opens the floodgates," Wheeler said. "This is the way of sports today."

Wheeler said the money from the name change would be used to add seats, roads and parking at the Charlotte track, which is raising seating capacity to 156,000 for its next Winston Cup race, the Coca-Cola 600 in May.

Las Vegas Motor Speedway is in the midst of similar upgrades in preparation for the March 7 Las Vegas 400 NASCAR Winston Cup race. Speedway officials are adding approximately 20,000 seats, additional access roads, pedestrian entrances and parking lots for the race.

Selling the naming rights to LVMS would be the most logical way for SMI to recoup the money it is spending on the improvements.

While selling the naming rights to stadiums and arenas has become common in team sports, the Lowe's deal represents a first for a NASCAR Winston Cup track.

Charlotte, a 1.5-mile superspeedway built in 1960, also was the first facility in Winston Cup racing to offer public stock and was the first to build luxury suites and condominiums and install lights for night Winston Cup races.

"The new trend in sports marketing has been selling naming rights at various venues," Smith said. "I think it is significant for us to be the first in the motor sports industry to do this.

"We will continue to find ways to be innovative in motor sports marketing and facility management."

Lowe's, the nation's second largest home-improvement retailer, has 487 stores in 27 states and plans to open an additional 100 stores in the West and Pacific Northwest. The company already sponsors a Winston Cup team and several stock car races.

Lowe's spent an estimated $30 million in racing last year and expects that figure to climb to $40 million this year, chairman and chief executive officer Bob Tillman said.

"This makes perfect sense for us because we both have the same target market," Tillman said. "Of all sports marketing activities, this one yields the highest return of all because the fan loyalty is greater in NASCAR than any other sport."

Although Monday's announcement does not immediately affect SMI's other properties, company officials said they expect other tracks on the Winston Cup circuit to follow suit.

Wheeler said the Atlanta and Texas tracks would be the two other SMI properties most likely to sell their naming rights in the coming months, and one published report claimed that SMI already is negotiating to sell the names of its five other tracks.

Besides LVMS, Atlanta and Texas, SMI also owns Bristol Motor Speedway in Tennessee and Sears Point Raceway in Sonoma, Calif.

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