Wednesday, June 18, 2003 | 9:13 a.m.
When wireless communications provider Nextel assumes title sponsorship of NASCAR's Winston Cup Series next season, the change will have little effect on Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
In fact, the nation's fifth-largest wireless carrier already has a significant presence at LVMS, which hosts a Winston Cup race: Nextel provides cellular phones and service to the speedway's employees.
NASCAR has scheduled a press conference Thursday morning in New York at which it will announce that Nextel will replace R.J. Reynolds Tobacco as the title sponsor of its top stock-car series, which has been known as the Winston Cup Series since 1971.
"I think the effect (on us) will be fairly minimal," LVMS general manager Chris Powell said. "We already have an arrangement with Nextel for our cellular phones. I think the agreement that we have with Nextel will be very similar to the one we've had through the years with Winston and RJR."
R.J. Reynolds, citing advertising restrictions on tobacco companies and an "uncertain business climate," gave NASCAR permission earlier this year to begin searching for a new title sponsor. RJR and NASCAR had agreed last summer on a five-year extension to their sponsorship agreement.
Powell, who worked for R.J. Reynolds' sports marketing arm before joining LVMS parent Speedway Motorsports Inc. in 1999, said he was sad to see RJR and Winston leave the sport.
"I am terribly sorry to see them go," Powell said. "It has been a great relationship. One of the first calls Richie Clyne (who oversaw the construction of Las Vegas Motor Speedway) made in an effort to bring NASCAR to Las Vegas was to T. Wayne Robertson, my former boss at RJR, so I think Wayne and R.J. Reynolds had a big impact on NASCAR even coming to Las Vegas.
"I think it's a sad day when a company that has been as good to a sport as RJR leaves the sport. That said, we're very happy that Nextel is going to be the next series sponsor. We've had a very good relationship with them since we started it a year or so ago and we're looking forward to continuing it."
While LVMS will not be affected by the change in sponsors -- other than altering a few billboards on the property that carry the Winston logo -- the move has fueled widespread speculation that teams funded by competing wireless service providers could be in jeopardy of losing their sponsors.
Not so, NASCAR team owner Richard Childress said Tuesday. Childress fields three Winston Cup cars, including the No. 31 Chevrolet driven by Robby Gordon and sponsored by Cingular Wireless. Alltel, another wireless provider, also sponsors a car in the Winston Cup Series.
"There's not going to be a problem with Cingular and the other wireless company that's in there now because I think they would be grandfathered in," Childress said. "I don't know that for a fact; I haven't seen it written but that's just what we all understand."
NASCAR reportedly contacted Childress and Penske Racing South, which fields the Alltel-sponsored Dodge for driver Ryan Newman, before signing the agreement with Nextel to see if their sponsors would have a problem with a competitor sponsoring the series.
"When we first found out that there was the potential of a wireless company (sponsoring the series), we spoke with (Cingular) and there didn't seem to be a great concern -- but I'm sure they had to run it up the pole at their headquarters in Atlanta," Childress said. "I haven't heard back that there would be anything negative. Knowing their marketing plans and strategy, they're going to look at this as opportunity."
Don Miller, president of Penske Racing South, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution he wasn't worried that Nextel's entry into the series would bother Alltel.
"It's not going to affect our team at all," Miller said. "I liken it to the (NASCAR) Busch Series has Busch for the title sponsor but they allow Keystone and Coors Light and Miller Brewing Company and everybody else to sponsor a car.
"NASCAR doesn't feel it is a conflict."
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