When Nextel became the primary sponsor of NASCAR's premier racing series in 2004, it made headlines worldwide. Previous series sponsor, RJ Reynolds with its Winston brand, had been the series sponsor since the early '70s. The change to Nextel Cup Series took a while before it "rolled off the tongue" like Winston Cup Series had for more than three decades.
Now, less than four years later, NASCAR is preparing for another change in the series title as Sprint becomes the sponsor of the NASCAR Cup Series. When teams take the track in Daytona Beach, Fla. for competition next February, the series will be known as the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.
The title name change has been anticipated since Sprint and Nextel merged in 2005. An announcement in Daytona in early July addressed those rumors and anticipations.
"It will be different," said Dale Jarrett, driver of the #44 UPS Toyota. "When we changed the name from Winston, I think everyone looked at that as difficult to get used to but, I think it became second nature for all of us to refer to it as the Nextel Cup Series. And, it will be the same when we start referring to it as the Sprint Cup Series in January."
RJ Reynolds was the first company to take on the series title sponsorship. When it embarked in that program the company poured money into the sport - promoting it, the drivers and the sponsors. When Nextel came on board in 2004, it picked up where RJ Reynolds left off and built on the promotion of NASCAR's top touring series through consumer promotions and television commercials.
Sprint's plans to support the sport and series has been a topic of concern for a number of NASCAR participants and fans. However, Sprint executives quickly put those concerns to rest with the announcement of the SprintSpeed Million sweepstakes presented by Motorola. The new promotion began July 15 and is open to the public. Participants in the sweepstakes will have the opportunity to win one million dollars based on the driver that wins the championship at the end of the 2007 NASCAR season. Twelve fans will be paired with the 12 drivers that make up the Chase for the Championship with the fan that is paired with the championship-winning driver taking home a cool million.
"I think the most important thing is the continued growth of the sport," Jarrett said. "Obviously for so many years RJ Reynolds did a great job of promoting the series with its Winston brand and Nextel did a tremendous job of taking over that initiative when they became the title sponsor. I think we're already seeing the commitment Sprint intends to make during the next several years with promotions such as the one they just announced and it will be exciting to watch that evolve."
Along with the new title of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series is a new logo which was also unveiled at the time the announcement was made in Daytona. The title Nextel Cup Series remains through December 31, 2007 with the title Sprint Cup Series title name change beginning on January 1, 2008.
