Title sponsor has its plan on track

Friday, June 25, 2004 | 9:41 a.m.

From Chris Powell's viewpoint, the transition from Winston to Nextel as the title sponsor of NASCAR's premier racing series has been seamless.

As the general manager of Las Vegas Motor Speedway, which hosts an annual Nextel Cup Series race, Powell said the biggest adjustment he had to make was getting used to the yellow and black Nextel logos that replaced the familiar red and white Winston signs that dotted NASCAR tracks for 33 years.

A year ago this week, NASCAR and Nextel announced it had entered into a 10-year agreement -- valued at an estimated $700 million -- for the wireless communications giant to replace R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company's Winston brand as the series' title sponsor beginning with the 2004 season. Although the announcement initially was greeted with skepticism by many fans that wondered how any company could successfully follow Winston's lead, the new partnership has proven to be a winning proposition on many fronts.

NASCAR chairman Brian France said the sanctioning body has been "very pleased" with Nextel's contributions through the first six months of the sponsorship and Nextel officials are equally happy about the relationship, according to a Nextel spokesman.

Even Powell, who spent five years in the Winston Cup Series with R.J. Reynolds' sports marketing arm, can't find fault with the new relationship.

"I think (Nextel has) brought a new type of energy to the sport, simply because they have the ability to go out and advertise and promote the sport in ways that R.J. Reynolds could not," Powell said.

"I think it's a very good partnership. I haven't seen any quantifiable results yet from Nextel on how this partnership is working for them, but I hope it's working as well for them as it is for the sport overall because I think it's working very well for the sport."

To its credit, Nextel has spent the better part of the first six months of the sponsorship promoting NASCAR as opposed to coming out of the box with an aggressive advertising blitz of its products and services. That, a Nextel spokesman said, has been by design.

"We realized that the foundation of NASCAR is built on relationships -- not just the relationships with the drivers, the teams, the tracks and NASCAR, but also with the fans," Michael Mooney, director of corporate communications for Nextel's NASCAR program, said.

"We knew that coming in, being sort of the new kids on the block, that it was going to take time for us to build the relationship, earn their respect, let them know that we were here to be advocates of the sport, to enhance the sport and to try to take the sport from where Winston had helped it grow, to the next level."

Mooney, who attended meetings this week with Nextel executives to review the first six months of the NASCAR partnership, said the company so far believes it is getting its considerable money's worth.

"We do -- again, understanding that the initial goals were soft and were not based or driven on 'we have to get out there and sell phones,' " Mooney said. "That is something that obviously is a goal and, yes, we are a business. As other sponsors in this sport want to provide their products and gain customers, we do as well.

"But at the level we came in at, that was not the first goal. The first goal was to reach out to the (NASCAR) community and say 'here is who we are,' learn as much as we can, let them know that we are here for the benefit of the sport and from there people will see what we have to offer."

Nextel already has introduced NASCAR-themed cell phones and partnered with NASCAR.com to provide news and live race-weekend results to Nextel subscribers via their wireless phones. The company also announced Thursday that it would begin offering its customers a service where they can call a number -- from anywhere in the country-- and listen to live in-car radio communications during races.

Mooney promised that more innovations are in the works.

"We're six months (into the sponsorship) and we're really trying to pace ourselves in making sure that we bolt down the basics," Mooney said. "We're looking at this very much in a marathon type of perspective, not a sprint. If you look at it, Winston had 33 years to build the machine that fans, along with NASCAR, are enjoying today.

"We're six months in and it's not going to happen overnight but we have a good plan in place of how we went to keep working with the sport and contribute some new products. The hope is that, at the end of the day, when there are people out there who have cell phones, that if they have an option to choose providers, that they will see what we are doing in NASCAR and the access we are providing them and they may consider our product."