Columnist Ron Kantowski: Tiny local sponsor gets big play at Indy 500

Wednesday, June 1, 2005 | 9:39 a.m.

Ron Kantowski is a Las Vegas Sun sports writer. Reach him at ron@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4088.

Moments before the start of Sunday's Indy 500, Mark Hale was starting to feel the electricity that most fans at the venerable Brickyard do -- especially those experiencing the Greatest Spectacle in Racing for the first time, as Hale was.

Then he glanced at one of the giant video screens at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and received the shock of his life.

As the cars were about to roll away from the starting grid, the ABC cameras showed a tight cockpit shot of Richie Hearn, the Green Valley resident who was driving a car for his Henderson buddy Sam Schmidt. Prominently displayed on the front of Hearn's helmet was a small decal with the words "LAS VEGAS KITCHEN AND BATH" -- the fixture, cabinet and countertop business on Patrick Lane that Hale owns.

When it comes to racing sponsors, Las Vegas Kitchen and Bath isn't exactly Marlboro or Target, so you can imagine the thrill Hall felt when his business was displayed so up close and personal before a worldwide television audience.

"I looked up at the video board and said 'Omigod!' " Hale said. "I cannot believe what just happened."

Hale said the sponsorship grew out of his friendship with Hearn and his wife Brenda, who moved to Henderson several years ago. He said he did not want to disclose what he paid for the sponsorship without first talking to Hearn.

But rest assured he couldn't have bought that kind of publicity in a million years. Maybe not even with a million dollars. There are cars with well-heeled sponsors that run in the back of the pack and never appear on TV.

"You're not the first one who has called," said Hale, who attended the race as the guest of Hearn, who was credited with 25th place after being eliminated from contention in a midrace crash with Scott Dixon.

Hale laughed when I suggested that if he sponsors Hearn again next year, he may want to redesign his logo. The decal on Hearn's helmet was more nondescript than that meat packing patch Sylvester Stallone wore on his robe in the original "Rocky," but Hale said that was, um, by design.

"We had a couple of (designs) picked out," he said. "But we didn't know if we were going to get five seconds or 20 seconds or one second (of exposure). We wanted to be sure you would be able to read it."

Well, for one afternoon anyway, the magic at the Indy 500 was back, thanks to the perseverance of a gritty 5-foot-1, 100-pound female driver.

Overnight media sensation Danica Patrick's fourth-place finish in Sunday's Indy 500 resulted in a 40-percent increase in the overnight TV ratings over last year. Her presence and ability to overcome a couple of significant rookie mistakes to challenge for what would have been a victory for the ages enabled the Indy 500 to lap NASCAR's Coca-Cola in viewership (6.6 to 4.8 according to the Indianapolis Star), and when was the last time that happened?

TV wasn't the only place Patrick beat NASCAR's fender benders. She was No. 4 in the weekend "Hot Searches" on the Netscape browser home page, while NASCAR was No. 5. The Paris Hilton Carl's Jr. ad finished first, second and third.

Now, it will be up to the Indy Racing League to capitalize on the momentum spike generated by Patrick and cultivate some new fans, or at least win back the old ones who jumped onto NASCAR's relentless bandwagon.

While I am among the small minority who believes the IRL puts on the best show on four wheels, when was the last time Dan Wheldon got the nod over Jeff Gordon to sing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" at Wrigley Stadium -- er, Field?

Some of her fellow drivers are grumbling that Patrick's diminutive size gives her an unfair advantage because it means her car is lighter than theirs, which translates to a small boost in speed.

Sun reader Bobby Bryde, who thinks the men drivers are a bunch of crybabies, says he has a solution.

"When she wins the race they can just give her a smaller trophy," he said.

Next to a college baseball game with aluminum bats, is there anything more tedious in sports than a 600-mile stock car race?

To get an idea of how long Sunday's Coca-Cola 600 lasted, if you counted the pre- and postrace shows, you could have watched "Titanic" and "Dances With Wolves" in the time it took to complete it. Marred by a record 22 caution periods, Sunday's NASCAR race took 5 hours, 13 minutes, 52 seconds from start to finish.

For sake of comparison, Ray Harroun won the inaugural Indy 500 in 1911 in 6:42:08, and that was almost a century before the cars were capable of going boogity, boogity, boogity.

A few weeks ago when she was being wooed by Whooer U and Disco Tech (actually, it was Montana Tech), Centennial High girls' basketball coach Karen Weitz talked about the difficulty of making the jump from high school to the college ranks.

The architect of Centennial's four consecutive 4A state titles, you sensed that Weitz one day wanted to become Pat Summitt or Geno Auriemma but wasn't sure how to get there.

But she made the right career move by choosing to become an assistant at Pacific rather than taking that job in Montana and being pigeon-holed as a small-college coach. That's almost as hopeless as being branded a high school coach for one whose aspirations are so much higher.

Think about it. There are a lot more Division I assistants who slide into head coaching jobs these days than Division II or NAIA coaching legends.

I suspect that if Craig Jackson, the head man at Pacific, taps into Weitz's knowledge of intense, take-no-prisoners basketball this won't be the last time we hear from her.

Coastal Carolina, UNLV's little known but talented first-round opponent in Friday's NCAA baseball Tempe regional, is the only No. 1 seed that isn't hosting a regional tournament. But nobody out Myrtle Beach way is complaining about it.

That's because to host a regional, you first must bid on one, and Coastal Carolina didn't.

UNLV athletic director Mike Hamrick, who serves on the NCAA baseball committee, said a school's financial bid, its won-loss record, tradition, stadium size and following are all considerations to becoming a regional host.

"All those things weigh with the committee," Hamrick said.

Coastal Carolina apparently never got on the scale. most likely because its stadium is too small.

According to the Budweiser Web site, his name is just Leon, he skipped college to go right to the pros and his Zodiac sign is $$$$.

Actually, the guy who plays "Leon" in those popular Bud adds is an actor named Nigel Thatch who tried out for baseball as a walk-on at the University of Florida. These days, his Zodiac sign is more like $800, his monthly salary as a member of the Schaumberg Flyers of the independent Northern League.

Joe Buck will be happy to learn -- I think -- that Leon is actually a semi-talented finesse pitcher who was good enough to toss a scoreless inning in his Flyers' debut against the St. Paul Saints.

Teammates, including some who have taken to calling him "Leon," said Hatch was fitting in well until he decided to catch a plane back to the Chicago suburbs instead of ride the six hours back from St. Paul in the team bus.

"I'm telling you," Hatch told USA Today, "the bus ride is harder than playing the game."

I received an e-mail from Ryan Bouwens, a native Alaskan -- and proud of it -- who said I wasn't the only one to belittle the Alaska Aces' run in the ECHL playoffs being named the best sports moment in Alaska history by the Anchorage Daily News.

But he said I ought to cut Alaska a little slack, in that the Last Frontier didn't become that, or at least a state, until 1959, meaning that it has had a lot fewer seasons than Nevada (1864) to establish a sports history.

Bouwens is a big Aces fans but said his choice for best Alaska sports moment would have been Tommy Moe (Girdwood, Alaska) winning a gold medal in Olympic downhill skiing in 1994.

Now that I know Moe grew up in parka country, I would concur, although Sports Illustrated had him No. 2 on its list of 50 Greatest Sports Figures from Alaska behind Trajan Langdon (Anchorage), the all-time leader in 3-point baskets and free-throw percentage at Duke.

Former UNLV women's basketball star Linda Frohlich's stay with the WNBA's Charlotte Sting was short-lived as she was waived during preseason camp.

The Sting had signed Frohlich to a training camp contract in March but she appeared to be the victim of a numbers game as Charlotte drafted two rookie centers (Frohlich's primary position) in Minnesota All-American Janel McCarville and UConn's Jessica Moore.

The news section on Frohlich's Web site was mum and glum about her future.

"Once we get some news," read a terse statement, "we'll let you know."

Instead of "Hold Me Now," Las Vegas' version of the Thompson Twins will have to settle for "Hold Me Later," as in next tennis season.

Catrina and Christian Thompson, the talented tennis-playing twins from Bishop Gorman representing Notre Dame in the NCAA Women's Tennis Championship, made it to the round of 16 for the second consecutive year before being eliminated.

The sophomore siblings, ranked No. 6 in the nation, were upset 6-1, 6-2 by 29th-ranked Ana Cetnik and Story Tweedie-Yates of TCU. Still, it was another excellent year for the Thompsons, who finished with a 28-7 record, including an 8-2 mark against Top 15 competition.

As executive director of the NIAA, Dr. Jerry Hughes has to make a lot of tough calls. But at least he is paid pretty handsomely for making them.

According to the minutes at a recent NIAA board of control meeting, Hughes' contract, which includes a bonus for longevity ($1,800), a car allowance ($7,500) and a doctorial stipend ($500), is worth $111,284 per year.

Which means he makes even more than the coaches at Bishop Gorman.

Part of the risk of covering sports as long as I have is that some of the teams and players start to look and sound alike. Perhaps that was why I referred to the Las Vegas 51s' Jose Flores as Jose Torres and Arena football's Arizona Rattlers as the Arizona Wranglers last week.

Jose Torres is the former light-heavyweight champion who went on to become a writer and author. The Arizona Wranglers played in the old USFL.

As they used to say when somebody dropped a bunt single against Sandy Koufax, there goes the perfect game.

archive