What’s on Tap When Events Lose Sponsors

The Anheuser-Busch brewery apparently has positioned itself with NASCAR so that its Budweiser beer could become the stock car racing organization’s title sponsor in the event R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.’s Winston sponsorship is blown away by an anticipated government ban on tobacco advertising.

“We are extremely delighted to have a stronger partnership between Budweiser and NASCAR, and we think auto racing fans around the world will enjoy the benefits of our even stronger relationship,� said August A. Busch IV at an announcement party Thursday in New York.

Responded Brian France of NASCAR, “For nearly 20 years, Anheuser-Busch has been an excellent partner in promoting NASCAR racing. We anxiously look forward to another 20 years with their renewed support through the Budweiser brand.�

Formally, Budweiser became the “official beer of NASCAR,� and will replace Busch beer as the title sponsor of the Winston Cup qualifying award program, including the Bud Shootout-- formerly the Busch Clash--during Daytona Speedweeks next February. It also will sponsor pole awards for NASCAR’s 11 touring divisions.

Budweiser currently sponsors the No. 25 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet driven by Ricky Craven, and the Bud at the Glen Winston Cup race this weekend at Watkins Glen, N.Y.

Winston Cup, and the Winston Racing Series, which helps bankroll short tracks around the country, are endangered species.

How do Budweiser Cup and the Budweiser Racing Series sound?

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When Ford unveiled the four-door Taurus, which will replace the Thunderbird on next year’s NASCAR Winston Cup circuit, it was no surprise that the announcement was met with caustic comments from the Chevrolet camp.

“It looks to me all they did was take a [Chevrolet] Monte Carlo and put a Ford nose on it,� snapped Felix Sabates, owner of Chevrolets driven by Robby Gordon, Joe Nemechek and Wally Dallenbach Jr. “After looking at it, I don’t know why they spent so much time working on it.

“If that’s a Taurus, my aunt is my uncle.�

Darrell Waltrip, who owns and races his own Monte Carlo, said he felt the Taurus looked so much like his own car that it could prove helpful to Chevrolet owners.

“I saw the car and thought somebody had a new Monte Carlo,� he said. “It’s got some things on it we need on our cars. If it’s a Monte Carlo, and that’s basically what it looks like, and they need what they need to make it work, it will really help us. Whatever they need, we’re going to need the same.�

Even though the Thunderbird has won 12 of 19 races this season and lost to only one Monte Carlo driver--Jeff Gordon, who has seven wins--Ford officials elected to race the Taurus in 1998, rather than wait the three years allowed by NASCAR rules.

“We had an idea last year that the Thunderbird model would be discontinued, but it wasn’t until March we found out it would be the end of this year,� said Bruce Cambern, director of Ford’s racing division. “We could have waited another year, but you have to appreciate where we’re coming from.

“We are in the business of selling cars. And we want to race what we sell, and sell what we race. With the Thunderbird not in production, it doesn’t make a lot of sense for us to be as involved [with that model] as we are.

“We also think the Taurus will be a little more stable [as a race car]. It should be a little bit better car than the Thunderbird.�

The Roger Penske and Jack Roush teams did most of the development work that enabled Ford to create a new race car in four months. Basically, Roush was involved with the nose and tail, Penske with the body work, although both conferred frequently with car owner and engine builder Robert Yates and his crew chief, Todd Parrott.

It will be the first four-door model built for Winston Cup racing, but as Dale Jarrett said, “We crawl in and out of the window the same way, so four doors doesn’t really matter.�

An independent car owner who wants to continue racing a Thunderbird can do so for three more years, but any team getting support from the factory will race a Taurus.

Model changes are nothing new in NASCAR. Chevrolet made a switch from Lumina to the Monte Carlo three years ago, and Pontiac introduced its new Grand Prix last year.

The Taurus will make its racetrack debut next February in the Daytona 500.

CART

If you believe in omens, you’ve got to like Alex Zanardi’s chances in Sunday’s Miller 200 at Mid-Ohio. The little Italian who drives for Chip Ganassi is defending champion, and it’s history that the Miller 200 produces repeat winners.

Michael Andretti began the trend with consecutive victories in 1990 and ’91. Emerson Fittipaldi did it in 1992 and ’93 and Al Unser Jr. in ’94 and ’95. Going back even further, Bobby Rahal won in 1985 and ’86.

Zanardi is also coming off a victory two weeks ago in Michigan and is leading the PPG Cup standings.

FORMULA ONE

Michael Schumacher, who will be after his fourth Grand Prix victory of the year in the Hungarian GP Sunday in Budapest, reportedly receives $30 million a year for driving his Ferrari, plus a minimum of $500,000 for every sponsor’s name on his uniform.

Manfred von Brauchitsch, 92, one of Mercedes’ Grand Prix drivers in the 1930s, commented, “Driving a race car is priceless and the numbers are sometimes just a distortion of reality. But, when it comes down to it, isn’t it true that you can only eat one big pork chop a day?�

FUEL FOR THOUGHT

In case you’re wondering, NASCAR Winston Cup cars use 110-octane leaded gasoline; Indy cars and sprint cars use methanol; NHRA top fuel dragsters and funny cars use nitromethane, and Craig Breedlove’s Spirit of America land-speed vehicle will use premium unleaded gasoline.

NASCAR TRUCKS

“Nobody will scare me off. If necessary, I’ll trade paint with them.�

That was Tammy Jo Kirk’s warning to fellow Craftsman Truck drivers. If she does trade any paint, it will be hot pink.

Her truck sponsor is Lovable, a bra maker in Buford, Ga., where her Ford truck is garaged. Other drivers refer to it as the Bramobile. The trucks will be at Flemington, N.J., on Saturday night.

L.A. GRAND PRIX

Construction began at midnight Wednesday on the 1.6-mile street circuit where the Los Angeles Grand Prix vintage car race will be run Labor Day weekend. The first 8,100-pound concrete section was put into place on Broadway between Cesar Chavez and Arcadia streets. The course, which crosses over the Hollywood Freeway four times, is largely in the historic Plaza District around Union Station and Olvera Street.

LAST LAPS

Watkins Glen International Raceway will have special meaning for Tom Kendall when the UCLA graduate tries to break the late Mark Donohue’s record of consecutive Trans-Am victories in his Roush Ford Mustang Cobra on Saturday. It was at the upstate New York course that Donohue’s 1968 record of eight in a row was ended by the late Jerry Titus, and it was there in 1991 where Kendall crashed heavily, nearly ending his racing career. . . .

Unlimited hydroplane champion Dave Villwock, whose right hand was nearly severed in an accident during a race two weeks ago, had the hand grafted to the inside of his thigh to help create new skin during continued surgery at Harbor View Medical Center in Seattle. Villwock, who had won the first five races of the season, also lost two fingers and broke a forearm. The hand is expected to be detached from his thigh in about two months. The Unlimited Hydroplane Racing Assn. resumes racing Sunday with the Texaco Cup on Seattle’s Lake Washington. . . .

After 24 years, the Parker 400, one of desert off-road racing’s most popular events, is being dropped from next year’s SCORE Desert Championship series. Spiraling costs was the reason given by Sal Fish, SCORE executive director, for the move. SCORE will run only six events next year, three in the U.S. and three in Baja California.