SONOMA, Calif. - Nextel's 10-year, $700 million-plus contract with NASCAR for the naming rights to what's now known as the Winston Cup Series may give the telecommunications company enough clout to block AT&T's entry into the sport next year.
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Roush Racing and Dale Earnhardt Inc. both had been negotiating with AT&T about primary sponsorship for Jeff Burton's No. 99 Ford at Roush and Jeff Green's No. 1 Chevrolet at DEI, but Nextel's contract with NASCAR allows them exclusive rights to communications products on the racing circuit.
Current wireless telephone companies Cingular and Alltel were grandfathered into the agreement, so they will be allowed to remain with their teams once the circuit becomes the NASCAR Nextel Series.
BAM Racing owner Beth Ann Morgenthau on Friday asked NASCAR for a clarification on her selected agreement with AT&T and the No. 49 Dodge driven by Ken Schrader, according to NASCAR spokeswoman Kate Davis.
Schrader's car has been sponsored by 1-800-Call-ATT during selected races this season, including Sunday's road course race at Sonoma, Calif. NASCAR and Nextel apparently will review that sponsorship before deciding whether BAM can sign another rival in the competitive cell phone business.
Although Nextel's contract allows for current sponsors to remain in the sport, one glitch for Morgenthau is the fact her current deal with AT&T is for its collect call service, not its wireless division.
Regardless, Morgenthau likes her position, NASCAR willing, as the only possible alternative for AT&T.
"The addition of this race (at Sonoma) is exciting for all of us at BAM, and knowing they will be with us in the future is exciting, too," she said. "We have AT&T on our car throughout the season, and plan on them being sponsors for us for a long time to come."
NEW TEMPLATE COMING: When five teams twisted the rule book - and the right-rear roof panel - at the Pocono (Pa.) Raceway to gain more downforce on the rear tires NASCAR took notice.
When even more showed up with the same sloping roofs last week at the Michigan International Speedway, NASCAR took charge.
The sanctioning body showed the teams a new template it would start using before the July 5 Pepsi 400 at the Daytona International Speedway to make sure the roofs are squared with the rest of the body.
NASCAR already has a template that starts at the air cowl at the front edge of the windshield that goes over the car to make sure the body isn't twisted out of specifications. To get around that, some teams made alterations to the cowl which gives NASCAR a false reading on the rest of their measurements.
The sanctioning body will have a new template at Daytona that measures the integrity of the cowl.
FORD'S BETTER IDEA: Wood Brothers Racing invited NASCAR to look at what it hopes will be the new 2004 Ford Taurus this week.
The meeting at the team's shop in Stuart, Va., wasn't intended to be a formal submission. Instead, the race team hoped to get some ideas from the sanctioning body on possible changes before it seeks official approval.
Dan Davis, director of Ford Racing Technology, said he wants to keep NASCAR informed on the early progress of the new design to eliminate possible delays in the future.
"We want to show NASCAR the car up front in case there are issues," he said.
PIT STOPS: Sunday's race marked the final Winston Cup Series broadcast for Fox this season. The network's sister network, FX, will carry next week's Busch Series race at Milwaukee, then NBC and TNT will take over for the second half of the season ... Guitarist Joe Satriani gave a Jimi Hendrix-like rendition of the national anthem before Sunday's race at Sonoma, but he had an American Idol-like grasp of etiquette. Much like three of the American Idol singers who sang The Star Spangled Banner before the Coca-Cola 600, Santriani wore a hat during the song ... Geoffrey Bodine will drive a BMW Picchio Daytona Prototype sports car with Darren Law at the Paul Revere 250 on July 3 at Daytona International Speedway.
