NASCAR IS . . . : ON EASY STREET : If Clinton’s No-Tobacco Program Happens, Other Sponsors Figure to Be Waiting in Line

Can motor racing survive as we know it without the tobacco-driven money from Winston, Marlboro, Camel, Skoal and other smoking and chewing products?

What if President Clinton and the Food and Drug Administration, in their program to curb underage smoking, are successful in making it illegal for sporting events to bear the names of cigarette brands?

“If I had to bet, I would say that if RJR [R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., makers of Winston and Camel cigarettes] had to pull out of racing today, NASCAR would have a new sponsor in place tomorrow morning,” one highly placed member of the NASCAR family said during the Labor Day weekend at Darlington, S.C. “No, make that Tuesday, tomorrow’s a holiday. That’s how quick it’ll happen.”

The runaway success of NASCAR’s Winston Cup series, which has expanded from sellout crowds and increased TV ratings to the creation of stock car-oriented restaurants, shopping centers that sell every conceivable type of racing memorabilia and clothing, and neighborhood tracks for wannabe race drivers, has made racing a high-profile business operation worth, according to Forbes magazine, $2 billion.

“I would say that corporate heads would be standing in line, waiting to make their pitch to NASCAR if Winston is eliminated,” another stock car official said. “It’s inevitable it’s going to happen. The question is not if, but when.”

The official line is that the possible loss of tobacco sponsorship is two to 10 years away, depending on how long the issue is tied up in court, and until then there is no need to discuss it.

John Griffin, senior manager of corporate communications for NASCAR, said, “The people at R.J. Reynolds have been partners with us for 25 years and it would not be very polite--in fact, it would be quite rude--to be talking about the possibility of replacing them while we are still working partners.

“And, in any event, if it does happen, it’s a long way down the road. Two years at the least, the way the edict is written. After that, it’s in the hands of the court.”

Graham Light, senior vice president of drag racing’s National Hot Rod Assn., also said it was premature to be discussing the possibility of a Winston replacement, but that the growth of drag racing would assure its future success.

“We certainly have no one to plug in if Winston were to leave us,” Light said. “It is not in our plans to have anyone else. We feel we have both benefited from our 22 years together, and we hope to continue that relationship.”

Despite that bravado attitude, many behind the scenes are contemplating the possibility of major changes in the structure of motorsports. The most significant would be the elimination of the Winston name from the stock car and drag racing series.

How does McDonald’s Cup sound?

McDonald’s, “the official quick-service restaurant of NASCAR and the National Hot Rod Assn.,” is the name most mentioned as a potential sponsor.

McDonald’s, which has more than 11,000 outlets in the United States, sponsors a stock car driven by former Winston Cup champion Bill Elliott in NASCAR and drag racers owned by former Washington Redskin coach Joe Gibbs and driven by Cory McClenathan, Cruz Pedregon and Jim Yates in the NHRA.

“At this point, it’s so speculative that it doesn’t mean anything, but there’s a good reason why McDonald’s has been mentioned,” said David Paro, McDonald’s director of motorsports marketing. “We have had a good, solid history of motorsports marketing with NASCAR for seven years, and for four years with the NHRA.”

Others suggested as possible sponsors included DuPont Automotive Finishes, whose competitor, PPG Industries, sponsors the $2.75-million point fund for the CART brand of Indy cars; Goodyear, which supplies all the tires for Winston Cup racing; Union 76, the official fuel of NASCAR; Valvoline, the official fuel of CART; Castrol, sponsors of drag racer John Force and Dan Gurney’s Toyota race cars; Coca-Cola, Kodak, Sears and Anheuser-Busch.

Anheuser-Busch, the St. Louis brewery that sponsors NASCAR’s Busch Grand National series, is not considered a viable candidate because there is a belief in the motorsports world that once tobacco is eliminated from racing sponsorship, the next target may well be alcoholic products.

Because Winston and Marlboro have such high profiles, there is a public perception that racing is permeated by tobacco products. But that is not the case when it comes to individual teams and other racing series.

Only three of 42 starters in NASCAR’s Southern 500 two weeks ago were tobacco-sponsored: Jimmy Spencer’s Smokin’ Joe’s Thunderbird by Camel, Ricky Craven’s Chevrolet by Kodiak smokeless tobacco, and Robert Pressley’s Chevrolet by Skoal smokeless.

And outside of the three Marlboro cars driven by Al Unser Jr., Paul Tracy and Jan Magnussen, only two other entries in the CART Indy car race last Sunday at Laguna Seca were tobacco sponsored--Mauricio Gugelmin by Hollywood, a Brazilian cigarette, and Greg Moore by Player’s, a Canadian cigarette. “We have no contingency plan for sponsorship of the Penske team by anyone other than Marlboro,” said Walt Czarnecki, Penske executive vice president. “We have a contract with Marlboro and we expect to fulfill that contract. It has been our team sponsor since 1989 and we have heard nothing to change it.”

The success of the Penske team--until this season when it went without a win for the first time since CART was formed in 1979--would assure that it would have little difficulty in obtaining a sponsor in the event of a cigarette blackout. Sponsors of winning Penske cars in the past include Norton, Gould, A.B. Dick, Hertz, Cummins, Mobil, Sunoco and Miller.

The Philip Morris Co.’s Marlboro brand has also been the sponsor since 1987 of the 500-mile Indy car race annually at Roger Penske’s Michigan International Speedway.

Since U.S. Tobacco withdrew its sponsorship of A.J. Foyt’s Indy cars after the Indianapolis 500, there are no tobacco-sponsored entries in the new Indy Racing League.

All 31 Winston Cup races have title sponsors and only one, the Winston Select 500 at Talladega, Ala., is tobacco sponsored. Among the diverse sponsors are Goodwrench GM, Transouth Financial, Food City, Goody’s, SaveMart Supermarkets, Tyson Holly Farms, AC-Delco and Dura Lube.

And only the Winston Select Finals, season-ending event of the NHRA season at Pomona, and the Winston Select Invitational all-star event at Rockingham, N.C., are tobacco-sponsored national drag racing events.

The Marlboro 500 at Michigan is the only CART or Indy Racing League event linked to tobacco.

Kool, a Brown & Williamson Tobacco Co. cigarette, is a team sponsor in the Indy Lights series with plans to move up to Indy cars.

“We don’t think [the FDA proposal is] going to change anything in the near term,” said Bert Kremer Jr., sponsorship manager for B&W.; “There is a phase-in period of at least two years. And the tobacco industry will ardently challenge this proposal.”

Other series sanctioned by NASCAR are thriving without tobacco sponsorship. They include the Busch Grand National, Craftsman Truck, Featherlite Southwest Tour, Reb-Co Northwest Tour and Slim Jim All Pro.

“The way the measure is written, it would permit corporate sponsorship, so we could change the Winston Cup to the R.J. Reynolds Cup,” said one RJR spokesman facetiously.

If any segment of motorsports could be hurt by a ban on tobacco advertising and sponsorship, it would be the small stock car tracks such as Orange Show Speedway in San Bernardino, Cajon Speedway in El Cajon and Mesa Marin Raceway in Bakersfield that participate in the Winston Racing Series. They receive support in the construction of scoreboards, advertising and other benefits from Winston, which also contributes $725,000 in prize money for individual track, district and national champions.

“The Winston Racing Series is the grass roots of stock car racing,” said Andy Hall, NASCAR director of public relations. “That’s where we get our drivers of the future, the Earnhardts and the Pettys. We sanctioned those small tracks before Winston, and I am sure we would continue to do so if we lost Winston. However, that is not a development we anticipate.”

Then there was the fan who suggested that the answer to eliminating tobacco from the Winston Cup, the Winston Racing Series and Winston Drag Racing--without losing the identity--would be to sign a contract with Winston Tires, which was once a racing sponsor when the late Sam Winston started the business.