Robert K. Campbell, 83; Promoted NASCAR, Auto...
From Times Staff and Wire Reports
Robert K. Campbell, 83; Promoted NASCAR, Auto Racing for 60 Years
Robert Kenneth Campbell, 83, an innovative promoter who helped shepherd NASCAR through its infancy and worked with the likes of the Harlem Globetrotters, Guy Lombardo and Lawrence Welk, died Friday at his home near Richmond, Va., after a long illness, his family said.
Known to friends as Kenneth, Campbell spent nearly 60 years promoting auto racing. One of his ideas was selling advertising space on race cars by brokering a deal with a car dealer to put a logo on Richard Petty’s race car, a way of raising money by selling sponsorships that has helped make NASCAR big business.