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Verizon cannot rebrand Penske's No. 12 car
By Bob Pockrass - Associate Editor
Friday, June 06, 2008
Verizon currently sponsors Gillett Evernham Motorsports' No. 9 Dodge and rookie driver Chase Miller in the Nationwide Series.
Chris Graythen
Getty Images
LONG POND, Pa. – Verizon and Alltel have agreed to a merger, with Verizon likely to drop the Alltel brand. That would complicate the issue for the Penske Racing No. 12 car currently sponsored by Alltel.
NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Poston said Thursday that Verizon cannot re-brand the car because of NASCAR’s contract with Sprint as the sponsor of NASCAR’s premier series. The contract grandfathered in Alltel and Cingular as long as they did not change teams nor brands.
Verizon’s purchase of Alltel is expected to close by the end of the year.
“It's premature to talk about this,” Verizon Vice President of Corporate Communications Jim Gerace said in a statement. “Our first priority will be to complete the acquisition, which we hope to do by the end of this year.
“When we do, I'm sure we'll have a good handle on the NASCAR situation. … We do intend to change the Alltel brand to Verizon Wireless, but over what time period I can't say.”
AT&T challenged the grandfather clause in federal court after it merged with Cingular and the group wanted to put the AT&T logos on the No. 31 Richard Childress Racing car. That car had carried the Cingular branding. The parties settled last September with NASCAR and Sprint, which allowed AT&T to have its trademark on the No. 31 Richard Childress Racing car through the end of this season.
Verizon is a sponsor with Gillett Evernham Motorsports in the Nationwide Series and could continue that relationship. It sponsors rookie
Chase Miller. It can have one of the team’s Sprint Cup drivers in the car for races but cannot use that driver in any promotional material.
Mentioned Drivers: Ryan Newman
2009 Sprint Cup Race for the Chase Standings
Driver Standings after the Checker O'Reilly Auto Parts 500
| 1 | Jimmie Johnson | 6492 |
| 2 | Mark Martin | -108 |
| 3 | Jeff Gordon | -169 |
| 4 | Kurt Busch | -211 |
| 5 | Tony Stewart | -285 |
| 6 | Juan Pablo Montoya | -289 |
| 7 | Greg Biffle | -321 |
| 8 | Denny Hamlin | -352 |
| 9 | Ryan Newman | -411 |
| 10 | Kasey Kahne | -476 |
| 11 | Carl Edwards | -520 |
| 12 | Brian Vickers | -666 |
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3 responses to "Verizon cannot rebrand Penske's No. 12 car". Post a Comment.
Jeff Waybright said:
Jun 6, 2008 at 2:08 PMSo, crazy. Does anyone seriously think that Sprint is hurt by having AT&T running out on the track today? I don't see why AT&T and Verizon can't run in Sprint Cup racing. Especially considering how hard it is nowadays to secure sponsorship for teams.
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» Confirm Abuse ReportMELISSA BOCK said:
Jun 7, 2008 at 9:37 AMSprint paid millions for one thing...exclusivity. Back when it was Winston Cup, you never saw Marlboro sponsoring a car, did you? You can't really blame Sprint for wanting to keep the competition away from the track. They have invested a huge slice of their marketing pie into racing, and they want people to associate NASCAR cup racing with their brand, not any other kind of cellular phone. Yes, sponsorship is hard to get for race teams, but that's not Sprint's mission. They are in it to boost Sprint's bottom line, not provide a venue for their competition (Verizon, AT&T, et al) to woo customers.
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» Confirm Abuse ReportMike Little said:
Jun 7, 2008 at 10:19 AMSponsoring a series and spnsoring a car or team is 2 different strategies. If one team is able to change its sponsors name logo etc. then why not Alltell to Verizon?
Report as Abusehopefully Verizon will bring the "chuks".
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This feature is intended to allow you to report comments that are abusive in terms of foul/vulgar language, harassment, racial/religious prejudice and any words/phrases of a related nature. This feature should not be used to report users who simply make a comment about your favorite driver, with which you do not agree. Commenting is a forum in which we can all express our opinions. Reporting abuse of others should be done with this in mind.
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