Sprint Cup Series? Not yet

By Bob Pockrass
Sunday, September 10, 2006

RICHMOND, Va. - There will be no Sprint Cup Series in 2007.

As early as June 2005, there were reports that the Nextel Cup Series would go through a name change effective next season.

But a Sprint official insisted Sept. 9 that no decision has been made to change the name, and there definitely will be no change for 2007.

"When you're talking about the magnitude of a change in terms of a series name change, we take that extremely seriously," said Mary Nell Westbrook, Sprint's sponsorship communications director. "We absolutely want to do our due diligence to do it right. ... We want it to take as long as it takes to do it right."

That could mean a name change in 2008.

"It is possible for 2008," Westbrook said. "But we haven't decided yet. It's possible it will stay the same too."

Nextel and Sprint merged in 2005, in the second year of a 10-year deal Nextel had made to sponsor NASCAR's premier series.

The contract allows one name change to the series over the 10 years.

"The fact that we get a one-shot deal, it doesn't affect timing but does affect us doing it right because we know we've got one shot to do it right," Westbrook said. "We're going to take as much time as we need to do it right.

"We cannot underscore the importance of the Nextel brand to our customers. Taking our time gives customers that much more a comfort zone to know that the Nextel product isn't going away, the Nextel network isn't going away."

Westbrook said Sprint Nextel is still in the first phase of its research into whether to change the name - the decision whether a change should be made. The next would be focus groups and examining what the name should be and what the logo would look like.

"We're still maturing as a company," Westbrook said. "We really needed to slow down, do the research, no wine before it's time, make sure that it makes sense for the fans, for NASCAR, for Sprint, for our customers.

"We have a lot of constituencies that we really need to make sure that it works for. That is the process we're in right now."

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2009 Sprint Cup Race for the Chase Standings

Driver Standings after the AMP Energy 500

1 Jimmie Johnson 6248
2 Mark Martin -184
3 Jeff Gordon -192
4 Juan Pablo Montoya -239
5 Tony Stewart -279
6 Kurt Busch -312
7 Greg Biffle -340
8 Ryan Newman -402
9 Kasey Kahne -414
10 Carl Edwards -437
11 Denny Hamlin -448
12 Brian Vickers -556

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