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thedrifter
11-15-06, 01:28 PM
Coast Guard, Marines brake on NASCAR
By JAMES W. CRAWLEY
Media General News Service
Wednesday, November 15, 2006

WASHINGTON - The military's love affair with fast cars may be running out of gas.

The Coast Guard and Marines are dropping NASCAR racing sponsorships from their advertising budgets next year.

The Coast Guard will funnel the approximately $5 million it spends on NASCAR into its operations budget, helping pay to keep its cutters afloat and rescue helicopters airborne.

"We had competing fiscal demands," said Coast Guard spokesman Steve Blando. "It's going to operational missions."

The Marines' $3.5 million NASCAR budget will go for other advertising and recruiting expenses, officials said.

This year, the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, National Guard and Coast Guard have NASCAR programs, ranging in cost from a few million dollars to more than $15 million.

The Coast Guard decision was bittersweet because its driver, Kevin Harvick, has already locked up the Busch Series championship with one race remaining.

"This was a difficult, difficult decision. It's strictly a financial decision," said spokesman Blando.

He added that the Coast Guard, part of the Department of Homeland Security, has many NASCAR fans among its 36,869 men and women.

This was the Coast Guard's third year in NASCAR and second year sponsoring a full schedule of 35 Busch races.

The Army, Navy and National Guard will continue to sponsor cars in 2007, officials said. An Air Force spokesman said he couldn't respond to a reporter's questions until Wednesday.

Big changes are in the works for the National Guard's program.

Roush Racing announced Sunday it is dropping the National Guard as a sponsor next year. It will use the No. 16 car, which has been in Guard colors for two years, to advertise Ameriquest, a mortgage lender.

No. 16, driven by Greg Biffle, came in second place in the Nextel Cup last year, and Biffle is running in 13th place this year.

"We aren't leaving Nextel Cup," said Guard spokesman Lt. Col. Mike Jones.

He said the National Guard is finalizing a deal with another racing team for a full season. An announcement is expected next month.

One reason for the change is that Roush was seeking a multi-year deal, but federal law allows the Guard to sign only one-year contracts, Jones said.

The Guard credits NASCAR advertising for 7,000 of its 69,000 recruits this year, Jones said.

But for the Marines, a lack of awareness by potential recruits and their parents led the Corps to put the brakes on NASCAR, said Master Sgt. James Edwards, a Marine spokesman.

The Marines' racing budget will be used for TV, Internet and other advertising venues.

The Army has the largest military NASCAR presence. It has been lead sponsor for Nextel Cup Series No. 1 car, driven by Joe Nemechek of MB2 Motorsports, for several years.

The Army also sponsors an interactive display -- including a rock-climbing tower, a pit-stop contest and a combat simulator -- that is trucked from racetrack to racetrack. In 2005, the NASCAR effort cost more than $15 million.

While race fans will still see the "Army" logo speeding around racetracks next year, there will be a change behind the steering wheel.

Nemechek is switching sponsors, and two new drivers will split driving duties in 2007.

The Air Force's associate sponsorship of No. 21 car, driven by Ken Schrader, placed the Air Force logo and colors on the car for eight Nextel Cup races this year.

The Navy's Busch Series racer, No. 88, was driven most of the season by Mark McFarland. Shane Huffman has been the driver recently.

Military officials, citing marketing research, claim the sponsorships are worth many million dollars in airtime as TV cameras show the services' names and logos speeding around the tracks.

But a critic of the military's NASCAR relationship said racing sponsorships are wasteful and ineffective.

"It's a relief that several branches of the military finally wised up to the facts: NASCAR sponsorships are not an effective way to get people to join the armed forces," said Drew Johnson, president of the Tennessee Center for Policy Research, a Nashville-based think tank.

Johnson, the son of a former NASCAR driver, said the money would be better spent on enlistment bonuses.

E-mail James W. Crawley, national correspondent for Media General News Service, at jcrawley@mediageneral.com.

Ellie