NASCAR Talk

Kasey Kahne’s primary sponsor for 2008 is set to be announced today in a press conference from Gillett Evernham Motorsports headquarters in North Carolina. Sources have already confirmed last week that Budweiser will be making the jump to the #9 Dodge piloted by Kahne, but an official announcement has yet to be made. What is unclear is whether or not Budweiser will share primary sponsorship with another company as is rumored. It has been widely speculated that Kahne’s current sponsor, All State, will be featured on the hood of the car with a blue paint scheme for some races next season (yet to be determined). However, Budweiser is known to be somewhat selfish with primary sponsorship of their cars and this could possibly have been the reason for such a delay in the official announcement. The announcement will be made during a live webcast on the Gillett Evernham Motorsports website at 10 am ET.

What do you think of Kasey as the new Bud spokesman? Does it fit his image? There have been pictures of him partying with a Bud Light in his hand in the off season circulating on the internet, so he just may be the right man for the job. Leave your comments below.

NASCAR, Gillett Evernham Motorsports, Kasey Kahne, Kasey Kahne Budweiser, Kasey Kahne 2008 sponsor announcement

My interest was piqued this morning, being the Elliott Sadler fan I am, when I was watching Kyle Petty on the Speed Channel. He mentioned that it was pretty much a done deal with Gillett Evernham Motorsports (GEM) and Petty Enterprises for a sort of merger for the 2008 season. Both teams already run Dodges and share an engine program, so the next natural step will be a merger. Petty said that they will each continue to have their own shops and teams, but will consolidate information on the racing side and marketing efforts on the business front much like the new Yates-Rousch Fenway agreement.

SceneDaily quotes Petty Enterprises Vice President of Operations Robbie Loomis:

“It just makes sense from my side,” Loomis said. “For the crew chiefs, if we had the same chassis and the same engineering program, then when we’re at the track sharing and talking about trying to get the cars to drive better, it goes forward.

This seems to be the loophole in the new NASCAR rule about having only 4 cars maximum per team. It won’t be too long until it will be manufacturers’ teams instead of owners’ teams. What do you think about this type of agreement? Will it work? Will the teams improve, or is it just a way to complicate things even more? Leave your thoughts in the comments section.