Tribe votes down deals, stops betting on NASCAR
Friday, Feb. 05, 2010
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – There was mixed news Friday on the NASCAR sponsorship front, with one brand extending its involvement in Cup competition and another abandoning its role in all three national series.
Roush Fenway Racing announced that Crown Royal has extended its sponsorship of driver Matt Kenseth's No. 17 Ford. That deal will cover 36 of the 38 Cup events in 2010. Originally, Crown Royal was expected to be the team's primary sponsor for just over half the season.
Meanwhile, team owners James Finch and Kyle Busch were notified late Thursday that Miccosukee Resort and Gaming has decided not to continue its NASCAR sponsorships.
Finch was planning to field the No. 09 Cup entry with driver Aric Almirola and a full-time Nationwide entry for James Buescher.
Miccosukee was also to sponsor Busch's No. 18 in the Truck series, one of at least two full-time Truck series entries under the Kyle Busch Motorsports banner. Busch planned to split time in the No. 18 with driver Brian Ickler.
As the Observer and ThatsRacin.com reported last month, the Miccosukee Indian tribe set a Feb. 4 vote on its NASCAR involvement.
"We had a contract, but our only recourse is to go in front of the tribal council, and that's not a case I'm going to win," Finch said.
Busch sounded optimistic despite the sponsor's departure.
"It’s unfortunate and disappointing, but we are close on announcing another partner for Daytona and were excited about that, too," Busch said. "We still plan to move on and run both myself and Brian Ickler in the No. 18 and Tayler Malsam in the No. 56 since I’m committed to the series."
"I still feel like the Camping World Truck Series is strong and now it’s an opportunity for some new partners to come on board and they’ll get a value with the team we’ve built.
"We feel like whoever comes with us will be happy with their investment since we've got the right people in place to run up front and win races."
The Charlotte Observer is pleased to be able to offer its users the opportunity to make comments and hold conversations online. However, the interactive nature of the internet makes it impracticable for our staff to monitor each and every posting.
Since charlotteobserver.com does not control user submitted statements, we cannot promise that readers will not occasionally find offensive or inaccurate comments posted on our website. In addition, we remind anyone interested in making an online comment that responsibility for statements posted lies with the person submitting the comment, not The Charlotte Observer.
If you find a comment offensive, clicking on the exclamation icon will flag the comment for review by the administrators, we are counting on the good judgment of all our readers to help us.
