Nascar Blog

Here are a bunch of videos from tonights Budweiser Shootout.

Just saw this today, Coors Light has announced a $20 million dollar deal to become the official beer of Nascar over the next five years.

Coors replaces Anheuser-Busch as the official sponsor. The new deal includes renaming the pole award to the Coors Light Pole Award from the Bud Pole Award.

For Coors, the NASCAR deal also replaces its sponsorship of the No. 40 Dodge in the Nextel Cup Series.

“Our deal was up with those guys, and this opportunity came up,” says Andy England, chief marketer for Coors. “It feels like we are elevating our game.”

For consumer product marketers, a league deal opens up greater opportunity for strong retail display — especially in and around cities when races occur. Source: Coors Light to become the official beer of NASCAR

Apparently, Anheuser-Busch is backing down their sponsorship money a lot as they will no longer sponsor the Busch series either. Maybe they have figured out what some of the top advertising minds are beginning to figure out, it’s not all about the branding anymore. I don’t know about you all, but I’ll still be drinking the old Bud Light.

Looks like Budweiser will not be the sponsor of Dale Jr’s car at Hendrick motorpsorts, as Hendrick already has sponsors in place for next season. Dale Jr did says he remains committed to Budweiser for the rest of the season and will continue to make it his beer of choice.

New team. New sponsor. Indeed 2008 will be a new beginning for Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Hendrick Motorsports on Friday announced that contractual commitments to existing sponsors will preclude Budweiser from continuing as primary sponsor of the car driven by Earnhardt when he joins the organization next season.

“We have agreements in place with sponsors for the 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup season, which prevent us from having a relationship with Budweiser,” team owner Rick Hendrick said.

“Honoring our commitments is important to us. The trade-off is missing an opportunity to bring Budweiser, a marquee brand synonymous with NASCAR and its fans, into the fold.” Source: Hendrick: Junior will have new sponsor next season

ESPN.com has said that Budweiser will remain a sponsor and are pursuing Evernham Motorsports driver Kasey Kahne and his number 9 Dodge.

At the beggining of the season, Miller Lite issued a challenge to Budweiser, they bet [tag]Budweiser[/tag] that [tag]Miller Lite[/tag] driver Kurt Busch will finish ahead of Budweiser driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the final 2006 Nextel Cup Series point standings. The losing sponsor must change the paint scheme on its car to match the winning brand’s car for one Nextel Cup Series points-paying race next year.

Budweiser and Dale Jr kinda laughed at the challenge, seeing it as a marketing attempt by Miller Lite, Dale doesn’t need a rival, he’s the fan favorite as it is, so why take the chance. Too bad Budweiser didn’t accept the challenge, I can see Kurt driving a Bud Lite car right now.