"After clinching the championship, we couldn't
just stay home -- they're still giving out trophies,
a lot of money, and a lot of recognition," Anderson
said. "If we had fallen down in the last couple
of races and run so-so, everyone else in Pro
Stock would be feeling pretty good. Now we're
making our opponents think hard on what it will
take to beat us." He gave a nod to Warren Johnson,
saying when he left WJ's operation after 12
years as a crew member, "I didn't have a plan
to try to do this. Warren Johnson was the best
man, smartest guy, who had the best shop and
best resources. I didn't set out to beat him.
I wanted to go out and see if I could dominate
this class. What we accomplished this year was
beyond anything I ever dreamed of."
So even Warren Johnson, Anderson's Round 2
victim, got respect. But as the rain- and bad-decision-plagued
2003 NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series closed,
the sanctioning body neglected to pay respect
to more than one deserving entity.
Start with U.S. Tobacco.
It's true that federal law prohibits UST and
its Skoal Smokeless Tobacco brand from numerous
and specific marketing practices. Still, NHRA
seemed to give the rush to Tom LoBosco, U.S.
Smokeless Tobacco Company's senior director
of marketing promotions, as well as to Snake
Racing owner Don Prudhomme and his Skoal-sponsored
Funny Car drivers Ron Capps and Tommy Johnson
Jr., who shared the portable stage for the all-too-brief
specialty-race announcement.
Next year Skoal will replace Budweiser as sponsor
of the annual Funny Car all-star race that traditionally
takes place during qualifying for the U.S. Nationals
on Labor Day weekend in Indianapolis. Wipe "Budweiser
Shootout for Funny Cars" from your mind. From
now on, it'll be the Skoal Showdown for the
best eight qualifiers.
Skoal received no more than three minutes to
announce that it will fund, among other projects,
a $147,000 race-day purse, with $100,000 going
to the winner of the Skoal Showdown. Skoal Racing
also will continue to sponsor Prudhomme's Funny
Cars and help sponsor the Summit Sport Compact
Drag Racing series.
"We were disappointed that more media members
weren't able to take advantage of the photo
opportunity," Snake Racing Team Manager Skip
Allum said. He conceded that it
"was
not as exciting a presentation as it could have
been."
The announcement was sandwiched between driver
Doug Herbert's awarding of his Snap-On Tools
Top Fuel Dragster to Win This Car promotion
victor and truck-pull competitor Jon Herring
of Elizabeth City, N.C., and a session of junior
dragster cars. Herbert and the junior dragsters
both deserve their own moment in the spotlight.
But if UST/Skoal is restricted to photo ops
as its primary marketing tool in a setting like
this, NHRA at least should have made logistics
easier for photographers -- especially considering
how much money UST is adding to its investment,
at a time when Corporate America isn't jumping
at the opportunity to become involved with NHRA
racing.
Why relegate the announcement to that day or
time slot? Perhaps NHRA wanted to be respectful
of Budweiser, which instituted and carried the
specialty races for nitro classes since 1982.
That would be a gracious gesture, but surely
Anheuser-Busch would understand if NHRA gave
UST and Skoal a hearty embrace, considering
the brewery was the party that chose not to
extend its Shootout contract for the Funny Car
class. (It will remain sponsor of the Top Fuel
specialty race that began in 1985.)
Is this an indication that NHRA learned something
from its shabby treatment of outgoing series
sponsor R.J. Reynolds/Winston after the tobacco
company's 27 years of deep-pocket investment?
(Never mind that NHRA would have a guilty conscience
about how it takes advantage of sportsman-class
racers. Or how it mishandled not the choice
to drop the Pro Stock Truck class but rather
the method by which it did so.)
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