The Buzz: August 30, 2001

August 30, 2001
3:08 PM EDT (1908 GMT)

TEXACO STAYING PUT

Fear not, ye die-hard Texaco/Havoline Racing fanatics. Your favorite car isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, even if the oil company’s rumored merger with Chevron does indeed take place.

“Texaco has an agreement with Robert Yates Racing through the 2004 season, and they have made it very clear to us that they will honor that commitment, even with a merger,” said Bill Seaborn, director of marketing for Robert Yates Racing, Thursday morning.

Questions were raised about the state of the longtime sponsorship two weeks ago when the Los Angeles Times quoted Will Woods, executive director of the Automotive Trade Organizations of California, a Tustin-based association of gasoline dealers, as saying,

“We suspect that the Texaco brand is dead,” Woods said. “Everybody's in the dark about what's going to happen with this merger, we think the company that takes over those stations will re-brand them over a period of time to their brand.”

Whether or not the gas stations themselves are renamed remains to be seen, but for the near future it appears the No. 28 RYR Ford will continue to boast the same name it has for the past 13 years.

“We have a great relationship with Texaco, and have for a long time,” Seaborn said. “With them and UPS, Robert Yates Racing is looking ahead to a bright future.”

STILL SEARCHING

Atlanta Motor Speedway is still negotiating with several potential sponsors for the March 2002 NASCAR Winston Cup Series event at the 1.5 mile track.

Kevin Harvick won the spring race at Atlanta.

Track spokesperson Angela Clare said Thursday that the folks at AMS “have something in the works. We're very close, actually so close I thought I'd have good news for you by now. We're talking to several people, there's really a lot of interest and we're real close, but we're not there yet."

It had been rumored that Verizon, the worldwide telecommunications provider, had signed a sponsorship deal that would have designated the event the Verizon Wireless 500. That report, according to Clare, is totally false.