Bodine to lose Hooters sponsorship

Hooters Racing will end its sponsorship of the Brett Bodine Racing No. 11 NASCAR Winston Cup team at the end of June.

	Brett Bodine

After being the primary sponsor for most of the 2002 season and the first half of this season, Hooters' last event with the team will be the Sirius 400 at Michigan International Speedway on June 15.

"I really do appreciate the opportunity Hooters gave us last year when they stepped up at the first Atlanta race and the consideration that was given on running a limited schedule this season," Bodine said. "Hooters allowed us to continue our efforts as an owner/driver in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series but we must find adequate funding to continue.

"Naturally, we had hoped that by scaling back on the number of races on our schedule for this season, we would be able to improve our performance but without the help of major associate sponsors, we are still under-funded and it is extremely difficult to compete with teams who are running on two or three times the amount of money we have."

"We are clearly disappointed in the performance of the team both this season and last," said Mike McNeil, VP Marketing of Hooters. "We respect and like Brett and really want to see him succeed.

"However, it does not make business sense to continue to pour money into a marketing venture that is not getting exposure on race days. We wish the best for Brett in the future, and hope that he is able to find support from a company looking to fund a NASCAR team."

The No. 11 team failed to qualify for several races during last season and this season and has not finished within the top twenty this season. This year's schedule was reduced by one third -- to 26 races -- after BBR lost two of its key associate sponsors from last year.

"It was felt that this limited schedule would give the team, on its limited budget, more of a chance to be competitive based on having more time for preparation," McNeil said.