NASCAR's top series will still be called the Nextel Cup Series -- for now. Credit: Autostock

Sprint Nextel: No word on series name change

Company executives waiting until midseason to make final decision

Sprint Nextel executives said on Tuesday it would be mid-season before a decision would be made on a possible name change for NASCAR's top series.

Nextel merged with Sprint in August 2004, but the Nextel Cup Series name has remained unchanged. Sprint executives were initially scheduled to meet with NASCAR in February to discuss a possible name change, but that meeting won't happen until later in the year.

"It was not the right time to consider a change and we have agreed to a new timetable which is the middle of this year," said Mark Schweitzer, Chief Marketing Officer of Sprint Nextel. "We want to make sure that if we were to make a change, it would not be detrimental to the equity we have built up.

"That is not the same as saying the name needs to change. We have an agreement with NASCAR to revisit it."

Sprint Nextel said that NASCAR itself would have a "lot of input" in the name. Only one name change can occur over the 10-year contract period.

Jill Gregory, the director of Nextel's NASCAR marketing since 2004, left the company to head motorsports marketing for Bank of America. Gregory's boss, Michael Robichaud, has announced he also will be leaving the company, sparking speculation about the future of Sprint-Nextel in NASCAR's top series.

But Sprint Nextel executives pointed out that selling the deal with NASCAR, which began in 2004 and runs through 2013, is not an option.

"The commitment is very much here for two simple reasons," Schweitzer said. "It works, and second, the deal was struck in such a way to help insure that the sport had the stability of a long-term sponsor. We are comfortable with how the deal was struck."

The Sprint Nextel deal, executives said, involves complex media buys that tie the company into major ad purchases for the 10-year period. The company also pumps tens of millions into its NFL branding, but that spending has not matched the monies that Sprint Nextel has invested into NASCAR.