Get ready for the revolving door of sponsor names (cont'd)

Still, it makes you wonder: Why, given the sometimes unpredictable sponsorship atmosphere NASCAR operates in, have a Winston Cup or a Nextel Cup or a Sprint Cup at all? Why not have something like a William C. France Jr. Cup, which goes to the winner of the Sprint Series or the Coors Light Series or whatever it may be in 2027, as a method of bringing some consistency to a tour that will have a new name for the second time in four years? That's unlikely, because these aren't straight naming rights deals. From a NASCAR perspective, an entity like Sprint/Nextel isn't just a title sponsor, but an active partner that helps market and sell the sport through initiatives like FanView and the Nextel Experience. They're paying for influence as well as exposure.

Craftsman to rebrand

Craftsman doesn't plan on leaving NASCAR despite the company ending its title sponsorship of the Truck Series. The plan is to market the tool maker "bigger and better."

• Complete story, click here
• Craftsman out after '08

"In our sport, the sponsors aren't just a bystander. They are committed to the sport, they are committed to the fans," Poston said. "Not only are they the title sponsor, they are also part of the year-end points fund. They're instrumental, Sprint in particular, in developing things like FanView, and also in promoting the sport itself, with all these [television] ads they have with Elliott Sadler and Jimmie Johnson. So in this sport, you really have a sponsor that is ingrained in the sport and is part of the fabric and tradition of the sport. So having their name on the trophy is appropriate."

Sometimes, as NASCAR has discovered, change can be for the positive, even when it means the end of a landmark relationship. For all Winston and R.J. Reynolds did for NASCAR -- and they did plenty, from a crack public relations department that helped foster more coverage to cash that helped make the sport a household name -- ties to the cigarette industry were an anchor dragging NASCAR down. It's no coincidence that Winston's association with NASCAR began the year after cigarette ads were banned from television. As recently as 2000, reporters could obtain cartons of cigarettes as easily as they could press releases, and media centers could be as smoky as pool halls.

Nextel brought cleaner air and a more modern edge, one a little more rock and roll and a little less country, without any public health baggage. It could market to children as well as adults. It was a technological company befitting a technological sport, a partner that wasn't banned from advertising on television, a sponsor that after a few early missteps rolled out a series of initiatives that have helped better expose the sport. Surely within offices in Daytona Beach, there's hope that Nationwide can do something similar with what used to be the Busch Series, which has long lived in the shadow of its more successful older brother, and has struggled to carve an identity of its own. And the search is on for a company that can help the Truck Series, where too many teams are saddled with sponsorship issues, find a broader appeal.

But in the meantime there is the tricky matter of the conversion, of a season that will surely see plenty of drivers talking about the "Busch -- err, Nationwide Series" and fans wondering whether Tony Stewart should be referred to as a two-time Winston, Nextel, or Sprint Cup champion. They have some time to get it right; six years remain on the original 10-year contract signed with Sprint/Nextel, and the agreement with Nationwide runs through 2014. Eventually, Sprint and Nationwide may become just as second-nature as Winston and Busch were in their time. But in this day and age, where a drop of a few points in a stock price or an earnings report can cause a drastic shift in marketing strategy, they're unlikely to be around for as long.

The opinions expressed are those solely of the writer.