Grrrrr!

My Latest Gripe

I am not ashamed to admit that I am a big NASCAR fan. I enjoy watching the races and cheering on Jeff Gordon’s #24, as well as several other drivers and teams. My hunny and I have a lot of fun razzing each other about our favorite drivers. A couple years ago we had the opportunity to go to a NASCAR race in SoCal, and it was awesome. In fact, we’re hoping to go again, at least once, this year, as well.

With all that said, I have a new Gripe. It isn’t directed towards NASCAR, but towards their biggest sponsor, Nextel (aka Sprint). The saddest part is that I am a Sprint customer for my cell phone, and I am so angered by their actions that I am seriously considering paying the early termination fee and switching carriers. “Why?”, you may ask (and even if you didn’t), well, I’ll tell you….Sprint has decided that it is afraid of competition, and has banned all other mobile phone service providers from sponsoring teams/cars in the races! WHAT? This is anti-American! YES…it is. America is the land of freedom and opportunity. That is why this “Ban” is anti-American.

For those of you not familiar with NASCAR, each Team has to come up with sponsorship for their car(s)/driver(s), and this sponsorship literally costs millions of dollars each year, so it isn’t easy to find companies willing to fork over the money to get their logos put on a car. The larger the logo the more the $$, so the sponsors like DuPont (Jeff Gordon’s primary sponsor), (AAA, Mark Martin’s sponsor), and all the many others who have their logos ALL over specific cars have put much moola into sponsoring that car, thus getting advertisement as their logo goes flying around the track numerous time each Sunday (and occasional Saturday nights).

So, now, the team that has Cingular as their sponsor, and has had them for many years, is now out of luck. See, Cingular was grandfathered in, when Sprint took over sponsoring the elite division of NASCAR, but now AT&T has taken over and is phasing out the Cingular brand name, and wants to change Cingular logos to AT&T. The problem is that Sprint is afraid of competition and is whining that they will not allow it. Sprint (who owns NEXTEL) has the highest, TOP DOG line of sponsorship that is available for the series, and they can’t stand a tiny car driving around with a competitor’s name. It doesn’t make sense.

When Ford sponsors a weekly race, I don’t see them banning Chevy, Dodge or Pontiac from that race. When Lowe’s Motor Speedway has a race, I don’t see them banning the Home Depot car from racing on their track. That is because this is America and the land of opportunity. I believe the AT&T should have the freedom to fork over millions of dollars to sponsor a racing team that just wants to go out there and do what they have a passion for.

I know I am just one voice, and my tiny opinion wont change a darn thing, but once again…America is the land of the free and freedom of speech is one of my constitutional rights!

With all that said, I will return you to your regularly scheduled blogging.

Thank you!

This is me, after the race, in front of Jeff Gordon's Souvenir shop. Go Gordon! (oh and yes, I had blue hair...purple, too, but it doesn't show up so well in this pic! =-) )

This is my hunny with in front of his favorite driver's (Mark Martin) souvenir truck.

This is the California Speedway. The race cars are lined up down pit row, just itchin' to get going, while there is a line up of the Red SSR's that the drivers ride around in as they are introduced.