| | | | | |  | | CIA Stock Photo | | | | | HE'S A BUD MAN | Kasey Kahne picks up Bud sponsorship | |
| | By Reid Spencer / Sporting News Wire Service Budweiser announced Tuesday it would sponsor the No. 9 Gillett Evernham Motorsports Dodge driven by Kasey Kahne in what will become the Sprint Cup Series next year.
Budweiser has sponsored a team on NASCAR’s Cup circuit since 1983. From 1999 through 2007, Bud has been the sponsor of the No. 8 Chevrolet driven by Dale Earnhardt Jr., who will leave Dale Earnhardt Inc. to drive for Hendrick Motorsports in 2008.
“Budweiser has a long and storied history with NASCAR and some of its most successful drivers,” said Tony Ponturo, vice president of global media and sports marketing for St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch, which brews Budweiser. “We’re excited about Kasey’s ability to add to that outstanding lineage.
“Along with team owners George Gillett and Ray Evernham, we feel the pieces are in place for the No. 9 Budweiser Dodge to contend for NASCAR Sprint Cup championships for years to come.”
Gillett bought majority ownership of the organization this season.
Gillett, also owner of the Montreal Canadiens, has known Ponturo for more than 20 years, and he called the Budweiser marketing executive approximately six months ago when he finalized a deal to buy the Liverpool Soccer Club of the English Premier League.
“I was talking to Tony about perhaps becoming a shirt sponsor for the Liverpool Soccer Club,” Gillett said Tuesday at a news conference at the GEM race shop in Statesville, N.C. “He thought about it for a while, and we renewed acquaintances over that. Ultimately, they said no, but it established the dialogue, and I said to them that we were thinking of getting into motorsports, and so forth, so he said, ‘If anything happens, stay in touch.’ ”
That relationship ultimately facilitated the Budweiser sponsorship, after Earnhardt announced he would not be continuing his association with Anheuser-Busch.
For those who might see some incongruity between the clean-cut Kahne and a beer sponsorship, the driver begs to differ.
“You probably don’t know me too well if you don’t know that I’m a beer guy,” said Kahne, the 2004 Nextel Cup rookie of the year, who has seven career Cup victories, including a series-best six last year. | | Posted September 18, 2007 , 9:34 pm EST
Last Updated September 19, 2007 , 12:34 am EST | | | | | | | | | | |
