NASCAR Allows Hard Liquor Sponsors

It's not much of a surprise given that NASCAR teams had taken a sudden interest in courting the long-banned hard spirit sponsors but NASCAR President Mike Helton made it official today. Beginning with the 2005 season hard spirit distillers will be allowed to sponsor race teams.

One of the caveats that NASCAR has given is that hard spirit sponsors will be required to have a strong responsible drinking campaign associated with their race sponsorship. This would be something like the current Smirnoff Ice TV campaign that features Matt Kenseth saying "Be Smart, Drink Responsibly."

This is a welcome rule change for teams because they now have an entirely new category of potential sponsors to go after. Makers Mark, Jack Daniels, Jim Beam Crown Royal and more should all be excited about the new opportunity available to them in NASCAR. I think we'll see them rushing to take advantage right away.

Truly, this is an important change for the health of the sport into the future. It was a little slow in coming, but thanks NASCAR!