Sprint To Replace NEXTEL As NASCAR's Top Brand In 2008

During the 2007 Pepsi 400 weekend in Daytona NASCAR and Sprint made a significant announcement for 2008 and beyond. Beginning January 1st, 2008 Sprint will replace NEXTEL in all NASCAR branding. This change will affect the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, the Chase for the Sprint Cup,the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Challenge and any other NASCAR properties that currently carry the NEXTEL brand.

Why Sprint Is Making The Change

It seems that Sprint will be focusing customers towards Sprint as the primary brand. I heard on SIRIUS NASCAR radio this weekend that the NEXTEL brand will be a feature of the Sprint service and will be less associated with the Sprint service itself.

For example, it still might be called the NEXTEL Direct Connect feature, but you would still have a Sprint phone and Sprint service.

If Sprint is going to be the main brand then it makes perfect sense that they would want their significant marketing dollars pushing that brand instead of NEXTEL.

Short History Lesson

Sprint became the title sponsor of NASCAR's top series in 2004 when it took over for R.J. Reynold's Winston brand. It did take a while to adjust to the new name but the change did not affect the competition on the track. The change was very visible to fans, but the changes were nearly all cosmetic.

I expect that the change from NEXTEL to Sprint will be even less traumatic.