The 2009 racing season has resulted in a couple new brands appearing in NASCAR's Cup Series, namely Penske Championship Racing and Verizon Championship Racing; but the big picture is "business as usual."

The inset in that big picture, though, is a totally re-branded No. 12 Dodge fielded in the Cup Series by motorsports mogul and veteran owner Roger Penske.

The past several years have seen uncertainty in many facets of the business world, and NASCAR's premier racing series hasn't been exempt. Sprint Nextel signed a 10-year entitlement deal that began in 2004 with the Nextel Cup Series, which in 2008 was re-branded the Sprint Cup Series.

The company's mission statement hasn't changed, as a spokesman pointed out, "Sprint made a long-term commitment when it became the title sponsor of the Cup Series. That investment is paying off thanks to the support of the NASCAR community -- from fans to teams to other sponsors. NASCAR has done an excellent job of managing this situation and protecting our rights, which has allowed us to remain focused on our primary objective of using Sprint technology to improve the fan experience."

For the second time in less than two years, a change in the business environment has rippled the Cup Series' pond.

This year's incongruous juxtaposition consists of Sprint and Verizon in the former's entitled sports venue. It's similar to what occurred last season after a convoluted re-branding of AT&T Wireless and Cingular, which was in the midst of Cingular's sponsorship contract with Richard Childress Racing.

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We looked at recent history and what happened with some of the other players that were involved, from our perspective, that didn't work out well for anybody. It didn't work out well for AT&T, it didn't work out well for NASCAR and I don't think it worked out well for the fans, so I think that's the perspective that we took when we decided to go a different way.

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JOE SARACINO, Verizon

Verizon Wireless' recent purchase of Alltel put Verizon in the position of deciding what to do with Alltel's sponsorship program of Penske Racing's No. 12 Cup Series program, signed through 2010.

The biggest dissimilarity is that AT&T chose to use the court system to force its branding to be allowed for the balance of the 2008 racing season on RCR's No. 31 Chevrolet.

Neither Penske nor Verizon wanted to follow suit, of course having the benefit of observing what had occurred throughout that case and in its aftermath.

"Watching that from afar, we try to work in conjunction with NASCAR as best we can," Penske Racing president Tim Cindric said. "It doesn't do us any good to get upside down with everybody. So taking approach, we were interested spectators, knowing that we had Alltel as a brand at that point in time."

Verizon agreed, from its first meeting with the Penske organization, even as it quickly decided to execute the changeover from Alltel to Verizon.

"Sure, there was consideration of maintaining the Alltel brand though 2009," said Verizon Wireless' vice president of marketing Joe Saracino. "But I think that one of the things we looked at pretty quickly was what were our timelines to transition the Alltel brand to the Verizon brand, and I think from the business plan you'll see that we'll do that relatively fast.

"And when we really looked at it we felt like our sponsorships were one area where we could make the change sooner rather than later. NASCAR was Alltel's largest sponsorship, and we had been involved in the sport for a couple years [with Gillett Evernham Motorsports in the Nationwide Series], so we weren't complete rookies, and we didn't want to miss Daytona."

The possibility of suing never entered the discussion.

"The Penske organization is a first class organization and we felt great about being able to partner with them from the first meeting we had with them," Saracino said. "We also felt a great connection and a great fit, so I think both of our organizations, collectively, took a natural kind of approach that organizations of this type would take.

"I think any time you enter something like this with a significant investment, you don't want to be in it short-term or a quick pop, so we'd like to be in it long-term and if we looked at recent history and what happened with some of the other players that were involved, from our perspective, that didn't work out well for anybody.

"It didn't work out well for AT&T, it didn't work out well for NASCAR and I don't think it worked out well for the fans, so I think that's the perspective that we took when we decided to go a different way."

"In these times we're very thankful that we have new companies coming into our sport that want to be part of the program," said the No. 12's new driver, David Stremme. "And they're abiding by the rules as we go along."

Once that decision was made, operating within the parameters of Sprint's series entitlement and NASCAR's administration of it became paramount to both Penske and Verizon.

From both companies' perspectives, the fact that Penske, who operates a diverse business conglomerate as well as racing operations in virtually every major American series, had both the experience in balancing a similar situation as well as offering a multi-faceted palette on which to redesign the program made the marriage complete.

Penske quickly decided to operate, for the first time, a full-season effort in the Nationwide Series, giving Verizon the location for a fully-branded NASCAR program.

That enabled Sprint to have at least a basic comfort in the latest version of the status quo, according to Sprint's director of sports and entertainment marketing Steve Gaffney.

"As long as they do not infringe upon our exclusive rights," Gaffney said. "Then it is business as usual for us."

What's in a name?

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With the creation of Verizon Championship Racing, Verizon gets prominent sponsorship in the Nationwide Series, plus other racing series across the country.

As 2009 opened, a couple new entities took shape on the NASCAR landscape, which was largely a coincidence. The common element was Penske Racing, which is a small piece of the maze of companies that comprise the Penske Corporation.

"Penske Championship Racing" was created to enable Penske to use the 2008 Sprint Cup car owner points Bill Davis' No. 22 operation had accrued for Penske driver Sam Hornish Jr. to open the 2009 season as a guaranteed starter with his No. 77 Dodge.

"Bill Davis is still listed as the registered owner," Cindric said. "And that car operates under a Penske Performance company of ours doing business as Penske Championship Racing. [Most people] have got that part right; that Penske Championship Racing is an entity that's running the 77 car, which Bill Davis has a minority interest in."

The name refers only to Penske's No. 77 operation, which on the street is still referred to as a "Penske Racing" program.

"It doesn't affect the totality of Penske Racing, Penske Racing South or the No. 2 or the No. 12 cars [Penske's other Cup cars] in any way," Cindric said. "The No. 2 and the No. 12 continue to operate under the Penske Racing South entity."

"Verizon Championship Racing" is the racing entity that includes Penske's No. 12 Nationwide team, which was formed in 2001 but had never run more than a partial schedule in the five years it competed through 2008. It used a variety of numbers, at most running 21 races in 2007, though it won nine of the first 39 events it contested, plus accrued 17 top-five and 25 top-10 finishes in those three seasons: 2001, 2005 and 2006.

It also includes elements in the IndyCar Series, where Penske is a multiple champion; and the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series, where Penske's 2008 American Le Mans Series championship team is fielding an entry this season.

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It's a No. 12 Penske [Racing] car. We've worked with our partner Sprint, who is the partner of everyone in the garage and the No. 12 team and everyone is satisfied with what the car and the uniforms look like. It's not sending the [Verizon] trademark around the track. It's Penske colors, black and red [and] they're two separate things. They know what the rules are: Sprint is the exclusive mobile phone in the industry so from the Cup side, David Stremme cannot be out there doing any advertising or advocacy for that brand.

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RAMSEY POSTON, NASCAR

"We've been involved in racing for a few years, I think to some degree marching down parallel paths, as NASCAR and racing in general is always looking to reach their fans on a different level and engage fans as much as they possibly can and to improve their experience with the sport," Saracino said. "Obviously with the Alltel merger it gave us a real graceful way to step into the sport -- more broadly into all forms of racing, which led to us forming Verizon Championship Racing."

Cindric said the Penske organization is equally pleased to have the opportunity to enable the NASCAR development of 2008 ARCA RE/MAX Series champion Justin Allgaier, who's driving the Nationwide car.

"It's a great way for them to continue to build their vision of Verizon Championship Racing, going forward and leveraging those assets in a good way," Cindric said. "We also don't just have the Nationwide [team] -- it's bigger than stock car racing [because] they'll be on the Indy cars at the associate level and even though they weren't on the car at the Daytona 24, they activated that through in-car cameras; so it's a much bigger program than just the Cup program.

"And that makes it very different from the whole Philip Morris relationship, as well."

What was a little more involved was the process of cloaking the respective vehicles -- both using No. 12 -- for the two series. It's a seldom-acknowledged fact that NASCAR maintains control not only over which sponsors can participate in its racing series; but also the vehicles' paint and signage schemes.

That came into play as Penske, who's well-known for providing input into his race vehicles' graphic packages; as well as Verizon and NASCAR collaborated on the final product.

"He's our art director, for sure," Cindric said with a chuckle before seriously adding the process was not particularly severe. "I don't think it was any more difficult. Obviously when you sit down with the NASCAR folks, you're respectful of their situation and the fact that they had to live up to their agreements.

"We were able to make a presentation with what we felt, collectively and in conjunction with Verizon was a good compromise. Everybody has their opinions and at the end of the day you just work through it and put something out there that everybody agrees on, and get on with it."

"It's a No. 12 Penske [Racing] car," NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Poston said during Speedweeks at Daytona, where the car driven by Stremme made its first appearance in the non-points Budweiser Shootout. "We've worked with our partner Sprint, who is the partner of everyone in the garage and the No. 12 team and everyone is satisfied with what the car and the uniforms look like.

"It's not sending the [Verizon] trademark around the track. It's Penske colors, black and red [and] they're two separate things. They know what the rules are: Sprint is the exclusive mobile phone in the industry so from the Cup side, David Stremme cannot be out there doing any advertising or advocacy for that brand."

Cindric said that Penske's primary concern is more for a crisp, clean look to everything. The feeling was that it was achieved with the Cup cars, which are "Verizon black-and-red" accented with vivid red bars -- though nothing resembling Verizon's slender red trademark "checkmarks."

The Cup cars also don't say "Verizon" anywhere on them, instead carrying "Penske Racing" signage with Verizon red "swoosh" stripes.

On the other hand, the Nationwide cars have both Verizon signage and a checkmark on the hood; while also carrying red bars that are similar to those on the Cup cars. Pains were taken to make sure the cars weren't too much alike, and everyone appears to be good with that.

"What they have is the approved paint scheme," Poston said at Daytona. "There were a couple different drafts, or renditions of it, but they can only run an approved paint scheme. The Nationwide car has the Verizon mark on it, and the Cup car does not.

"Everything about this sport is conflict and compromise and cooperation, and that's what's happened here."

"Certainly, as an organization we have experience in racing and in helping market an asset, I guess, that doesn't directly have a brand name on it," Cindric said. "And still continue to see the value or continue to give our partner value on those fronts.

"There are other ways to obtain value than in just having a name on a car. You see so many relationships now in which purely putting a name on any kind of race car or even a stadium, any more, is not enough. You have to be able to give 'em b-to-b [business-to-business] opportunities, consumer entertainment and lots of different assets beyond just brand-name exposure -- billboard-type marketing."

"But clearly we'd like to make some progress on the branding of the car in the Cup Series," Saracino said. "And that's one of the things that we're working on with Penske and with NASCAR. But we're trying to do that within the letter of the law."

A historical precedent

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Penske Racing has been through this before -- with Marlboro as a sponsor in its open-wheel program.

Once the decision was made to move ahead, a certain comfort for both the Penske group and Verizon came from the fact that Penske had a history of running unbranded cars, specifically in the IndyCar Series.

A series of events saw Philip Morris' Marlboro branding, which originally included signage on Penske Racing's cars, which graphically resembled red-and-white Marlboro packs; progress to where the cars had the "Marlboro" removed, but to this day carry similar red-and-white schemes.

"After the tobacco settlement was signed in 1999, those that signed it were still allowed a name sponsorship, so they continued to operate as Marlboro on the cars in 2000 and 2001," Cindric said. "In 2002, instead of just having Marlboro on the side of the cars, that's when you started to see Marlboro Team Penske. The fact is, they could have continued to keep doing that, if they wanted to and they've elected, basically as responsible marketers, to limit that brand exposure in those forums.

"I can see where you might make the tie, there. But with the Verizon situation obviously there's a forum where there are limitations on the Cup side due to the exclusivity agreement that Nextel and Sprint had with the NASCAR entitlement, so basically Verizon, for a marketing platform, has formed Verizon Championship Racing, which is how they're going to market their motorsports assets, moving forward.

"They've already been very active but they have limitations due to the agreement that exists in the Cup Series. By buying the Alltel brand they've acquired certain assets and they're trying to activate them as effectively as they can."

Saracino said the fact that having no real quantifiable proof of the brand identity achieved through using the color schemes was no hindrance to Verizon making any decisions. Penske's overall experience, however, was.

"No, they didn't provide any documentation of that brand recognition," Saracino said. "But that subject did come up and we knew that, even without the Marlboro on the [Indy] cars fans still identified them with that sponsor.

"When we worked with the Penske team prior to making our debut in the 2009 season, obviously Verizon would prefer to have its logo on the car, but we sat back and said if we were involved in the sport to a bigger degree; in Nationwide and Indy cars and sports cars -- we don't really have a brand awareness problem, people know who we are -- but we wanted people to know we were involved the sport."

Verizon's long-range goals in NASCAR also had a lot to do with it.

"For us, the thing that is great about racing is that there's a huge fan base and it matches up pretty well with our customer base," Saracino said. "Our viewpoint is that we have incredible products and services that can make the sport more interesting for the fan, and our customers. They like to be engaged in the sport. I'm a pretty big sports fan and I've never seen a sport where the fans are more interested in updates on a daily and even hourly basis."

This is an aspect that Sprint is already aware of through its array of NASCAR-tuned offerings.

"It's hard to say if they're more attuned to the technology [than stick and ball fans]," Saracino said. "But I think that what we've seen is that the racing fan, whether it be NASCAR or another part of racing, really adopts wireless technology pretty quickly to enable themselves to get more access to that information, which is pretty cool.

"We're looking to make progress on the marketing side. We have some pretty big plans for Verizon Championship Racing and I think if we were looking at our involvement in the sport as a short-term investment we probably wouldn't have made the steps that we made to create something like Verizon Championship Racing.

"I think our perspective is we'd like to be involved in the sport and we'd like to participate as a sponsor for the long term. Penske has a long history of really maintaining sponsors for a long haul and I don't think we're in it for a quick pop. To define success we're clearly going to look at types of measurements that we look at on all of our sponsorships: Are we getting brand recognition out of the sponsorship, are we getting customer and fan engagement? We're involved in a lot of sports and music and entertainment sponsorships and we do look at measurements across all of those to understand the value of the investment and the return on investment, just like any company would, I think, in this environment.

"But I think that the plans that we've built to really engage the fans across all the series racing offers can really be a good thing for Verizon."

Activation is key

Verizon

Verizon had "smart cars" look identical to David Stremme's Cup car ride around Daytona tying the company and Cup Series together.

While NASCAR's brand exclusivity rules mean that Stremme and his Penske teammates cannot do anything to advocate Verizon service or sell phones on the property of tracks hosting Sprint Cup events, Verizon can advertise, sponsor graphics that might appear on broadcasts in conjunction with Penske's No. 12 car and also provide in-car cameras, as they did in Stremme's car during the Budweiser Shootout.

Even though it appears to blur the lines when the Nationwide and Cup Series appear at the same venue on "companion" weekends, as the series do 26 times this season, Allgaier is free to promote the brand as Verizon's Nationwide Series representative.

Kurt Busch has become legendary among NASCAR drivers as his appearance rate at his trackside souvenir trailers is over 90 percent of all his Cup event weekends. Stremme and Allgaier are seemingly on the same path in 2009, as the two Verizon-backed drivers were three-for-three with scheduled appearances at this season's first three events.

Irreverent media center wags joked during Speedweeks, asking whether members of Penske Racing could even say "Verizon." The fact is, in relation to anything Cup-centric, they usually can't.

"We're obviously respectful of the situation and we're trying to work with NASCAR to the best of our ability," Cindric said. "So it doesn't do us any good to push the limitations in that way, the extent of what's permissible and what's not, you'd have to ask NASCAR what's in the agreement."

"I can't say [Verizon] if I'm referring it to the car or if I'm out at an appearance representing our sport for NASCAR. I can't say anything like that," Stremme said at a Dodge Motorsports gathering in Daytona. "But it's well aware in the business world and in our company, that they acquired Alltel, and they've taken over the [sponsorship] contract, they're fulfilling their agreement and they're really happy to be a part of the Penske organization."

Verizon gets plenty of visibility at the track thanks to Justin Allgaier and the Natiowide Series' 26 race weekends they share the track with the Cup Series.

Stremme cited Verizon's affiliations across every aspect of Penske Racing, saying "they're part of the company as a whole and they're another great partner that we have. We just have to go along with the guidelines that NASCAR set when the other company [Sprint] came in as the title sponsor, and that's what we're upholding, right now."

"One of the great things about where we are today," Poston said. "Remember that when Winston was in the sport [as sponsor of the Cup Series], it had complete domination over all series -- the entire sport.

"Sprint owns the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. So in Nationwide, the No. 2 motorsport in America by far, a great platform with millions of fans; and no one's ever noticed that Verizon has been racing in Nationwide for at least two years. So that won't change and they can activate all they want through the Nationwide Series, they just can't crossover to the Cup Series."

"I think we'll have a blend of activities at the race tracks and in the communities where the races appear," Saracino said. "We are committed to working with Penske and working with NASCAR to make sure that everybody understands the letter of the law, and what we can and can't do -- because we understand that there's a title sponsor in the sport -- everybody understands that.

"It is a little bit of a challenge, but I think that what we did in Daytona proved to be pretty successful for us because we felt like we know where the fans are. If there are limits to what we can do on the track and around the track, we'll figure out ways to work around that -- we already have."

Saracino said that effort was mobilized at Daytona, via driver appearances at the local Verizon store, which happened to be across the street from Daytona International Speedway. It was documented that a fleet of Verizon "smart cars," miniature vehicles with identical paint schemes to Stremme's Sprint Cup car, roamed the streets of Daytona Beach to let fans and the public know of Verizon's involvement.

"I don't know that I would call our involvement just a car sponsorship," Saracino said. "What we like to do as a company is take that further so we'll look at events and series and look at additional investments we can make in terms of hospitality and things like that, and we've got a lot of things we did at Daytona that we'll probably replicate in terms accessing and engaging the fans.

"But I think, in the end, we're involved where it really matters to the fans, and that's on the track and with the driver."