Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Stremme Gets Unlisted Phone Number


David Stremme is replacing Ryan Newman in the Penske #12 for the 2009 season joining the Alltel circle of friends. But there seems to be a small glitch now that Alltel has been purchased by Verizon. Due to a 2004 ruling banning rival telecommunications companies of Sprint/Nextell from advertising on the cars, Stremme will be circling the track incognito for the next few years. Alltel has signed a long term contract with Penske but since Verizon has choosen to use it's own logo that violates the ruling and they will not be allowed to be displayed. According to Walt Czarnecki, the executive vice president of Penske Corporation, "The [Cup] car will be identified and branded as the Penske Dodge Charger". 

The #31 car of Richard Childress Racing had the same trouble when Cingular Wireless was purchased by AT&T terminating the grandfather clause allowed to Cingular. A court ruled that the AT&T Globe could be displayed but not the name and only for a limited time. Childress will have to remove all AT&T/Cingular logos from the car after the '09 season and or find new sponsorship. 

It looks like Alltel/Verizon is stuck footing the bill with little or no recognition. Off track indorsments are not affected and I would look for David to be very busy, where Ryan left off, stealing wheels and generaly harassing those other guys. 

One good thing about Stremme's situation is, he won't be bothered by relentless sales calls during dinner time. 

Posted by George Gard at 12:00 PM

3 comments:

  1. jr's miss prissJanuary 20, 2009 at 4:50 PM

    Maybe Alltel/Verizon should check into the deal like ServiceMaster Clean.

    ReplyDelete
  2. jr's miss prissJanuary 20, 2009 at 4:50 PM

    lol

    ReplyDelete
  3. SportsFanJanuary 20, 2009 at 9:46 PM

    NASCAR made their bed now they have to sleep in it. They took the big bucks from Nextel/Sprint and now they have lost two of their better funded sponsors AT&T (formerly Cingular) and Verizon (formerly Alltel). Cell phone companies are not going to suffer in this econonmy in my opinion. I think people will give up their land lines before giving up their cell phones, which is probably a clue to why Verizon is trying to dump their landline business.

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