Word: nascar
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Blood drained from the faces of baseball purists earlier this year when someone suggested putting advertising on the sleeves of players' jerseys. But NASCAR covers every square inch of a driver's uniform and is proud of it. The right side of Gordon's Chevrolet is plastered with more than 40 logos, and fans say they go out of their way to buy the sponsors' products...
...notion that the drivers' 750-h.p. days at the track would be followed by even faster nights ends up a wreck too. There's a traveling ministry on the NASCAR circuit, and drivers and their families attend Sunday services in a makeshift chapel near the pits. Gordon and his wife Brooke, a former Miss Winston, are often the first two people at Saturday-night Bible study. On race day she'll give him a verse from Scripture, and he'll tape it to his steering wheel...
When drivers aren't praying, they're fasting. Who knew they were an offshoot of the Franciscan monks? As I'm talking to Kyle Petty, the ponytailed shaman among NASCAR drivers, he goes into the refrigerator of his trailer for an energy bar and makes sure it has the right ratio of protein to carbohydrates. "In the trailer park where all the drivers live in their coaches, if you're out of skim milk or tuna, you know what door to knock on, because you know who's on what diet...
...come to the attention of eastern Alabama that the Civil War ended. The track infield has so many Confederate flags flying that it looks like a Klan picnic. When NASCAR senior vice president Brian France tells potential sponsors that "our fans are much savvier than people give them credit for," it is to counter this very sight. NASCAR is apoplectic at the thought of racing's being labeled a racist sport, and it's desperate to escape an image of the race fan as a redneck with his gut hanging...
...NASCAR likens car racing to ice hockey in its appeal--mostly white, yes, but diversifying. NASCAR has a handful of black crew members and drivers, and one team is owned by basketball legend Julius Erving and former pro-football star Joe Washington. "Whether you're selling soft drinks, snack foods or a sport, all good marketers know it is important for every single person to want to buy their product," says France. "It is no different...