All That Money May Be Up in Smoke

FONTANA — How extensive is motor racing’s involvement with tobacco?

Well, three cars in today’s California 500 have tobacco concerns as “name sponsors”: Ken Schrader’s Skoal Bandit Racing Chevrolet, Jimmy Spencer’s Smokin’ Joe’s Ford and Steve Grissom’s Kodiak Chevrolet.

More important, R.J. Reynolds sponsors the Winston Cup series with $6 million in purse and bonus funds, and $1 million more for Winston racing, which involves various events around the country and $60,000 for Winston West, plus the car Spencer drives.

Reynolds also puts up $2.15 million for the NHRA Winston Drag series, plus two entries in that series, and you can’t go to a track anywhere in the country without seeing some sort of Winston involvement through billboards and the signature red and white paint of the Winston series.

One source close to the racing industry put R.J. Reynolds’ involvement in motor racing at about $20 million, a large amount of money to replace in light of the tobacco companies’ announced settlement with state attorneys general Friday.

Some of that money goes to Travis Carter, a North Carolinian who owns the car Spencer drives. For all of the talk of finding substitute sponsorship for the Winston racing operations, the situation is more personal for Carter, who has spent time as a crew chief and once campaigned a Winston Cup car without a sponsor.

That’s doing it the hard way, and he doesn’t want to think about having to raise money for a car again.

“We don’t know anything yet, and we don’t have a timetable for anything,” Carter said. “Besides, everybody talks about the tobacco companies, but it’s more personal for me. I know them as people, and they are my friends.”

He’s irritated with the complaints of those who see the tobacco companies as the root of all evil.

“The biggest problem in society,” Carter said, “is that people won’t take responsibility for their own actions.”

He hears complaints about his car often because it has “Camel” arched over the outline of a camel. The lightning rod for the movement against tobacco companies has been the cartoon character Joe Camel.

“That’s not us,” Carter said. “That’s Joe Camel, the cartoon, and ours is a camel, the beast. People get confused because of the Smokin’ Joe’s team.” NASCAR says there have been no negotiations with a substitute sponsor because of a long association with R.J. Reynolds.

Said NASCAR in a release:

“For nearly 30 years, we have had a mutually beneficial relationship with R.J. Reynolds and its Winston brand.

“We have not had an opportunity to speculate on what effect this will have on motor sports.

“While the settlement has been announced, it must still face Congressional as well as Presidential review, while also facing litigation that has already been filed.

“NASCAR racing has been in existence for nearly 50 years, long before tobacco companies became actively involved in the sport. With the monumental growth we have experienced in recent years, and the anticipated continued growth of motor sports, we will continue to aggressively promote the sport.”