hearing that Valvoline will announce it’s 2001 Winston Cup sponsorship plans at Michigan on August 19th. It’s seems to be pretty much a given that they will sponsor the #10 MB2 Motorsports Pontiac and driver Johnny Benson; AND in some form own a part of the team(8-3-2000) UPDATE: Valvoline Inc. has found a new Winston Cup NASCAR driver to sponsor in the 2001 season: #10 Johnny Benson. But the Lexington company and Benson’s team aren’t racing to confirm the deal. While neither side is commenting, observers and a stock car racing Web site (http://www.jayski.com) are reporting the two have reached an agreement. Curiously, both Valvoline and MB2 Motorsports, which owns Benson’s team, have news conferences scheduled for Aug. 19 at the Michigan Speedway(Kentucky Herald Leader)(8-10-2000) UPDATE 2: The Valvoline Co. will officially announce its plans for the 2001 NASCAR Winston Cup season this Saturday (Aug. 19), 11 a.m., at Michigan Speedway. Valvoline President James J. O’Brien is expected to detail a landmark program reaffirming Valvoline’s commitment to Winston Cup racing(Valvoline PR)(8-15-2000) UPDATE 3: also hear the announcement will include Valvoline’s involvement as the ‘fluid’s aupplier’ to the Dodge teams(or some of the Dodge teams(8-16-2000) UPDATE 4: Valvoline will announce today that it will become the primary sponsor for the #10 Pontiacs driven by Johnny Benson next year, but that won’t be the news from today’s news conference. The interesting wrinkle in this deal is that Valvoline will have 50-percent ownership of the race team, which was bought earlier this summer from Tim Beverley by MB2 Motorsports(That’s Racin’) UPDATE 5: Valvoline announced on Saturday morning its sponsorship of the newly-renamed MBV motorsports team, in which the company will have equity interest. The announcement had been expected. The twist came in that Valvoline cast the deal as “a landmark agreement to become the first major consumer products company in history to own a NASCAR Winston Cup team.” The company announced a three-year arrangement as primary sponsor but did not give details of the ownership. MBV, with the V representing Valvoline, would indicate some sort of partnership(SpeedVision) AND see the full story and images of the car at the Valvoline Racing #10 Announcement page, the 2001 #10 car looks like the #6 this year(yes, Valvoline will stay on the #6 for the rest of 2000), but a Pontiac and different number, same basic scheme AND see the story on NASCAR Online(8-19-2000)
