Kmart pulls sponsorship from #26 and #66 UPDATE and BUT: Financially beleaguered Kmart Corp. has halted the flow of funding to two Winston Cup race team it sponsored [#26 and #66 Ford’s], effective immediately, sources said early Thursday. No formal announcement has been made, but the Fords of Haas-Carter Motorsports will attempt to make the Daytona 500 field without Kmart’s assistance or decals, the sources said. The cars are to be driven by Joe Nemechek [#26] and Todd Bodine [#66]. Kmart has stuggled financially and last week filed for federal bankruptcy protection. The race teams were told at that time that the retailer’s commitment for the 2002 Winston Cup season would be honored. David Harris of Cox Marketing said Travis Carter, one of the teams’ owners, was in meetings with Kmart officials and was not immediately available for comment. He said Carter was working with Kmart officials to evaluate options and determine the next step.(ThatsRacin.com)(1-31-2002) UPDATE: Just a week before qualifying for the Daytona 500, Kmart Corporation, erstwhile sponsor of Travis Carter’s two Winston Cup teams, has pulled the plug on its involvement in the teams, a company statement said Thursday. Carter could not be reached for comment. The move, termed a “suspension”, points again to economic difficulties for mid-line NASCAR teams. The Busch Series has struggled for more than a year. The Winston Cup season begins with several teams operating without sponsorship, or with partial sponsorship.(SpeedVision)(1-31-2002) BUT NASCAR.com is reporting that while “Kmart Corp. has already acknowledged filing Chapter 11 for bankruptcy, but the company hasnt, according to one high-ranking Kmart official, turned off the blue lights on its NASCAR sponsorship. Published reports on Thursday said that Kmart had pulled its sponsorship from the #26 and #66 Ford Winston Cup Series teams owned by Haas-Carter Motorsports. The reports also stated that the #26 Ford of Joe Nemechek and #66 Ford of Todd Bodine would go to Daytona for Speedweeks with no decals on the car. But that’ not the case right now, according to Dave Karraken, vice president of communications and marketing for Kmart. The store chain is also slated to be an official sponsor of the Daytona 500 next month. There was an unofficial announcement leaked to the press today, Karraken told NASCAR.com on Thursday. We are still talking with Haas-Carter regarding the program and hope to have a final decision and official announcement within the next day or two. What we are doing is evaluating everything that our company is involved with sponsorship-wise. This is all being done within the Chapter 11, court-ordered procedures — it’ all part of the process. A call to the team’ shop on Thursday was referred to Cox Marketing Group, its public relations firm. The team is trying to work everything out with Kmart right now, said a Cox representative. Travis Carter (team owner) and Kmart are talking about all the particulars this afternoon.(NASCAR.com)(1-31-2002)
