Lowes wanting out? UPDATE 2: A Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist says a Speedway Motorsports roundup of Tony Stewart merchandise may be a sign that the Lowe’s Home Improvement chain wants out of its 10-year, $35 million naming rights deal with Lowe’s Motor Speedway. Jeff Wolf writes that all SMI tracks have returned to SMI headquarters the souvenirs of Stewart, who is sponsored by Lowe’s rival Home Depot. “One fly on the wall hinted that Lowe’s might be trying to get out of its contract with the Charlotte track, and SMI is doing whatever it can to keep Lowe’s from finding a way to back out of the deal,” Wolf wrote Friday. Lowe’s bought the naming rights to the former Charlotte Motor Speedway in 1999 for a reported $35 million over 10 years.(Winston Cup Scene daily newsletter)(5-11-2002) UPDATE: The ongoing marketing feud between Lowe’s Home Improvement Warehouses and The Home Depot has spilled over into the two companies’ investment in Winston Cup racing, with merchandise of driver Tony Stewart — sponsored by The Home Depot — no longer displayed prominately at the gift shop at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Concord, NC. With the Winston Cup series spending the next two weekends at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, the rivalry has the potential to heat up even further. Lowe’s has a large investment in racing, owning naming rights at the Charlotte speedway and has agreements with other Speedway Motorsports Inc. tracks and also sponsors the #48 Chevrolet of rookie Jimmie Johnson. The Home Depot has sponsored driver Tony Stewart’s entry in Winston Cup since he joined the series in 1999 and has also been involved in his foray in the Indianapolis 500 his rookie season. The Home Depot also owns the designation of the “official” home improvement warehouse of NASCAR. In recent months, as SMI and Lowe’s have worked to expand their relationship, SMI tracks are taking a more active role in promoting their involvement with Lowe’s, including no longer displaying merchandise at tracks’ stores of rival driver Stewart. Lowe’s Motor Speedway spokesman Jerry Gappens emphasized Monday there is no conflict between the speedway and Stewart, but rather the sponsors. “Tony Stewart’s merchandise is still available for sale in our gift shop, it’s just not being displayed prominately,” he said. “Race fans can still purchase Tony Stewart items here.” Gappens said, however, that speedway and event-specific merchandise is the majority of the merchandise sold at the speedway’s shop. The speedway store maintains inventory of driver merchandise for fans’ convenience. Gappens said he did not know exact policies for other SMI tracks involving Stewart’s merchandise, but believed they had made similiar changes.(ThatsRacin.com)(5-14-2002) UPDATE 2: The rivalry between sponsors is never more evident than here, with two home improvement stores battling for attention. Since Lowe’s sponsor’s the track, that store tries to take all the attention and had all weekend when rookie Jimmie Johnson, also sponsored by Lowe’s, won the pole for the race. But Home Depot, the official home improvement store of NASCAR, greeted fans outside the track with a monstrous billboard featuring Tony Stewart, the driver they sponsor, with the words “We’ll see who really owns this track.” Home Depot also handed out close to 100,000 orange glow sticks to the fans shopping in the souvenir aisle in an effort to create an orange atmosphere when the sun went down on the race.(CNNSI/AP)(5-27-2002)
