Joe Gibbs Racing has signed a deal with GlaxoSmithKline, which makes Advair , an asthma maintenance treatment, an associate sponsor on the team’s #18 and #20 cars. Driver Bobby Labonte, who has asthma, will be a spokesman for the program and will encourage fans to visit an educational trailer to be located trackside at NASCAR events.( ThatsRacin.com )(1-24-2003) UPDATE: Bobby Labonte’s car will switch from green to purple for the Food City 500 at Bristol next month. The color-scheme change is being used to promote Advair, an asthma treatment that Labonte has started using. Labonte’s primary sponsor, Interstate Batteries, is taking its name off the car for that race to let him promote the medication. “It’s helping me get off the quick-relief (inhalers),” Labonte said of Advair. “I was racing a car at Martinsville, Va., and saw a guy beside me that had quick-relief taped to his helmet in case he had to use it. I thought, ‘Oh, my gosh, that guy’s got it worse than I do.'” Part of Advair’s season-long promotion includes testing for lung problems at most of the race tracks. Stan Hull, a representative of GlaxoSmithKline, which makes the product, said that more than 1,400 people underwent lung testing during Speed Weeks.( Fayetteville Observer ) AND the #18 Chevy will also have Advair on the hood for the races at Rockingham, Atlanta, The Winston, Dover, Chicago, Pocono, Darlington, Kansas and Phoenix. See images of both schemes on my Paint Scheme Gallery .(2-22-2003)
