North American stock-car racing series Nascar has set new guidelines to govern the appointment of naming rights sponsors for its races.
The SportingNews.com website said the new rules will be effective from 2014 and come after Nascar found itself embroiled in controversy when the National Rifle Association replaced electronics company Samsung as the title sponsor of its Sprint Cup event at Texas Motor Speedway in April.
Under the new guidelines, individual tracks will remain responsible for their own title sponsorship deals but these must now be submitted for formal approval by Nascar.
Previously, Nascar reserved the right to approve or reject sponsors but there was no formal sanctioning process in place.
Sanction agreements filed Friday by Dover Motorsports Incorporated – owner of the Dover International Speedway and Nashville Superspeedway tracks – with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission read: “(Nascar) will disapprove a prospective entitlement sponsor only if such prospective entitlement sponsor’s brand has been tarnished by, controversy, crisis or circumstance such that its association with the event would damage the Nascar brand or the image of the sport or… it would damage the (broadcasting) network’s ability to sell advertising.”
Nascar said it will keep the identity of prospective sponsors secret and, in the event of rejecting a sponsor, it will look to modify the deal – for example using another brand owned by the company in question which is not considered tarnished.
In the event of sponsorship rejections, tracks will be able to appeal to a three-member committee comprised of Nascar president Mike Helton, Nascar senior vice-president of racing operations Steve O’Donnell and an additional Nascar vice-president.