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The Martinsville overnight TV Ratings for the Cup race were the same as last year. NASCAR on Fox tallied a 4.9/10 that Sunday for racing from Martinsville. The 4.9/10 is flat with last year’s Martinsville rating (4.9/11), but in this case that’s good news given the dramatically tougher competition faced by this year’s event.

That race came against a pair of NCAA Regional Finals, including the strong Davidson-Kansas game, while last year’s race aired on the Final Four weekend and faced no NCAA basketball. By matching last year’s rating, FOX maintains its streak of seven straight NASCAR events this year that have been at least flat with last year in the metered markets (this excludes the Fontana race because of rain). Los Angeles has emerged as the surprise market of the year for NASCAR. The Martinsville Cup race earned a 2.8/7 in LA, a +65 percent gain over last year’s 1.7/5. For the season-to-date, Sprint Cup racing on FOX is averaging a 6.2/12, including Fontana, a +5 percent bump over last season’s 5.9/12. This report came from the Fox PR office and the jayski.com webpages.

On another note about Martinsville the Winston-Journal in NC reported that fans stayed away from that Cup race in droves. However, it was a very cold day and we’re sure that it had a lot to do with attendance. No doubt the recession and the tight economy has also impacted ticket sales among other issues like fuel prices.

According to AutoRacingSport.com when the IRL opener at Homestead, Florida TV coverage offered side-by-side racing and commercials there was a barrage of e-mails to ESPN/ABC. Most of it from NASCAR fans who liked the change and only hope that Fox/TNT/ESPN-ABC will give it a try and soon.

Soft drinks manufacturer, Coca-Cola North America, agreed a three-year sponsorship deal with Indy Car Series, until 2010. Under the deal, Coca-Cola will become an official sponsor of the series and have access to signage at the Indy Car tracks. One good sign, no pun intended, that the merging of the CCWS and the IRL is already paying dividends.

Terry Angstadt, president of the Indy Racing League’s Commercial Division, said: “Coca-Cola’s enormous brand recognition and marketing capabilities create some very exciting activation opportunities as we go forward. This announcement also adds to the sponsorship momentum that we’ve been building over the last several months. The growing number of partnerships we’re making with quality organizations like Coca-Cola and others is really helping to build an exciting future for the Indy Car Series”.

The deal further extends the company’s association with the sport. Last year Coca-Cola North America announced a 10-year sponsorship agreement with the International Speedway Corporation (ISC), owner of five tracks on the Indy Car Series schedule. This report came from SportsBusiness.com.

Here’s another one from SportsBusiness.com. The Middle East region will play a pivotal role in the future of the motor sport industry, said David Richards during his keynote address on the first day of the Motor Sport Business Forum Middle East.

Richards, Chairman of Prodrive and Aston Martin, and a former team principal of the BAR and Benetton Formula One teams, talked about the history of motor sport in the Middle East and what the future holds for the region. We are not suprised by this because the Middle East is flush with money from the high price of energy products.

Sprint launched the Sprint All-Star Customer Celebration, a program around the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race where Sprint customers will be offered more than 30,000 free tickets to an array of NASCAR-themed events May 15-17.

“At Sprint, our customers are our most valued assets,” said Steve Gaffney, director of sports marketing for Sprint. “We have tremendous access through our NASCAR Sprint Cup Series sponsorship and our title sponsorship of the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race. We want to share as many of those benefits as possible with our customers. We want them to realize that, as a Sprint customer, they have exclusive access to NASCAR; they have a friend on the inside.”

The following items are being offered free of charge to Sprint customers:

- 10,500 tickets to the NASCAR Sprint Pit Crew Challenge May 15 at Charlotte Bobcats Arena in Charlotte, N.C. While at the event, Sprint customers will have access to an exclusive question-and-answer session with NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers.

- 1,000 tickets for lunch and a chartered bus ride to behind-the-scenes tours of Hendrick Motorsports, Michael Waltrip Racing and Joe Gibbs Racing May 16 in Charlotte, N.C.

- 20,000 tickets to the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race May 17 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Charlotte, N.C.

- A select number of pit tours prior to the start of the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race.

- Opportunity for a select number of customers to be stage front for the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race pre-race driver introductions and the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race Victory Lane.

Sprint customers must visit Sprint.com, establish an online account via MySprint and log in to register. The offer is available online only. The tickets are available on a first-come, first-served basis. Registration will close April 30 or when all tickets have been claimed.

The 2008 Formula One season is set to reach new commercial heights with two new street-track venues, one in Spain and the other in Singapore featuring the sport’s first-ever night race. Some of the manufacturers, sponsors and teams have also changed but what remains is a global and lucrative marketplace.

Formula One is a global industry generating over $4 billion per year. The sport’s commercial rights alone produce $1 billion in annual revenue and its top teams run on budgets of over $400 million, backed by global corporations. The Formula One World Championship is the most widely watched annual sports event in the world, with 580 million unique viewers per year, according to SportsBusiness.com. It’s going to be interesting to see how F1 fares in the face of the economic recession, which we expect to be worldwide.

The Sea & Air Parade will set sail once again in the morning of Saturday, May 3 on San Diego Bay at approximately 10:30 a.m. This free, family-friendly event is the kick off for Fleet Week San Diego, which pays tribute to San Diego’s military throughout the year. The parade will precede the Red Bull Air Race World Series, which begin at 1 p.m. That latter will be taped and aired on the VS cable channel.

International Automobile Federation (FIA) president, Max Mosley, has called for a meeting of motor sport’s world governing body after four Formula One carmakers called for him to resign following the recent sex scandal allegations.

In a statement at the Bahrain Grand Prix, the FIA said: “The full membership of the FIA will be invited to attend the meeting at which the widespread publicity following an apparently illegal invasion of the FIA President’s privacy will be discussed.” The meeting is likely to be held in Paris, although a date has not yet been confirmed. It was interesting that FOCA’s Bernie Eccelstone defended his pal Max Mosley and called it a joke of some kind. Well we’ll see if Mosley can weather the storm.

Yes, He REALLY Said That- Kyle Busch, on his image with the fans. “People either love me or hate me. So love me or hate me, I don’t care.” This came from the Valvoline Track Talk Newsletter.

Now let’s see what’s happening on TV for the motorheads this weekend. It all gets going on Thursday at 7 p.m. with Speed offering Sprint Cup Practice at 7 p.m. followed by Nationwide Practice on the same cable channel. Friday has Nationwide Qualifying from Phoenix at 5 p.m. on Speed then Sprint Cup Practice at 6:30 p.m. The Duce kicks in at 9:30 p.m. with the Nationwide Series race from Phoenix. Saturday doesn’t get going until 6 p.m. when Speed offers NASCAR RaceDay from Phoenix at 6 p.m. Fox swings into action with the Sprint Cup event from that same track at 8 p.m. Sunday’s offerings are the FIM World Superbikes and support series from Portugal, Same Day Delay, on Speed at 2 p.m. While ESPN2 airs the NHRA Finals from Vegas at 8 p.m. (END)

NOTE: INFORMATION FOR THIS COLUMN CAME FROM VARIOUS REFERENCED SOURCES, PRESS RELEASES, NOTES AND OTHER SOURCES.

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