WhiteHatBobby
March 16th, 2009, 9:39 pm
Leuven, Belgium brewer InBev announced today it will end its 30-year sponsorship of King Racing (Brandon Bernstein) in the NHRA, and its NHRA affiliation.
Some believe the NASCAR sponsorship of Richard Petty Motorsports, owned by George Gillett, is the next to go.
dittoheadAZ
March 18th, 2009, 12:13 am
No, because people still watch NASCAR.
:mrgreen:
(ducks)
WhiteHatBobby
March 18th, 2009, 12:34 am
I think they'll yank it since Leuven (the headquarters of InBev) has been stopping racing sponsorships in recent years.
The NHRA was informed by the Belgian brewer that their Euros were being moved to a non-sports crowd. The Belgian brewer is attempting to cut out $7 billion in debt from its takeover of Anheuser-Busch.
One big way they could do it is to cut off the US sports sponsorships, and the big targets (especially to the green crowd, especially since they are based in Belgium, the home of the European Union; Bruxelles is the de facto capital of the EU, and with the courts, the de facto legislative capital of the United States) is to go after the motorsports sponsorships in the US of both Kenny Bernstein and George Gillett. I wouldn't be surprised if Carlsberg replaces InBev on the #9 car as soon as InBev can get out of the deal; the European beer is a presenting sponsor of Liverpool (which is George Gillett-owned).