It looks like NASCAR and Nextel got through their first year of marriage pretty well. The 2004 season was the first in which teams competed for the Nextel Cup after 33 years of running after the Winston Cup.
After virtually kicking the tobacco habit, the racing series has opened the door to nicotine.
The Associated Press reported recently that GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare has signed a contract to join the Chip Ganassi Racing Team. Under the deal, estimated to be worth $3 million, three of GSK's smoking cessation products will be advertised on the rear deck of Casey Mears' No. 41 car.
The products to be advertised are: Nicorette gum, the NicoDerm CQ patch and Commit lozenges. For one race, as yet unnamed, Nicorette will be the primary sponsor on the car.
GSK had tried to get its smoking cessation products in as a NASCAR sponsor nine years ago but were not welcome at that time. R.J. Reynolds, which makes Winston cigarettes, was well entrenched at the time and NASCAR knew better than to spit Nicorette juice on the hand that fed it. So the company took its sponsorship elsewhere.
But, as the song played by the British Military Band at Trenton, suggested, "The World Turned Upside Down," and now NASCAR would like to shake its fans of their previous chewing, spitting, smoking image.
Starting this year, the company will have an exhibit with smoking cessation counselors on hand at 23 races to help fans kick the habit. The AP also says GSK has signed Richard and Kyle Petty for track-side appearances promoting Nicorette.
Steve Kapur is marketing manager for GSK. He says that NASCAR fans are heavy smokers and that many say they would like to quit. The company cites a survey by Simmons Market Research.
The survey says that NASCAR fans are 28 percent more likely to smoke than other adults; they smoke 18 percent more cigarettes than other adult smokers and are more likely to smoke than fans of the NBA, NFL, NHL or MLB.
Tobacco is not entirely gone from the sponsors' suites yet, though. John Andretti's car is sponsored by Victory Brands.
I guess my idea for "Racing Pipes" with No. 8 or No. 3 logos doesn't have much of a future.
On a totally unrelated topic, if you have a care for Erie or any of the other Great Lakes, be aware that efforts to take water from one of our greatest and most unique resources have not, apparently, ended.
Ohio Governor Robert Taft says that municipalities around the U.S. and even other parts of the world still are casting green eyes on the planet's biggest source of freshwater.
Eight governors have adopted the principles of the "Great Lakes Charter Annex." It would require that Great Lakes states, in consultation with officials of Ontario and Quebec, Canada, approve any proposal to take more than a million gallons of water a day our of the region.
Other standards would come into play for approval of other withdrawal rates.
Taft says that the U.S. Southwest is the region thirstiest for Great Lakes water. He notes the growing population in the desert and the record low levels of the Colorado River are the main causes of the Southwesterners' concerns. However, he notes that the growing population also gives that region growing political clout.
Taft co-chairs the Council of Great Lakes Governors, which has worked on the issue for the last three years.
The plan will need to be approved by Congress and the legislatures in the eight involved states. That will take years.
Stay alert.