Card sharks

Haas-Carter Motorsports back on track with Discover

Back in black.

That's the latest theme song for Haas-Carter Motorsports, although AC/DC probably isn't in either Carl Haas' or Travis Carter's music collections. I say probably; people surprise you. But neither owner strikes me as a rock-and-roller.

What they are, apparently, is stubborn. After losing primary Winston Cup sponsor Kmart in January, Haas and Carter are back in the NASCAR racing business along with driver Todd Bodine. They'll sport Discover Card's black and orange for the next six Cup races, and continue to lobby for a permanent arrangement.

"Stayin' alive," said Carter, evoking another musical metaphor.

"It's just a matter of time before they came up with a sponsor," said Bodine of his employers. "It's too good a race team, too good a car owners to not be racing. I'm very fortunate and very lucky that this situation came along at the right time."

According to Rich Lalley, Discover Card's vice president of advertising, the pairing was hatched a month ago. Company marketers were seeking to publicize a new product, and someone "discovered" that Haas' CART team, Newman/Haas Motorsports, was located in the same Chicago suburb. One inquiry led to another, and the sponsorship agreement was finalized last week. It was announced prior to Sunday's Coca-Cola 600 in Charlotte.

"It's not very often that a big national marketer has the opportunity to get involved in a first-flight team without making an enormous full-year commitment," Lalley said. "It's a pretty extraordinary circumstance. It's one that I found too good to pass up and was able to get the rest of our management team to go along with it."

"The timing was good for something they were looking at," Carter said. "And obviously in our desperate situation, it was a perfect match -- hopefully."

The last time Carter's team competed at full strength was in March, at Las Vegas. Bodine won the pole, but watched helplessly a week later as teammate Joe Nemechek drove Haas-Carter's only entry at Atlanta, the No. 26 Ford. Bodine's No. 66 -- at age 2, the youngest of the two Haas-Carter teams -- was shelved, and Bodine and Nemechek were released to find work. Bodine landed a fulltime Busch ride with Herzog Motorsports; Nemechek busied himself with his own Busch team.

Since Kmart had pulled the plug after Daytona and Rockingham, all expenses thereafter came from Haas' and Carter's pockets. That meant more pain; large numbers of shop, office and race-team employees collecting unavoidable pink slips. ARCA ace Frank Kimmel stepped in to drive the No. 26 on occasions, but the last four months haven't been easy.

"We still continue to get a lot of nibbles, and even today get a lot of nibbles," Carter said. "But it's all nibbles. There just didn't seem to be the one thing that you can actually hang your hat on."

"Nobody likes to be sitting at home," Bodine said. "I'm probably the worst spectator there ever was, and to be able to go right in and keep going in circles was very important to me. Now I got double duty and twice the work."

He also has two Cup-Busch conflicts during Discover Card's six-week sponsorship. Luckily, the overlap at Pocono (Cup) and Nashville (Busch), and Michigan (Cup) and Kentucky (Busch) comes during qualifying, not race day, so older brother Geoffrey Bodine will qualify the No. 26 for him.

Todd Bodine has already tested once, too, at Dover nearly two weeks ago. Carter said he's been able to retain most key people from both teams, which means the younger Bodine has inherited Nemechek's crew chief, Donnie Wingo.

"It's a great race team," Bodine said. "Donnie's a proven winner and after the test at Dover, our communication was really good, and I think a lot of that came from being teammates and knowing each other. We just really picked up and really ran good and everything clicked, so I'm looking forward to it."

He regrets having to soldier on alone. The week before NASCAR's May 18 all-star race, The Winston, Nemechek was hired by Hendrick Motorsports to replace Jerry Nadeau for the balance of the season. Nemechek and Bodine are good friends, and the latter was looking forward to working with the former.

"It was going to be the best year we had had," Bodine said. "It was only going to be my second year, but I feel sure that Haas-Carter Motorsports was going to win some races. We had too many good things going on. We had two drivers that could communicate. We had our act together. And it's just a shame that it went down the way it did."

Carter wasn't any happier about losing Nemechek.

"But honestly, without having a full commitment for the remainder of the year, it was just a tough situation for him to stay committed to," Carter said. "And I understand fully, perfectly where his heart was, and what he needed to do and wanted to do. And quite honestly, I supported him and helped him work everything out so he could do what he needed to do.

"And obviously if [Discover Card] had been in position to say, 'We'll finish the season with you,' that situation would have been different."

Whether it's a permanent, or temporary marriage between Haas-Carter and Discover Card remains to be seen. Beginning July 14, Discover Card also will be the title sponsor of NBC's pre-race show.

"This is the first taste of motor sports that most of the people at Discover Card have had," Lalley said. "Clearly we've got a lot of employees and there are a lot of NASCAR fans there, but we've never delved into it as a sponsor before. So it's prudent to take it a little bit slow. We'll see how it goes."

"Certainly a good performance won't hurt," Carter said. "I don't think it's going to be the all the deciding factor. All the other ancillary programs need to work well for them and they need to see the kinds of results they want to see. Just like any good sponsorship package, all the elements working together, could keep it alive and make it grow."

Denise N. Maloof covers NASCAR for CNNSI.com.

 

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