Posted on 05/17/2007 5:41:04 AM PDT by Salo
A few weeks ago, I reported in this column that Brian France and other NASCAR Party members spent a week in Communist China to “discuss possible projects with government, sports, and business officials in Beijing.” Well, it appears that Brian had some good discussions.
Barely three weeks after the Great Leader’s return to the States, it was quietly announced, in a two sentence paragraph on usatoday.com, that a Chinese owned company would sponsor a car in Nextel Cup competition. The company is Haier (pronounced Hi-er) America, a subsidiary of Haier Group, China’s number one company amongst “Top Ten Global Brands” of the country. The car they sponsored is the No. 13 Ginn Racing Chevy driven by Joe Nemechek, with the company making their debut at Darlington Raceway this past Saturday night.
As I asked in my column a couple of weeks ago, before the Ginn / Haier sponsorship was announced, where is the outrage amongst the fans about this move? More specifically, where is the outrage that is and / or has been directed at Japanese-owned Toyota when they announced they were getting in the Cup Series in the first place?
Granted, the Chinese involvement isn’t on the scale of Toyota, but a person would think that if there was such an uproar about NASCAR “selling out” to a foreign car manufacturer, one that is from a friendly country, no less, surely the sponsorship of a Cup car by a Communist-owned company would be unthinkable.
One would also think, seeing as how NASCAR is all fired up for diversity and world dominance, that a big announcement would be forthcoming from the King himself. Something along the lines about how his trip to China was a rousing success and that the NASCAR Party was all set in place to bring about the end to all wars and global warming; but that was not the case.
Unfortunately for Brian, he was upstaged by some kid who announced that he just can’t get along with his stepmother any longer and will soon be moving out. Turns out that kid has more worshippers than the King…no wonder he was docked 100 points!
One thing that I find especially ironic, sadly enough, is the fact that the guy that now drives a Communist sponsored car used to drive the car sponsored by the United States Army! Only in NASCAR can an owner get sponsorship monies from not only his own government, but a Communist one as well! Ain’t life grand!
Yeah, but at every pit stop the driver will have to get out and run around the car twice before he can leave the pit.
They're people who can't make right hand turns.....
Huge difference between who is sponsoring a car versus the manufacturer of the cars that are running. If you want to pick and choose who can sponsor a car, then let’s get the Viagra logos out of the family sport.
Great < /sarc > I can just see it now: Kurt Bush driving a “Red” La Choy Chop Suey sponsored-Chairman Mao Geely.
I agree I would be more upset to see a car sponsored by a company like Progressive Insurance
Junior.(Dale Earnharts son.)
Don’t you follow the races?
Well, Haier may be Chinese, but it also has a factory plant in Camden, South Carolina. Middle of NASCAR country. May explain the sponsorship.
I used to all the time years ago. I still have t-shirts, jackets, posters, pins, cups, models, etc. from those fun days. Only occasionally now because of other priorities and interests.
Just not enough time for everything fun!!
>Just not enough time for everything fun!!<
Life just isn’t fair! Retirement is a blast.
Go figure... I'll be down for the count Sunday and the race is on a station I don't get... fphhht!
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