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The month of December, 2003, marks the last month of the last season that RJ Reynolds will sponsor NASCAR's top racing division with its Winston cigarette brand. The top NASCAR series has sported the name of Winston Cup for the past 33 years, realizing its name from the huge cup like trophy given out at the end of each season, along with a substantial monetary prize, to the driver who wins the driver's championship point's battle. With the curtain closing on the 2003 Cup Series awards banquet in New York City, so closes the Winston era of NASCAR racing. To say that Winston/RJ Reynolds has done a lot for the sport of stock car racing would be a gross understatement. For many years, the words "Winston Cup" meant the epitome of stock car racing, the level of the sport that every rising competitor strived to reach. RJ Reynolds Winston brand took NASCAR's premier series to the top of the racing world's pay scale, with only the world wide Formula One racing series paying more in purse money and team earnings. The first Winston Cup Championship was won by Richard Petty in 1971, which was actually his third NASCAR championship. His first two championships were earned when the series was called the Grand National division. Winston endowed the driver's point fund with $100k that initial season, with half of it being awarded between the World 600 at Charlotte and the Southern 500 at Darlington. The $50k remainder of the point fund was split between 20 drivers at the end of the season. The last Winston Cup Champion, Matt Kenseth, received a check for $4.25 million dollars out of the more than $11 million that Winston paid into the 2003 driver's point fund that was split between the top 25 drivers in the series at the 2003 Cup Series awards banquet. That's quite a monetary progression over a 33 year period. It goes to show that Winston was intent on keeping up with the times. Its hard to say if Winston goaded NASCAR into constantly raising the bar every year or whether it was NASCAR who constantly demanded more of Winston. If given a choice, I'd rather believe that it was Winston who did its best to go along with NASCAR's demands. The sanctioning body has constantly raised the bar every season, costing the teams in the top three divisions unbelievable sums of money to comply with their constant rules changes. These continuing moves have caused team owners to demand more money from the major sponsors whose logos are emblazoned on the hoods and quarter panels of the racecars. Go To Page: 1 2 |
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