From AutoWeek.com on 1/22:
by DENISE MCCLUGGAGE
Either nerve endings rubbed tender by NASCAR's 2007 season have healed or they won't. Whatever. Daytona is creeping over the horizon, promising significant changes for '08: COT will be COT, Toyota joins a new fraternity after a tough pledge year, Little E packs his bags, and more open-wheel driv-ers grow fenders and learn to speak grits.
But the change I speak of is the fading of Busch and Budweiser from their prominence in NASCAR. So I want to say some laudatory words about the guy who got Anheuser-Busch involved to begin with.
I first met the late Monty Roberts when he was doing
PR for Ford. He invented the press kit. Honest. Those now ubiquitous folders full of typing and photos simply didn't exist until Monty put some together for Freddie Lorenzen and other Ford drivers. Monty was a manic promoter. He'd give signs boldly declaring "FORD WINS!" along with fistfuls of dollars to track hangers-about. When a checker fell on a Ford, they'd get his signal, and fans saw little else but Ford signs on every fence and post as they left.
After Monty left Ford, several decades passed before I ran into him again. Wow, he'd been taking Paul Newman lessons. His hair had gone white, making his eyes even bluer. At a Bridgehampton race, Monty played decoy, ducking into a limo to draw the crowd so Paul could come and go as he wished in a nondescript car.
Still strong for NASCAR, he was now brand manager of Busch beer. Busch, with its commercials featuring a rearing black stallion and the rumbling bass voice of Hoyt Axton, sponsored Junior Johnson's No. 11, Cale Yarborough up. Champion-ships rolled in.
Monty also came up with the Busch Clash, that dash of a race at Daytona for all the pole winners from the previous season. Until then, qualifying fastest was a fleeting glory.
NASCAR saw only Busch blue at that time, no Budweiser red. Seems the A-B powers didn't consider NASCAR premium enough for their premium brew. That changed, but after Monty and A-B parted. NASCAR bloomed and boomed. Budweiser red appeared on race cars. The Clash became the Bud Shootout. Busch became a series . . . Fade out.
Whatever it's called when the pole winners line up for their race in February, I'll think of Monty and watch the Busch Clash. Join me.
AutoWeek | Updated: 01/16/08, 3:31 pm et
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http://autoweek.com/apps/pbcs.dll/ar...FREE/908784350
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