Telecom merger to impact Nextel Cup?

There's an interesting story by the Associated Press that discusses the repercussions to NASCAR of today's announced merger between Sprint and Nextel.



Although the merger isn't supposed to have an impact on the Nextel Cup for this year, you have to wonder about down the road. After all those years of Winston sponsorship, NASCAR let them off the hook part way into that deal and signed a 10-year title program with Nextel.



They spend billions painting everything yellow and black... and now, just one year in, Nextel is becoming part of something called "Sprint Nextel". When they made their deal with Nextel, NASCAR made it clear that they were looking for a longterm partner to title its top series. They couldn't have had this in mind when they signed the Nextel deal.