CART: PacWest Announces Nextel as sponsor for Dixon

Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel

September 1, 2001

(Vancouver, BC) - PacWest Racing Group, in association with Nextel Communications, is pleased to announce that Nextel has become a sponsor on the #18 car of rookie Scott Dixon for the remainder of the 2001 CART FedEx Championship Series season.

Nextel, which currently sponsors the #17 PacWest entry of Mauricio Gugelmin, has elected to expanded their involvement with the two-car team to begin with the Molson Indy Vancouver. Nextel initially began their affiliation with PacWest Racing with successful projects at St. Louis in 1997, and Rio in 1999 before taking on their current level of involvement on Gugelmin's car at the start of the 2000 CART season.

Dixon, the New Zealand rookie, is currently leading the standings for the Jim Trueman Rookie of the Year award, holding a 35-point lead over his nearest rival. He has also completed 1711 of the 1757 laps run this season, the series leader in that category. Dixon has one victory, five top-fives, and seven top-tens at this point of his rookie campaign. He has also scored championship points in six of his past seven starts, including three top-five finishes. In May, the then 20-year-old Kiwi became the youngest-ever winner of a Champ Car race, scoring a victory in Nazareth at the age of 20 years, nine months.

In his first season at PacWest, Dixon became the 2000 Dayton Indy Lights Champion with six wins, seven podiums, and one pole position, finishing the season with 155 points.

Nextel Communications is the world's leading provider of fully integrated guaranteed all-digital wireless services. Nextel's all-in-one solution integrates digital cellular, voice mail, text/numeric paging capabilities and Nextel Direct Connect -- a digital two-way radio feature that allows a user to instantly contact 1 or 100 of their co-workers at the touch of a button. Nextel uses iDEN (integrated digital enhanced network) technology developed by Motorola. This technology provides superior sound and transmission quality as well as built-in cloning and fraud protection.

The company is headquartered in Reston, Virginia and has an employee base of more than 10,000 dedicated team members throughout the country. Nextel International has wireless operations and investments in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Japan, Mexico, Peru, the Philippines, and Shanghai, China.

Text provided by Tom Hollett

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