NASCAR Joins "America Supports You" Team

Daytona Beach, Fla. (July 5, 2005) - The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) announced today its support for the “America Supports You” program, an ongoing nationwide effort to communicate America’s admiration to the men and women of the Armed Forces. The program, launched by the U.S. Department of Defense last year, recognizes citizens’ support for our military men and women and serves as a vehicle to communicate that appreciation to members of our Armed Forces at home and abroad.

NASCAR will seek to raise awareness of the program and drive fans to the website at americasupportsyou.mil beginning with this weekend’s Pepsi 400 at Daytona International Speedway.

“The ‘America Supports You’ campaign gives every American the opportunity to reach out to those in the military serving our country and protecting our freedoms,” said NASCAR President Mike Helton. “Taking a moment to thank the troops and let them know how much they mean to our country is easy to do by going to the AmericaSupportsYou.mil website.”

“The Department of Defense is grateful for NASCAR’s continued support of the troops,” said Allison Barber, deputy assistant secretary of defense. NASCAR’s efforts will be a positive reminder to our deployed men and women, and their families back home, that they have the continued support of the American people.” NASCAR is working with the industry to help raise awareness about the effort including signage at tracks, airing of public service announcements on Nextel Vision, decals on race cars, outreach to media outlets and public relations support.

Several companies and sports organizations that have joined the “America Supports You” campaign including the PGA Tour, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Lowe’s, Anheuser- Busch, and McDonald’s.

About “America Supports You” Since the launch of the America Supports You program last November, more than 1.8 million Americans, including individual citizens, businesses and organizations, have logged onto the AmericaSupportsYou.mil Web site to register the activities and projects in their communities that show their support for America’s Armed Forces, especially those serving in harm’s way. Every person who registers on the site will receive an America Supports You dog tag to wear as a visible sign of support. The America Supports You dog tags feature the program logo on a military-style dog tag.

About NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, Inc. (NASCAR), which began in 1948, is the sanctioning body for one of America's premier sports. NASCAR is the #1 spectator sport – holding 17 of the top 20 attended sporting events in the U.S., the #2 rated regular season sport on network TV with broadcasts in 150 countries and has 75 million fans that purchase over $2 billion in annual licensed product sales. These fans are the most brand loyal in all of sports and as a result, more Fortune 500 companies participate in NASCAR than any other sport.

NASCAR consists of three major national series (NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series, NASCAR Busch Series and the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series) as well as seven Regional Tours and one Local grassroots series. NASCAR sanctions 1,500 races at over 100 tracks in 38 states, Canada and Mexico. Based in Daytona Beach, NASCAR has offices in Charlotte, Concord (NC), Conover (NC), Los Angeles, New York, Mexico City and Toronto.