{"id":15358,"date":"2018-03-14T08:45:28","date_gmt":"2018-03-14T13:45:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=15358"},"modified":"2018-03-14T11:57:02","modified_gmt":"2018-03-14T16:57:02","slug":"anheuser-busch-returns-as-sponsor-of-the-busch-pole-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2018\/03\/14\/anheuser-busch-returns-as-sponsor-of-the-busch-pole-award\/","title":{"rendered":"Anheuser-Busch returns as sponsor of the Busch Pole Award"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. \u2013 One of the most recognizable partnerships in all of sports has returned with vigor as NASCAR<\/strong> and Anheuser-Busch<\/strong> announced Wednesday the return of the \u201cBusch Pole Award\u201d<\/strong> in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series<\/a> and that Busch will serve as the \u201cOfficial Beer of NASCAR.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cThey talk about heritage and being true to their values as core tenets of their brand and I think that fits very well with what NASCAR is and what it represents as well,\u2019\u2019 said Lou Garate, NASCAR vice president, partnership.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a good fit. It\u2019s a good win for everybody overall.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s certainly a sentimental nod to NASCAR\u2019s storied past and an exciting partnership to guide the sport\u2019s future.<\/p>\n

Anheuser-Busch first sponsored the Pole Award 40 years ago in 1978 and was the sport\u2019s \u201cOfficial Beer\u2019 from 1988-1997.<\/p>\n

Two of the brand\u2019s last pole winners are iconic names in the sport. Retired driver Geoff Bodine won the last \u201cBusch Pole Award\u201d at Atlanta Motor Speedway.  And seven-time champion, Jimmie Johnson \u2013 who drives the No. 48 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports \u2013 won the last pole sponsored by Anheuser-Busch, at Homestead in 1997.<\/p>\n

And the brand\u2019s current driver, Stewart-Haas Racing\u2019s Kevin Harvick, will be showing up at his home state track, Auto Club Speedway this weekend looking to win four consecutive races — a feat not seen in the Monster Energy Series since 2007.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re really excited,\u2019\u2019 said Chelsea Phillips, Anheuser-Busch vice president, value and beyond beer brands. \u201cI think this is going to be a really fun time and Kevin Harvick has already started the season off with a pretty good roll.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re excited to be further integrated into the sport. We see a lot of value in NASCAR and the loyalty of the fans and want to continue to become integrated and locked in a way, we have the team and the tracks and now we can talk about the league through the pole [award].<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just gives us one more touch point to be able to interact with the fans in a way that\u2019s important to us. We have a lot of history in the sport and are excited to be coming back to the pole.”<\/p>\n

In addition to the grand roll out of the Busch Pole Award at Auto Club Speedway, the new partnership has the potential to recognize the four previous 2018 pole winners as \u201cBusch Pole Award\u201d winners should their team participate in the reward program.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo have the younger generation come in and help us carry that [brand recognition] along – as well as those who have the memories from the past – it\u2019s another piece of the story but one that happens to have that heritage and harkens back to those really good times,” Phillips said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just a perfect space to be able to engage in a two-way dialogue with fans. It\u2019s something we\u2019re passionate about as a brand and something they are passionate about as fans.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. \u2013 One of the most recognizable partnerships in all of sports has returned with vigor as NASCAR and Anheuser-Busch announced Wednesday the return of the \u201cBusch Pole Award\u201d in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series and that Busch will serve as the \u201cOfficial Beer of NASCAR.\u201d \u201cThey<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15357,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[11],"tags":[16],"class_list":["post-15358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-nascar"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-3ZI","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/IMG_9694.jpg?fit=745%2C333","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15358"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15358\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15359,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15358\/revisions\/15359"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}