NASCAR Season Starter Has New Name + DirecTV Cancels Hotpass

Today I saw that the season starting race that used to be called the Budweiser Shootout, now has a new name.

Sprint has partnered up with Daytona International Speedway and is sponsoring what used to be "The Shootout" and now calling it "The Sprint Unlimited at Daytona."

Yes, it's still a non-points, and yes the usual rules still apply.  That being that this event will be comprised of pole winners from last year and previous winners of this event.

The Sprint Unlimited at Daytona will run on February 16th at 8 p.m. ET and what's curious (which I expect a quickie rule change any day now for next year) is that last year's champion, Brad Keselowski, is not in the field.  He might have won the title, but he did not snag any poles doing it.

The other oddity is that AJ Allmendinger, is eligible.  (He won the pole at Kansas, and has been reinstated from his substance abuse suspension last year.)

This new title, just doesn't ring well with me in as much as what it's trying to convey with the message.  Unlimited might imply something else besides a select few drivers who qualify for an event.  We'll see how it pans out.  As far as we all know, this might just be phase one of a big change of events for the race or the opening weekend.  It might just work.

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Sports Business Daily is reporting that DirectTV is ending its relationship with NASCAR, which includes a sponsorship deal and the NASCAR Hot Pass service.

It looks like they're cutting/saving costs.

The Hot Pass was initially a fee service, but no one took to it, so they produced the feed and released it for free.  But over time, the cost of producing that service was becoming too much for their bottom line.  Part of the cost issues came from the sublicensing fees from Fox, Turner and ESPN.

DirecTV says they will look to stay with NASCAR, but in a much smaller capacity of displays at select tracks.

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I wonder, with DirecTV stepping back, if Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s television production company, Hammerhead Entertainment, might step up to the plate on this one.  They're involved in many other aspects of TV production of the sport with some of its sponsors (AMP Energy, Diet Mountain Dew, GoDaddy.com, Hendrick Motorsports, Nationwide Insurance, SPEED & more) and had a decent TV series in the past.  They are fully capable.

(Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s Many Companies)