The big blue bottle (POWERade) seems to be causing quite a commotion in NEXTEL Cup racing. For those who may not have been paying attention NASCAR has Powerade as an official product sponsor and entitles them to put a big blue bottle on the roof of the winning car in victory lane. No big deal right? Wrong!!
 There has been more reaction to big blue bottle than if the winner was caught cheating.
 The big commotion in Cup victory lanes is that many of the drivers have endorsement deals with Coca-Cola and some have them with Pepsi and others with Gatorade and so on. Last Sunday when Jeff Gordon won the Brickyard 400 he “forgot” to go to victory lane. He got caught up in the “thrill of victory” and stopped his car on the straightaway so he and his crew could have their own celebration. They kneeled down and kissed the historic bricks that form the start/finish line. And the big blue bottle was not there.
 You see Jeff Gordon endorses Pepsi and Powerade is a Coca Cola product. We are told that Gordon just wanted to share the victory with his crew, his owner and his sponsors so he stopped at the start/finish line to avoid victory lane. If he wanted to have a private celebration perhaps it would have been better to just drive into their garage and close the doors. Jeff Gordon had won the race three times before, this was not that big of a deal.  Apparently he wanted to send a message to NASCAR that he was not willing to share his victory lane with the big blue bottle.
  If you want to play in NASCAR sand box then you have to play by their rules. NASCAR allows the drivers to have their swigs of  “favorite drinks” while being interviewed on TV (so they earn a perk from the manufacturer). There are the drivers who wear sunglasses even when it is dark to earn their perk from the sunglass manufacturer. NASCAR could stop that.
 Just a couples weeks before Mike Helton, president of NASCAR, told the teams that Victory Lane behavior had to improve. Winning drivers had been tossing event sponsor and NASCAR sponsor promotional items off the roof of their cars. That was not acceptable. He gave them ideas on how to handle victory lane.
 A couple weeks back Jimmie Johnson, Gordon’s teammate, won at Pocono. He brought a team sponsor sign to victory lane, placing it in front of the big blue bottle. He was fined $10,000. Jeff Gordon did not go to victory lane and apologized. NASCAR has accepted his apology and there will be no fine. At Watkins Glen Tony Stewart, the race winner,  pretty much avoided victory lane and any sponsor conflicts by being sick and heading right to his hauler when the race was over. Stewart is a Coca Cola endorser but he would have probably had trouble with the Gatorade bottle that would have been on his car. So Johnson got fined, Gordon apologized and got nothing and no one seemed to know what to think of the Stewart deal. He did come back later to carry out victory lane activities but most of the media attention was gone by then. Another example of NASCAR’s inconsistent decisions when it comes to penalties.
  The problem seems to be that the drivers are not actually getting any cash in their pockets by allowing the big blue bottle. Powerade does provide money to NASCAR and some of that money goes down to NASCAR short track racing. But what would any Cup driver care about weekly short track racing.
  On all the Cup cars are dozens of decals sharing space with team sponsors. Millions of dollars is doled out by those sponsors in the form of contingency monies to the teams carrying the decals. I have not seen drivers putting signs up in front of the decals in victory lane or tearing the decals off .
 So why the big commotion about the big blue bottle. In my mind, the drivers don’t think they are getting anything out of it. It has nothing to do with a driver not wanting to share victory lane space, it has to do with not getting a piece of the action.
 By the way if a driver with a Coke endorsement deal wins there will be no problem with the big blue bottle. There will be a problem if the win comes at a track where Gatorade is the official drink. We have seen some big Gatorade bottles tossed off cars in victory lane.
 Sounds confusing doesn’t it. Actually it is silly. I watched the Hall of Fame football game the other night. When a player was interviewed he did not take a swig of his favorite refreshment so that he would get his perk from the company. And not once did I see a player do an interview with sunglasses on. No battle of the big blue bottle. And we wonder why so many still look down their noses at professional auto racing.
  THE UNITED RACING CLUB sprint cars (URC) will join the Pennsylvania Posse in a sprint car double header on Friday evening, August 27, at Williams Grove Speedway. The first heat is scheduled to start at 8:00.
 URC, the oldest touring sprint car organization in the country, sanctions races throughout the East and also makes stops in Iowa, Michigan and Canada. The August 27 date is the only scheduled appearance for the United Racing Club at Williams Grove this season.
 Many familiar names to Williams Grove fans fill the URC roster. The club will be led by Curt Michael of Ocean View, Delaware, who is currently leading the point standings in the race for the URC championship. The younger of the Michael brothers owns three career wins at the Grove. Older brother, Sean Michael, a grove regular for several years, owns four career victories here, and will be a top contender with URC.
 Other URC regulars, who have visited victory lane at Williams Grove, include Kramer Williamson, the 1976 and 1978 track champion who owns 21 career victories at the Mechanicsburg half-mile, along with Billy and Cliff Brian. The Ephrata based Brian brothers have combined for three Grove wins, Billy with two and Cliff with one.
 Fred Rahmer, the all-time career win leader at Williams Grove, scored his very first sprint car victory here in a URC race in 1985. Rahmer will be out to maintain his lead in the Cindy Rowe Auto Glass point race. He is seeking a fifth title, something only two drivers, Lance Dewease and Kenny Weld, have been able to accomplish.
Both the 360 c.i. URC sprints and the 410 c.i. Williams Grove sprint cars will compete in a series of separate qualifying races leading up to 25-lap features for both divisions.
 The limited (358 c.i.) sprints will return to Williams Grove on Friday evening, September 3, to compete in an extra distance, increased purse championship event. The Grove sprint cars will once again be the headline attraction.
 Williams Grove had their Friday show of racing, featuring the Triple 20s as part of the Jack Gunn Memorial, rained out. That prestigious event has been rescheduled for Sunday, September 5th.