Visa Gets NASCAR's Loyalty

Binyamin Appelbaum writes for the Charlotte Observer about Visa USA's NASCAR sponsorship campaign.

"When you look historically at NASCAR, it was fuel and lubricants and the tobacco sponsors," said Andrew Giangola, a spokesman for the company that runs the sport. "But in recent years, the two big ones have been pharmaceuticals and financial services."

Visa came first, signing up as the sport's official credit card in 1998, just as NASCAR was bursting onto the national stage with races from coast to coast and a network television contract. Giangola said the sponsorship was "a landmark" for NASCAR, underscoring its emergence as a sport whose average fan suddenly made more money than the average American.