Hey, that old color scheme can grow on ya. I've got 15 year old Earnhardt shirts and hats... I think they're classy. I've got Skol Bandit 33 Gant stuff, Ward's 22 Cat stuff... it's all good :o)
Jeff's going to do great with Childress.
Big move for Richard, yes, because this will help that AOL is able to sign a proven winner who hasn't been having the equipment with Roush because he had driven a car sponsored previously by the Venezuelan government and its socialist leader Hugo Chávez.
Two of Burton's personal sponsors will just ride along and keep on trucking-- Nabisco Foods and Coca-Cola. Coke will have a week to replace all the "99" caps with "30" caps. We might even see a few combination Harvick and Burton promos together with the two sharing Coca-Cola and Nabisco as sponsors.
I think Roush damaged his copybook by attempting to choose sponsorship from hard liquor and not try others. The only firm even doing a one-race deal or two were Comcast and TNT. The other sponsors on the #99 were the usual associate sponsors on the team which simply increased its support for a few races -- Swedish industrial giant SKF (on the bottom of the hood and C-pillar) and Shell most notable. Also Time Warner's TNT supported the car at the Daytona 500. If you noticed Burton's Coca-Cola promotions were done with him in a Shell Racing uniform from the Busch Series. (Shell sponsored that car at Las Vegas.)
The irony was RCR once carried Diageo associate sponsorship of the #3 from 1997 until 2000. But at the time, Diageo also owned Burger King and it was the BK logo on the #3.
I can see a Chevrolet ad with one driver in a NetZero uniform and one in an AOL uniform, asking, "Which one is the better Burton?"
We've still got a lot of Ward's CAT stuff, even my sons' bedroom clock, LOL -- I'm trying to convince my daughter her 99 stuff will be collector's items :). Thanks for your note! :)