First Jesus the Monster Truck, now this

In what has to be the most unusual NASCAR sponsorship arrangement since Billy Ray Cyrus sponsored Derrike Cope, Bobby Labonte's Daytona 500 Chevy will be sponsored by Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ:

Interstate Batteries Chairman Norm Miller has always been proud to promote his product on Joe Gibbs Racing's Nextel Cup Series car.

But when the opportunity presented itself for Interstate Batteries to do a cross-promotion with Mel Gibson's new movie, "The Passion of The Christ," Miller jumped on it. A strong Christian who has been involved in the making of other Christian movies, Miller says he's thrilled to have his company associated with Gibson's project.

Bobby Labonte's No. 18 Chevy, which has been sponsored by Interstate for the past 12 years, will be adorned with the movie logo for Thursday's Gatorade 125s and Sunday's Daytona 500.

NASCAR fans are pretty religious (Winston...er, Nextel Cup races are probably the only American sporting events with an invocation before the start), so I'm not really surprised to see a movie about the life of Jesus being promoted on a stock car. I'm surprised because it's a three-hour long, subtitled movie being promoted this way.

Colby Cosh says he's surprised the Scienologists haven't sponsored a race car before. Well, guess what?

ESPN's Dan Patrick: What's the most far fetched sponsorship you've been offered?

Michael Andretti: There was a time when we went down to the race and Dianetics was on the car and we said we weren't driving the car.

DP: And what did they do?

MA: Took it off.

DP: How easy is it to take that off?

MA: It was a big problem. I mean, we were ready to walk if they didn't take it off.

DP: You're not a big fan of L. Ron Hubbard?

MA: No.

DP: Do you even know what Dianetics is?

MA: It's some sort of cult thing and I don't really know the whole story and I don't really want to know.

Roberto Guerrero's car in the 1988 Indy 500 was sponsored by Dianetics, but it didn't help much. He came 32nd.

Posted by damian at February 10, 2004 06:15 PM