Published: March 21, 2008 10:55 pm      

Rain in Bristol delays debut of Marshall stock car

CHARLESTON (AP) — Backers of a stock car bearing Marshall University’s name will aim toward a May debut after rain spoiled its scheduled baptism on NASCAR’s Nationwide Circuit.

Rain washed out qualifying for last weekend’s race in Bristol, Tenn., forcing the 43-car field for the Sharpie MINI 300 to be set by using points already earned. Because the No. 75 Dodger Charger hadn’t raced yet, it was shut out.

“That was what we were suspecting would happen, so we didn’t enter the race,” the car’s major investor, Dana Tomes, said Thursday. “Plus we figured we weren’t quite prepared. When you combine all the factors, it was best to not go that week and it turned out to be a good decision.”

While the Marshall car didn’t race at Bristol, its driver did. Brett Rowe raced another car to a 28th-place finish after starting 36th. He earned $28,693.

“We have him on loan to another team. We rent his services weekly,” Rowe said. “Every week that our car does not run, he’s going to race anyways in another car. He’s full time.”

The Marshall Dodge Charger was unveiled at the state Capital in late February with the intention of entering a few races this year and landing enough sponsors to compete in every Nationwide event in 2009.

Tomes said the Herd Racing team will now look toward entering the Carquest Auto Parts 300 on May 24 at the Lowe’s Motor Speedway near Charlotte, N.C. After that, the team plans to race at the Meijer 300 in Sparta, Ky., on June 14.

Marshall is not a financial backer of the car, whose number is in memory of the 75 Marshall football coaches, players and supporters killed in a November 1970 plane crash. The aftermath of the crash was chronicled in the 2006 Matthew McConaughey film “We Are Marshall.”

Tomes, a Marshall alumnus, has garnered initial sponsorships from businesses such as a Charleston heating-and-cooling shop, a Kanawha County coal mine, and a Huntington mattress company and water pump manufacturer.

“We’re a little bit late to get big money from corporations, so we’re looking to next year,” Tomes said. “It’s a long process. It takes several months to market something like this. You can’t go to a company and expect them in an hour to open up their checkbook.”

Tomes has said Herd Racing needs a minimum of $50,000 to $75,000 per race, depending on the location, to field a car.

Sponsorships range from $1,000 for a small decal to $200,000 for a bumper-to-bumper color scheme that would include moving the donated Marshall logo from the hood to the side of the car.

“If you want the full car painted in bright pink, then that would be $200,000,” Tomes said. “If someone wants to buy the entire car, we have a relationship with Marshall that they would take a minor design on the car that week.

“I don’t think there’s any business in this area that would want to do that. It will always be the No. 75 car.”