Dominguez to be sponsored?

UPDATE Mario is fully sponsored by INDECK. INDECK enjoys significant corporate and marketing benefits from sponsoring Champ Car entries. It just happens to be owned by Forsythe! Mark C.

02/20/06 A reader asks, Dear AutoRacing1.com, What happened to the "fully sponsored" part of the Dominguez announcement? Will they announce additional sponsorship later? Mark Shriver Dear Mark, We were told that Mario Dominguez would be sponsored, but today's announcement by Forsythe made no mention of a sponsor. Mario Dominguez claims that the World Cup of soccer in 2006 is attracting most of the Mexican sponsors and there is not much left for racing. Even the Mexican drivers in NASCAR are feeling the effect. With that said, there is still time to make such an announcement, including the upcoming Spring Training media event.

"I think the biggest problem for this year that we faced, and that is a huge problem, is that the soccer World Cup is going to be happening this year. So that takes a lot of the attention and a lot of the money from every company that I know, and they all want to put their money into it.

"It's always the same thing every time there's a World Cup year. So we just have to fight against that and show the sponsors and show the people that we are probably a better investment opportunity for the kind of people they are trying to reach. So that's what we have to keep working on and working hard on it."

It's one excuse or another every year. With Champ Car's horrible TV coverage in Mexico the last couple of years, sponsorship has all but dried up for Mexican drivers. We will watch with interest to see if Dominguez gets sponsorship like we heard. Mark C.