CONCORD, N.C. –Jack Kingston, a Republican Congressman from Georgia, has joined the crusade of Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.) to bar the Department of Defense from sports-related advertising for the military.
McCollum and Kingston co-sponsored an amendment to the 2013 defense appropriations bill that would end sports sponsorships by the military. The bill, including the amendment, already has passed the House Appropriations Committee.
The bill is a long way from becoming law, with a full House vote and passage by the Senate still required, but the measure could jeopardize the National Guard sponsorship of Dale Earnhardt Jr. and the U.S. Army’s backing of Ryan Newman.
Kingston, who has never attended a NASCAR race, said the Pentagon had a year since McCollum introduced a similar measure last year to prove the value of sports sponsorships — and had not done so.
Perhaps Kingston hasn’t talked to the right people. Lt. Gen. Benjamin Freakley of the U.S. Army Accessions Command (which oversees recruiting) said last year that the Army’s NASCAR program had produced more than 46,000 bona fide recruiting leads in 2010 from its NASCAR program alone.
Earnhardt suggested that the amendment’s sponsors should do more homework before drawing conclusions. He’s also surprised a Republican from the South hasn’t made a play for the “NASCAR Dads” audience.
“Yeah, just because he’s a Republican from Georgia, he should have been to a NASCAR race by now,” Earnhardt quipped.
Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.
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