Bank finally gets on track with NASCAR.

• Author: Roush, Chris
• Position: SPORTS SECTION

In 1977, when H.A. "Humpy" Wheeler was general manager of Charlotte Motor Speedway, it received its first loan from Charlotte-based NCNB Corp. The racetrack used the $2.2 million to add 10,000 seats, 17 VIP suites and a new press box--and quickly repaid the loan with ticket proceeds. "When the money started coming in, the banks smelled it," Wheeler recalls. "They have a good way of doing that. We had managed to make enough money by then to show them that we were on the move, and they began to understand our business."

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Speed ahead nearly 30 years. Wheeler is president and chief operating officer of Speedway Motorsports Inc., the Concord-based company that owns what is now Lowe's Motor Speedway and five other tracks that hold NASCAR races. After acquiring dozens of other banks, NCNB is now Bank of America Corp., the country's second-largest bank in assets.

Despite its North Carolina roots and long relationship with the racetrack, Bank of America didn't rev up its NASCAR relationship until last June. That's when it signed a five-year deal to put its name on a 500-mile race there, beginning this October, and become an official sponsor at four of Speedway's other five tracks. In late February, the bank inked a similar pact with Daytona Beach, Fla.-based International Speedway Corp., the other major NASCAR track owner. It also has agreed to sponsor a pre-race TV show this season on NBC and TNT.

Decades after other national companies such as Coca-Cola and Procter & Gamble plunged into NASCAR, the bank plans to spend millions using stock-car racing to attract more customers. Putting its name on what will be the Bank of America 500 is costing an estimated $2 million a year. Sources say it's spending millions more on advertising during NASCAR races.

But some question whether BofA already has been lapped by the field. By sitting on the sidelines for 20 years, it missed the growth spurt when NASCAR-related merchandise sales increased tenfold and races were started in New Hampshire and California, among other locales. NASCAR's new eight-year, $4 billion TV deal, announced in December, was less than analysts had expected and caused the share price of Wheeler's company to fall.

"The question is, what took them so long?" says Larry DeGaris, director of the Center for Sports Sponsorship at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Va. "NASCAR still has a certain amount of bigotry against it that's not rooted in fact. There is enough...