Logo motion: the eyes have it when sponsors spend fortunes to stick their names on NASCAR's 200 mph moving billboards.

• Author: Murray, Arthur O.
• Position: PICTURE THIS

NASCAR goes loco over logos. And why not? Plastering sponsors' names all over cars (and drivers) pumps plenty of financial fuel into the more-than-$15-million-a-year tank that teams need to compete in stock-car racing's highest division, the Nextel Cup series.

Primary sponsors--such as St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch's Budweiser for Dale Earnhardt Jr. or Mooresville-based Lowe's for Jimmie Johnson or Atlanta-based Home Depot for Tony Stewart--pony up about $10 million per season. For that, they get their logos displayed on the hoods, tops and sides of the cars. Secondary sponsors pay from $500,000 to $1 million for smaller logos on the sides and rears. Why so much? Because a televised race can become a three- to four-hour commercial. NASCAR's 36 Nextel Cup races attract more than 13 million spectators--not to mention more than 200 million watching on TV--each season. Some sponsors have calculated that exposure is worth $40 million a year.

Wall Street also is watching, according to Stephen Pruitt, a finance professor at the...