NASCAR, Alliance to Save Energy Team up on Drive $marter Challenge to Help Drivers $ave Hundreds on Gas

For Further Information
Rozanne Weissman (202) 530-2217; rweissman@ase.org

Washington, DC, August 2008— The National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) and the Alliance to Save Energy have teamed up in a number of ways to "drive forward" the Alliance's Drive $marter Challenge campaign designed to save drivers hundreds of dollars on gasoline and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Alliance Drive $marter Challenge car care tips will be featured on NASCAR’s reality television show NASCAR Angels, which enters its third season airing on 200 broadcast TV stations around the country. In addition, the "NASCAR Performance Live" weekly radio show (Wednesday 7-8 p.m. EST) which airs in 150 markets nationally and on Sirius Satellite Radio, is featuring humorous Alliance campaign PSAs —Honey I'm Home and Baby Talk. The PSAs provide driving and vehicle maintenance tips and direct radio listeners to the Drive $marter Challenge website (www.drivesmarterchallenge.org) for more tips to cut gas costs and improve the environment.

The campaign also features seven podcasts by Sam Hornish, Jr., driver of the number 77 Mobil 1 Dodge in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. They are downloadable from a number of podcast websites and will air as PSAs on “NASCAR Performance Live.” Exxon Mobil’s Mobil 1 is the Official Motor Oil of NASCAR.

NASCAR, which is a leader in promoting conservation messages, has become the 19th partner of the Drive $marter Challenge campaign, which includes diverse nonprofit, governmental, and for-profit entities working together to promote fuel efficient driving and proper vehicle maintenance and encouraging consumers to drive less.

"NASCAR is proud to join efforts with The Drive $marter Challenge as it is a natural fit to our ongoing consumer education on the importance of regular vehicle maintenance,” said Odis Lloyd, NASCAR managing director of Automotive Aftermarket. “With surging energy prices it is more important than ever to be mindful of the simple maintenance steps on a car one can take to save gas and money.”

The Drive $marter Challenge website features a unique interactive calculator showing drivers immediately how many hundreds of dollars they can save with their specific vehicles by taking six easy driving and maintenance actions. Individual savings of those who choose to take the challenge (1-6 actions) are calculated in dollars, gallons, and CO2 emissions and added to the home page running total of savings of all who have taken the Challenge. The site also offers extensive money-saving gas tips in English and Spanish, resources, myth busters, and vehicle maintenance coupons from AutoZone and ExxonMobil.

Other significant communications and marketing elements of the Drive $marter Challenge campaign:

• Attention-getting PSA billboards which are attracting more orders than can be fulfilled.
• Mobile marketing with free downloadable ring tones in English and Spanish and weekly fuel-efficiency tips on cell phones.
• Targeted outreach to Hispanic media with humorous Spanish-language PSAs, newspaper columns, a “Driving and Saving/Manejando y Ahorrando” song, earned media outreach, and, soon, podcasts.
• Drive $marter tip cards that can be co-branded by partners and others.
• B-roll in every format illustrating some 20 money-saving gas tips from the Drive $marter Challenge campaign, satellite and radio media tours, and audio news releases in English and Spanish.
• A broadband media website with downloadable video, audio, and image elements of the multimedia campaign.