NASCAR: Stan Barrett Lands Sponsor
Motorsport News International
Barrett lands NASCAR Winston Cup Series sponsor
MOORESVILLE, N.C. (Jan. 26, 1999) Stanton Barrett, the only NASCAR driver
to have purposely jumped off a building or set himself on fire, will run a
schedule of approximately 16 NASCAR Winston Cup races beginning with the
Feb. 14 Daytona 500. The announcement of Barrett as the driver and
Heritage Consumer Products Company as the sponsor for
Petty-Barrett-Huggins Racing was made this week.
The team, owned by Barrett, Bo Petty and Wayne Huggins, has secured
season-long primary sponsorship from Heritage Consumer Products Company,
which delivers high quality healthcare products to consumers which fulfill
specific needs. Heritage Consumer Products markets and distributes such
well-known products as Acutrim, Allerest, Sinarest, Fiberall,
Eucalyptamint, Privine, Ting, Konodremul, Calesene and Americaino.
"This has been my dream my whole life, to run in the NASCAR Winston Cup
Series," said Barrett, the son of former driver Stan Barrett. "My entire
career in Hollywood has been spent obtaining the finances I need to do
whatever it takes to race. I've worked pretty hard to get here and I'm
excited about the opportunity."
Barrett has a history of speed and is no stranger to danger. His
professional status has reached into the realms of extreme skiing and
Motocross racing, and he has developed a career as a well-known Hollywood
stuntman. The 26-year-old native of Hollywood, Calif., has worked in such
feature films as Batman, Free Jack, Mars Attacks and Last Of The Mohicans,
and in such well-known television series as Beverly Hills 90210 and
Baywatch.
On the track, he has found a great deal of success. Of his 10 starts in
NASCAR's Busch Grand National Series last season, Barrett qualified in the
top-20 seven times and recorded three top-15 finishes, including an
eighth-place finish at Bristol, Tenn. Barrett's other top 15 finishes were
last season at Daytona Beach, Fla., and Las Vegas, Nev., showing the
driver's versatility. He nailed a fourth-place starting position at
Nazareth, Pa., in May, qualifying the car started by Kevin Lepage, and
started ninth in the race at Nashville, Tenn., again at two very
differently styled raced tracks.
"I've enjoyed everything I've done in stunts but everything I've done
was with an eye on NASCAR's premier motorsports series. This is where I've
always wanted to be," Barrett said. "For example, when I was working on
Batman we shot everything at night. So I'd be on the set by 6 p.m. every
evening and work until six the next morning. Then I'd go home and work the
phones or whatever I needed to do for my racing until one or two o'clock
in the afternoon. I'd grab a couple of hours of sleep and start it all
over again.
"That was the only way to get what I wanted, which was to race. I knew
nobody was going to hand anything to me. If I was going to get it I was
going to have to work hard for it, so that's what I did. This gives me the
opportunity to really get started in NASCAR Winston Cup racing as a
driver. I've spent a lot of time learning the other aspects of the sport,
including marketing and licensing and public relations, in addition to
what I've been learning as a driver."
The schedule for the No. 84 Heritage Consumer Products Chevrolet gets
heavier and heavier as the season progresses, giving the brand new team a
chance to gel and to be in a strong position for a full-season run in
2000. After Daytona, the team plans to run next at Texas Motor Speedway,
followed by the event at California Speedway.
Barrett began his career in motorsports by racing motorcycles at the
age of nine. He worked as an intern for legendary Richard Childress at the
age of 17 and Childress was so impressed with the young man's work ethic
he fielded a Sportsman Series car for him at Bowman-Gray Stadium in
Winston-Salem, N.C.
Barrett has also raced in the Goody's Dash Series, a NASCAR touring
division, as well as ARCA, IMSA and Proshiffter Kart, and has tested in
Indy Lights.
Source: NASCAR Online