NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series
Photos and story © 2005 Dwight Drum
Web work by Gary Larsen

Checkers Seminole/Gator rivalry NASCAR promotion

Time: season finale 2005
Place: Homestead-Miami Speedway

In 2004 NASCAR created the Chase for the Championship to intensify the competition as the long season winds to an end. In 2005 Checkers Drive-in Restaurants, Inc. created a "race within a race" with an alma mater twist.

Rich Turer, vice president of marketing for Checkers, explained the single race promotion for the No. 10 and No. 45 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup cars by focusing on a college football rivalry with the application of Seminole and Gator paint schemes to a pair of race cars. Scott Riggs drives the No. 10 car and Kyle Petty drives the No. 45 in the popular motorsports series. Turer sees the rivalry brought to the racetrack as a compatible promotion for the schools as well as Checker and Rally's. Turer noted that Checkers donated $125,000 in college scholarships this year.

"We have a good relationship with Florida and Florida State and Rally's is a very important market in Louisville, Ky,." Turer said. "There are a lot of great schools we have good relationships with, but I'm hoping this will spread a lot more interest. Whether we have formal relationships or not, I'd love to take the rivalry up to Georgia and Alabama. That would be great."

Zoomster.com asked driver questions to Scott Riggs and Kyle Petty at the press conference featuring the Checkers Seminole and Gator rivalry package. It was a Zoomster moment with a Checkers accent.

Dwight asked Scott Riggs:

"I come across down to earth and a simple person who came from humble beginnings and very fortunate to be where I am. I appreciate to be paid to do the things I love to do."

"I don't know if I can put it into words to describe what it feels like, but I think the best thing to do is to take a Petty Driving School Experience. That's the best way for a fan to be able to get a sensation to feel what the speed is like and what the track looks like from the perspective behind the wheel."

"It's a competitive nature. I always wanted to be a perfectionist, I guess. I always to be a profession athlete."

"I don't think so. If my competitive side changes, it would be time to hang up my helmet."

"Probably when I won races when I probably didn't have the fastest car. That taught me how to focus on getting to the end of the race - and how to never give up and always strive to put yourself in a position to win. And also times that I lost when I didn't have the fastest car, just to know sometimes you give 100 percent and you don't come away as a winner. You have loses that hurt hard and get close to home. It always makes you appreciate when you get back to victory lane. "

Dwight asked Kyle Petty:

"That would be good. Ahh. Juvenile. I think juvenile would be a good word for me. I just like what I'm doing riding around in circles and that's what most kids like - doing nothing but having fun. So that's kind of me. "

"I don't really pay that much attention to it. You probably should have asked that to me when I was 17 or 18. I'm used to it now. I don't really notice a big difference. The big difference now is how much different it is at Daytona than it is as at Bristol. "

"Racing is what we do in the Petty family."

"The only thing that has changed my focus was when Adam died."

Race day results for the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway 2005:

Scott Riggs in the No. 10 Seminole scheme car finished 38th owing to a crash. Kyle Petty in the No. 45 Gator scheme car finished 27th to record a rivalry win for the Gators.