Awesome, thanks for this: Aero Exhaust, a seven-year-old company based in Salt Lake City, already is convinced it's getting the bang. The Nextel season doesn't start until Sunday, but the company is experiencing "triple-digit" sales growth in the first quarter of 2006.
After sponsoring a car in two lower NASCAR divisions, it bought into NASCAR big-time for 2006. The company is Wimmer's multiyear primary sponsor, and it also paid to become NASCAR's official muffler and for a new company spokesman, recently retired driver Rusty Wallace.
Still, shelling out big bucks for a shiny stock car wasn't an automatic go for Aero's board.
"More than anything it was convincing them and the (200) shareholders that NASCAR could bring the brand loyalty and name recognition that it does," Aero Exhaust CEO Bryan Hunsaker said. "It was educating them ... particularly the bean-counters. They didn't understand what kind of credibility this could bring."
