by Paul D. Kretkowski/American Thunder,

Ordinal out of range These may sound like odd couples, but most NASCAR fans can tell you that the logos of Outback and 3M have appeared on Elliott Sadler's Ford, while Snap-on and Reese's have shared space on Kevin Harvick's Chevy, and Smirnoff Ice and 76 have graced Matt Kenseth's Ford.

Why all the logos? In a word, money. Teams need it. Sponsors have it. Top-tier racing means big expenses: cars, garage space, wind-tunnel testing, salaries, fuel, spare parts and tires, tires, tires. It's not enough to place well - or even win - each week; purses provide only a fraction of what teams need to stay competitive. NASCAR victories begin in the boardrooms of corporate sponsors months before the first race of the season.

Why Sponsor?

Stock-car races are a great way to advertise nearly anything, from socket wrenches to waste hauling. If you're UPS and you want to stand for on-time delivery, NASCAR measures it in hundredths of a second.

If you want to push a new soft drink, temperatures inside a stock car can hit 140 degrees, and the driver of the car you sponsor can rave about the thirst-quenching properties of your soda.

(Tim Downs/American Thunder / Special to FOXSports.com)

And if your high-end gasoline needs a shot in the arm, you can note that Sunoco gas keeps your stock car doing 190 mph for hours at a stretch.

According to a NASCAR branding study, the sport's 75 million fans are about three times more likely to buy sponsors' products than those of companies that don't sponsor cars. Also, each race has room for just 43 drivers, making it easier to track them week to week than the hundreds of professional athletes who play football or baseball.

What It Costs

NASCAR autos contain some of the world's most expensive real estate. Try $200,000 for a 3-by-5-inch decal. That's the absolute minimum it costs to have a sticker the size of an index card on a NASCAR Nextel Cup Series stock car for a season: $13,333 per square inch. (Costs are somewhat lower for NASCAR's Busch and Craftsman Truck series.)

Generally a team owner looks for a company to be a car's primary sponsor, then picks a driver once a sponsorship is in the bag. The primary sponsor underwrites the car's major expenses, and the company's name goes on the car's hood - like Budweiser on Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s Chevy or Home Depot on Tony Stewart's. The "primary" also chooses the car's overall paint scheme, such as brown and gold (UPS) or red and white (Dodge).

Logo placement on pit-team outfits, garage and pit banners, transporter vehicles and die-cast miniatures all flow from this crucial first deal. Every time the team's driver is photographed or miniatures are produced, more "brand impressions" are created - at little or no cost to the primary sponsor. But primary sponsors pay handsomely for the privilege. "On the low end you're talking 6 to 7 million dollars," says Peter Stern, president of Strategic Sports Group. "On the high end, 14 to 15 million. Jeff Gordon costs a lot more than the guy who's running in the back of the pack." Millsport's Mike Bartelli gives slightly higher estimates: from $9 million to $18 million for a primary sponsor to cover 60 to 75 percent of the car in livery.

Cutting up the Car

After the primary deal is done, teams divide up the rest of the car until it resembles one of those butcher's charts showing where each steak is found on a cow. Three to six "major associate" sponsors come next, and their logos cover another 15 to 20 percent of the car, mainly on the door posts, quarter panels and rear deck. Their decals are much smaller than the primary sponsor's and don't necessarily match the primary's paint scheme.

Bartelli estimates that major associate positions retail for $1 million to $3 million, while another source widens the range from $500,000 to $5 million.

One example is Jeff Gordon's car. Although his primary sponsor is DuPont, PepsiCo is a major associate whose decals (for Pepsi and Fritos) orbit his rear wheel wells - smaller than DuPont's, to be sure, but still highly visible.

The Whole Enchilada

And what if you want to buy a whole car to use as your personal high-speed billboard, reserving the right to sell any associate sponsorships yourself? That's one of those if-you-have-to-ask-you-can't-afford-it questions.

"I'll approximate it at, for a full-time Winston Cup team, $10 million to in excess of $20 million," says Bartelli, "and that is all the sponsorship on the car." Pfizer clearly thought it was worth buying all the space on Mark Martin's No. 6 Ford to keep Viagra front and center.

Is it worth it? NASCAR reports that in 2002 fans bought more than $2 billion worth of licensed merchandise - that is, anything carrying the NASCAR logo, whether from individual teams' sponsors or NASCAR's own merchandise.

Which brings us to "minor associate" sponsors, which place little 3-by-5-inch decals in decidedly nonpremium spots on the car's "B" and "C" posts and the rear deck. The minimum here is about $200,000 for a spot on the car of an up-and-coming rookie and as much as $750,000 to ride with the Kenseths, Earnhardts and Gordons of the sport. But if a sponsor's logo is too small even to be seen on television, what are these sponsors really buying?

Other Sponsors Perks

Minor associates are the key to understanding the real reason companies put down hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars to sponsor a NASCAR team. The minor associates aren't really paying all that money for a little decal no one at home will see.

"That's minimal," says Bartelli. "You're going to get minimal TV exposure and minimal exposure of any kind." What the sponsor is buying is a relationship with a driver and team, access to the driver's name, image and even his presence for company advertising and to boost employee morale.

In fact, companies expect their sponsorship dollars to work just as hard off the track Monday to Friday as on the weekend. Primary sponsorship deals generally include the right to have the driver, car and even owner come by the sponsor's facilities to pump up the troops. Nothing gets racing fans fired up like an autograph session with Jeff Gordon or Ryan Newman or having them drop by to cut the cake at a company celebration.

So between race prep, racing and sponsor hoo-ha, do drivers and pit teams ever get to dress in street clothes like the rest of us? Sure, Rodrick Cox says. "There are certain restrictions and obligations imposed on the team. When you go to work you're working. When you're not at work - they'll be wearing jeans and a T-shirt or jeans and a golf shirt."

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Reprinted from American Thunder, a national lifestyle magazine for motorsports fans. To subscribe, visit www.getthunder.com.