04:34 PM EDT on Wednesday, June 29, 2005

By MARK BOONE / 6NEWS

Bank of America has signed a deal to put its name on five race tracks and at one of the biggest events at Lowe’s Motor Speedway.

Several sports experts figure Atlanta has an advantage over other cities for landing a NASCAR Hall of Fame because so many big companies and NASCAR sponsors are headquartered there. So now that Charlotte's biggest corporation has lined up at the sponsorship start line, will NASCAR?

At a weekend gathering of more than 150,000, the logo of Charlotte's biggest bank was nowhere to be found among all of those corporate banners zooming around Lowe’s Motor Speedway.

“We have some new people with the bank and I think sometimes they bring new ideas and of course our sport continues to grow and I think that helped get the job done,” Bruton Smith said.

Bank of America’s announcement Wednesday at Founder’s Hall made no mention of the price tag, but analysts believe the bank will spend more than $2 million a year to put its logo on the October race at Lowe’s Motor Speedway and on four other race tracks.

“This is a nationwide deal from our perspective,” said bank executive Cathy Bessant.

The efforts to land a NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte had little to do with the sponsorship deal, according to Bessant, but it probably doesn't hurt.

“It's another strong signal to NASCAR that the private sector means it. They get NASCAR. They understand their customers,” said Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory.

Much of Atlanta's private sector has been a NASCAR sponsor for years. Several experts believe Coca-Cola and other Georgia-based companies could lure the hall of fame to that city instead. But the people who run the races in Concord credit the bank's marketing bigwig for finally getting in on NASCAR's green flag.

“She (Bessant) got out there and found that these race fans made deposits, borrowed money, you know, all 75 million of them across the United States,” Humpy Wheeler, Lowe's Motor Speedway president, said.

Bank of America ATMs will start appearing at Lowe’s Motor Speedway as early as this fall. But the October race will not be known as the Bank of America 500 until 2006, well after NASCAR is expected to announce its location for the hall of fame.

Bank of America executives said they began discussions on NASCAR sponsorship last year.

The bank's chief marketing officer said the BofA banner will probably not appear on any race cars because executives don't want to see the bank's logo involved in a wreck on the track.