The petite woman stood on the porch of the tower at Englishtown, N.J., three years ago, looked up at Graham Light, NHRA's senior vice-president of racing operations, and politely said, "Why can I not sponsor one of your cars? You have beer and cigarette sponsors. I don't think I've ever killed anyone."

The woman was Shauna Cummins, a fifty-something grandmother of two, who happened to own a brothel in Wells, Nevada. She had paid $10,000 for an eight-inch sticker on Bob Gilbertson's Funny Car at the Houston event. She increased her investment to $25,000 for the Bristol race. NHRA officials then refused to let Gilbertson compete at Atlanta until he removed the advertising. Her logo read "Bella's Hacienda Ranch" and included artwork of a clothed woman lounging in a chair.  

"We don't want the image of a brothel being associated with our sport," Light told Cummins.

"You think I'm about sex, and you're incorrect," Cummins wrote in a letter to Light and NHRA President Tom Compton.

"(NHRA has) more sex going on in the pits than I do behind closed doors," she said later, declaring that she wanted to use the forum to educate the public about how to avoid sexually transmitted diseases. "All I do is treat people as though they matter, no matter how much money they have or whether they even choose to partake of time with a lady. I wish to cause no one embarrassment."

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Her interest in drag racing did cause embarrassment. So did a perfectly legitimate offer to the Women's Tennis Association in 1995 from Tambrands, maker of the Tampax brand of a feminine hygiene product. The WTA had been happy with its relationship with the Virginia Slims cigarette brand. But, like NHRA drag racing, it found itself forced to part with its longtime sponsor because of federal laws restricting tobacco advertising. Tambrands stepped in and offered the WTA a sponsorship package worth more than $10 million, but, as star player Martina Navratilova acknowledged at the time, the product carried a "stigma."

That’s the same thinking that a well-known Pro Modified racer used when refusing a sponsorship from Trojan condoms that was a signed- sealed-and-delivered package courtesy of his agent. That was back in 1990. Times have changed since then.

Viagra, some would say, triggers a sense of shame or discomfort; it certainly makes for comedic fodder. But NASCAR and Mark Martin's team blushed all the way to the bank after titillating observers several years ago with the entry of Viagra into the sponsorship ranks. Now, as of Nov. 10, NASCAR is allowing hard-liquor advertising on the Nextel Cup circuit. By Dec. 3, powerhouse Richard Childress Racing announced it had secured primary sponsorship for Dave Blaney's Chevy Monte Carlo for the 2005 season from the Jack Daniel Distillery. 

Mike Keyes, senior vice president of Brown-Forman Beverages and global general manger for Jack Daniel's, said, "We will be promoting our key message: Pace Yourself, Drink Responsibly."

NASCAR veteran Morgan Shepherd, owner/driver of the Racing with Jesus Dodge, has a different message.

"There won't be alcohol sponsorships on my car, no matter what," Shepherd said. "That doesn't mean I look down on those who do have those type sponsorships. It just means I feel I can't accept their money and market their products and still do the things I need to do as a spokesman for Jesus Christ. I've seen the destruction that alcohol can bring to lives, and it does not – and will not – work for Morgan Shepherd.

"If that means we never have a corporate sponsor on our car, well, we'll just have to live with that," he added. "And I can easily live with that. As I've said all along, as much as we want corporate sponsorship of our race car, I'm here for what Christ brings to me eternally and not for the short term."

Shepherd said of the decision to allow liquor ads on their stock cars, "I can't say I'm jumping for joy, but I understand it. NASCAR is in business, and all of these race teams are in business," he said. "Sponsorship is the lifeblood of our sport – nobody knows that better than a team that is trying to get sponsorship."

Drag racing never had any noted ban on hard-liquor advertising.

Casinos, among them Las Vegas' MGM Resort (for Doug Kalitta) and a suburban-Seattle club (for Brady Kalivoda), have found their way onto Top Fuel dragsters.

Gilbertson reminded us that NHRA previously allowed a Penthouse magazine sponsorship, and Light said if the men's-interest magazine were to express an interest now, "it may be very different."    

The Hooters restaurant chain, IHRA's series sponsor, openly admits the word "hooters" is a slang word for a portion of the female anatomy. Yet it tried to disguise the connection by using an owl in the corporate logo, activating debate about the name's intended image. Hooters said the organization "enjoys and benefits from this debate." Furthermore, it said, "Sex appeal is legal, and it sells."

However, Competition Plus learned that IHRA recently refused sponsorship for its Top Stock class from Hustler magazine. We called to confirm such a proposal had been offered but no one in the offices would confirm or deny that such an offer had been made. In the past, the IHRA had permitted sponsorship of at least one race car with sponsorship from Larry Flynt’s controversial publication. Adding to the racy sponsorships was a car in the same class sponsored by a pornography production company.

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The Hooters sponsorship by the IHRA created a bit of it controversy in the early days of its announcement, however. Clearly some didn’t approve of the new deal. CARQUEST Auto Parts, a national chain, had been involved extensively with the IHRA for over a decade, but they pulled their sponsorship money out soon after Hooters came onto the scene.

CARQUEST pulled out of other programs, as well. When they learned that their sponsorship of some World of Wheels car shows and events hosted scenarios much racier than that of Hooters, CARQUEST also reportedly said adios.

So what gives? When is "sex appeal" or any message about sex beyond proper decorum for IHRA or any sanctioning body? 

On the NHRA side of drag racing, why can Skoal present scantily clad women to draw interest to its smokeless tobacco products but Cummins cannot advertise her business with a non-revealing ad? 

The debate becomes more complicated when considering that faith-based messages and statements also are capitalizing on the forum. That includes the Young Life logo on Mike Edwards' Pro Stock car and the program he and wife Lisa host for youths at every stop on the NHRA tour. Racers For Christ stickers are common on pro- and sportsman-class cars.

Unsponsored NHRA Pro Stock driver Scott Geoffrion posted large Bush-Cheney presidential campaign signs on his car. The IHRA also had sponsorship for this season’s President’s Cup Nationals from Maryland Voters for Kerry-Edwards. The sponsorship was not promoted to the full extent some speculate because at the time, the sanctioning body president was a noted Republican supporter.

Is any subject off-limits in motorsports marketing? 

Beer, hard liquor, tobacco products, risqué magazines, gambling establishments, feminine hygiene items, restaurants with suggestively dressed servers, and prescription drugs used to treat erectile dysfunction are legal products. Prostitution is legal in Cummins' home of Elko County, Nevada, although as Light reminded, it is illegal in every NHRA venue, including Las Vegas.

Some products that these sponsors or potential sponsors are promoting are legal for adults only. Some make people feel awkward or uncomfortable to discuss. Some merely are the topic of frivolous banter. Some have been the catalyst for impaired and irresponsible behavior, illness, and even death.

Politics and religion . . . well, the adage said those are among the topics to avoid in social conversation. But we cherish our First Amendment rights, so why not get in a plug for your favorite candidate for elected office? And no matter what someone writes in a rule book, no sanctioning body can keep the omnipresent Creator of the Universe on the outside of the drag strip fence.

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And what about using drag racing to help fight disease or at least raise awareness and maybe even some funds for medical research? Top Fueler David Baca chose to share his billboard with former NFL quarterback Jim Kelly to help raise awareness of Krabbe leukodystrophy, a disease that struck his young son. Baca's dragster bore the Hunter's Hope Foundation banner and a likeness of little Hunter Kelly at the U.S. Nationals. Scott Weis and his Race Girl Dragster did a similar presentation in 2004, first for diabetes awareness and later for the Congenital Heart Defect Society and its Awareness Quilt Project. Pedregon brothers Tony and Cruz lent their Funny Car stage to rock star Carlos Santana's Milagro Foundation. Funny Car driver Don Sosenka talked about dystonia, a neurological disorder, with his fans.

Racing teams need sponsorship dollars. But do they need a cause to promote along with those dollars? Do fans want to be reminded to drink responsibly, practice safe sex, beware of cancer risks, or be charitable toward noble causes? Will it be possible simply to attend a car race and not be subjected to a public-service message? Will auto racing in America become an arm of the Department of Health and Human Services? Do fans mind this new "morality motorsports?" And is NHRA or NASCAR obligated to give equal time for political opponents or non-Christian faiths?

How much attention can a racing team devote to charity work or how much time can one continue to address the media and fans about controversial sponsorships before that interferes with preparing the car to compete?  

Furthermore, who decides what's appropriate and what is not?

Cummins never had met Gilbertson until she approached him at the spring 2002 Las Vegas NHRA event about sponsorship opportunities. He never had been to her place of business and never had heard of her before then. However, he said he felt caught between NHRA's defense of decency and family values and his right to procure sponsorship from a legal business. "I'm a freedom fighter myself," he said. "And I'm the guy who owns the billboard."

All this raises the question about whether -- or at least how much -- sanctioning bodies should care, anyway. Let's face it -- motorsports takes a back seat to stick-and-ball sports in most daily newspapers and for the electronic media. A controversial sponsor might generate more attention. And after awhile, will the readers remember the details? Or will they remember only that "they read something in paper about NHRA (or IHRA or NASCAR)?"  How far does a sanctioning body go before it sells its soul?

For answers, Light relied on Section 7:1 of the NHRA rule book: "NHRA reserves the right to regulate the advertising that appears on the body of any car participating in NHRA events and may, from time to time, publish guidelines on the subject."

Maybe it's time NHRA and other motorsports sanctioning bodies publish some guidelines on the subject.