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New Date for NASCAR Winston Cup Series DieHard 500 Beginning in 1998

10 October 1997

DieHard 500: Same Great Race, New Date

    TALLADEGA, Ala., Oct. 10 -- Officials at Talladega
Superspeedway and Sears, Roebuck and Co. have announced that the second decade
of the DieHard 500 NASCAR Winston Cup race will begin April 26, 1998.
    Since the inaugural DieHard 500 in 1988, the race has been the second
Talladega Winston Cup race of the year.  It was traditionally run on a July
weekend until 1997, when a reshuffled NASCAR calendar moved it to October.
For 1998 and beyond, the DieHard 500 will be the season opener for America's
biggest, fastest, most competitive motor sports facility.
    "The DieHard battery brand has a long history with NASCAR and Talladega,"
said David Egeland, DieHard brand director.  "Our sponsorship of the DieHard
500 is important to us, because we want our customers to know about our
support of racing.  The DieHard 500 is a way for us to say 'thanks' to 135,000
DieHard fans who attend the race -- including several hundred Sears employees
-- and millions more who watch it on TV."

    The DieHard Battery
    The DieHard battery was introduced by Sears in 1967 as "America's Most
Powerful Car Battery," The DieHard soon became the industry standard and made
Sears the number one automotive replacement battery outlet in the nation.
    The DieHard was the first battery to feature a case made of polypropylene
instead of standard hard rubber.  This construction allowed more room for
plates and acid, the keys to more power.
    Last year Sears, through Sears Auto Centers, NTB National Tire & Battery
stores, Sears and Orchard hardware stores, Western Auto and Parts America
stores, sold more than eight million batteries.  If you stacked all the
batteries Sears sold last year on top of each other, they would reach higher
than 4,600 Sears Towers.  Placed end-to-end, they would reach from Chicago to
Miami, or three times the distance of the DieHard 500.

    DieHard and Racing
    In 1969, two years after its introduction, Roger Penske put a DieHard
battery in Mark Donohue's championship-winning Sports Car Club of America
Trans-Am Series Chevrolet Camaro.  The DieHard has been an integral part of
the American racing scene ever since.
    In addition to the DieHard 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, DieHard
sponsors the DieHard Batteries Motorsports Weekend each July at The Milwaukee
Mile.  Wisconsin's biggest NASCAR event, the DieHard Weekend features the
DieHard 200 for the pickups of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, and the
DieHard 250 for the Busch Series, Grand National Division cars.
    DieHard also sponsors Rich Bickle's No. 17 DieHard Racing Chevrolet in the
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, and the DieHard Race Fan contest.

SOURCE  Sears, Roebuck and Co.