Discover Card branch into CART with Haas.

After agreeing to sponsor the #26 Travis Carter/Carl Haas owned Ford in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series for the rest of the 2002 season, Discover Card tightened their links with Haas by signing on as an associate sponsor of the Newman-Haas CART FedEx team.

Newman-Haas Racing have announced that Discover Card, one of the nation's leading credit card companies, has become an associate sponsor of the No. 6 Havoline Toyota-Lola Bridgestone entry driven by Cristiano da Matta as well as the No. 11 Lilly Toyota-Lola-Bridgestone driven by Christian Fittipaldi.

Da Matta currently leads the CART FedEx Series point standings after five wins in eight races to date. Fittipaldi is ranked fifth in the standings on the strength of four top-four finishes this season.

"We are proud to have Discover Card involved with our team as we continue to work toward securing another championship in the CART FedEx Series," said Carl Haas, co-owner with actor/race car driver Paul Newman. "We have some strong sponsors in Chevron Texaco and Eli Lilly & Company and the addition of Discover Card can only strengthen our effort this season."

"Newman/Haas Racing is the most successful team competing in the 2002 CART FedEx Championship" added Richard Lalley, vice president of Advertising at Discover Financial Services, Inc. "With our primary sponsorship of Haas Carter Motorsports in the NASCAR Winston Cup series and our associate sponsorship of Newman/Haas Racing, we can reach a broad audience and give our Discover Cardmembers two teams to cheer for."

Initially, the Chicago-based credit card company agreed to sponsor the No. 26 Haas Carter Ford driven by Todd Bodine for six races in NASCAR's top series, beginning on June 2 at Dover International Speedway but announced their full season commitment earlier this week. It was the first sponsorship of its kind for Discover Card in any form of motorsports. The program also included commercial buys during the FOX LIVE broadcasts as well as in-car cameras.

Forging ahead for the balance of the 2002 NASCAR season, the Discover Card Racing program will not only hit the race track every week, but also starting this weekend, the credit card company joins NBC as the title sponsor of all of the network's pre-race show. Plus, Discover Card race fans will enjoy riding with Todd Bodine courtesy of in-car cameras at all of the races.