Coca-Cola Wins NASCAR Race

Coca-Cola has won the right to be the official soft drink at 10 NASCAR race tracks.

Perhaps even more significantly, there will no longer be a Pepsi 400 race in July. The July race at Daytona will now be sponsored by a Coke product, although it's not certain which one, as Coke already has its name on the Coca-Cola 600 in May. Coca-Cola is also expected to throw its marketing weight behind February's Daytona 500.

Pepsi had been a track sponsor for 49 years.

On Monday, NASCAR Vice President Lesa France Kennedy called the Coke deal "among the most significant marketing partnerships in ISC history."

There is a sad postscript to this story, as on Tuesday Lesa France Kennedy's husband died in a terrible small plane crash. Lesa France Kennedy's father, Bill France, Jr., passed away in June.