DATE: Saturday, June 21, 1997               TAG: 9706210574

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C6   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: FONTANA, CALIF.                   LENGTH:   59 lines

NASCAR IS TAKING WAIT-AND-SEE STAND ON TOBACCO BANS

In between practice sessions for Sunday's inaugural California 500 at California Speedway, only a few car owners and drivers took the time to listen to the news conference announcing the tobacco industry settlement. But the accord reached Friday in Washington is expected to have far-reaching affects on the way the tobacco industry spends money in automobile racing.

``Sporting events will no longer feature anything to do with tobacco,'' Arizona Attorney General Grant Woods said at the conference. ``Those days are over.''

But it was too early for anyone in NASCAR to say what the effect will be.

``The settlement was going on right up until five minutes before the attorneys walked on stage to announce it,'' said T. Wayne Robertson, the president of R.J Reynolds Tobacco Co.'s Sports Marketing Enterprises. ``We haven't seen it. It's a rather large document, for sure. We'll take a look at it and we'll see what the situation is.''

Although he has taken a combative tone in the past battles over this issue, Robertson was conciliatory about the pact his company has agreed to.

``We're going to honor that agreement,'' Robertson said. ``We've had 27 years' association with NASCAR and 24 years' association with the NHRA and we've had a lot of support from this industry, a lot of support form the fans, the competitors and everybody else. We don't want to lose that support. We don't want to lose that association.

``At the same time, if it is that we have to leave, then we will leave in a very professional manner. . . . It's just too early to speculate on what we can do.''

NASCAR president Bill France said it is too soon to say if Friday's agreement will ever go into place in its present form.

``Whatever does happen will have to be considered by Congress and will probably go through the courts,'' France said as he lit a cigarette. ``The trouble with press conferences like these is they send people like you out with your notepads and pencils to interview people like me and we just don't have any intelligent answers to give you yet.''

In addition to RJR's Winston brand, which sponsors the series, three cars are sponsored by tobacco companies and no doubt would be affected:

The No. 41 Chevrolet owned by Larry Hedrick and driven by Steve Grissom is sponsored by Kodiak smokeless tobacco.

The No. 33 Chevrolet owned by Andy Petree and driven by Ken Schrader is sponsored by the Skoal brand of smokeless tobacco.

The No. 23 Ford owned by Travis Carter and driven by Jimmy Spencer is sponsored by RJR's Camel cigarette brand.

Hedrick said he thinks any ban on tobacco brand sponsorship is ``a long way off.'' And he thinks there's a good chance any such provisional would be ruled unconstitutional.

But if he has to, when the time comes, he'll look for another sponsor, Hedrick said.

``We sell billboard space,'' he said. ``We're trying to sell a 200 mph billboard.''

Said Robertson, ``This is going to take some time. Both NASCAR and NHRA are on solid footing and are healthy. With that said, we have been responsible advertisers in these sports. If we can't do that, we will exit in a professional way as well.''

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