We found Dale Rasmussen on the UA Mall manning the Alltel racecar tent.

Wildcat: So how do I win this car?

Rasmussen: Sorry, you can’t win the car.

W: Why not?

R: Because I’ve got to load it back on the trailer to go over to your field for the next two days. It’s an old racecar with a new body on it. Just goes to shows now.

W: What’s it for? I don’t get it.

R: We go around to some of the new Alltel stores. We do grand openings, and some of the stores that need help to draw more customers in. Little kids can come up, adults can come up and they take a picture with the car and they get a free copy. We can do a pit tire change experience where you can unbolt a tire and take a tire off and put it back on and bolt it down.

W: So is this supposed to encourage you to talk on your phone more?

R: More to get the brand awareness out there.

Woman: It’s for Alltel racing; the sponsorship with Ryan Newman.

R: How do you race while talking on the phone?

Woman: Well, you don’t race while talking on the phone. It’s just, a cell phone company that also has sports sponsorships. So they endorse Ryan Newman. And he endorses Alltel in turn.

W: Ryan Newman is the singer from “”Toy Story,”” right?

Woman: No.

W: Who’s Ryan Newman?

Woman: Racecar driver.

W: Ohh. So wait, was he an Alltel customer? Or…

R: No, he’s been a racecar driver.

Woman: Brands will come to a racecar driver, and they will give them money and then sign a contract, and they are under that brand. Just like, someone else might sign under Lowe’s Home Improvement.

W: Ohh, because there was a Spam racecar, and they were selling miniature ones at the supermarket when you bought a pack of Spam. Was it like that?

Woman: It’s just a different way of putting your name out there and going with it.

W: So where does this (car) race from?

R: It’s just a show car. Ryan Newman does not drive this. It won’t go back on the track. It’s just a show car.

W: So it’s not like you could sell this on eBay and say that Ryan Newman’s butt touched it or anything like that. Tell me about this paint job.

R: This is a new body car put onto it that they got painted up, and they got all the graphics, all stickers, to match the real car.

W: Isn’t that kind of cheap to put bumper stickers on an expensive car?

R: They all use it.

W: What’s that thing over there? A miniature car?

R: That’s the tire changing game, where we can time you to take the tire off and put the tire back on.

W: Is that a real car, or is that a piece of wood?

Woman: That’s a piece of the paneling, so it’s the fiberglass.

W: Oh, I was thinking that would be really dangerous if you tried to ride that.

– interview by Andi Berlin