Sprint Customer Will Win Grand Marshal Honor for NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race

Sprint Executive Will Serve as Honorary Starter

HUNTERSVILLE, N.C. – May 20, 2011 – One lucky Sprint customer will get to deliver the most famous words in auto racing at the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race on Saturday, May 21st, at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Sprint (NYSE:S) announced today it will reward one customer with the Grand Marshal role for the event, granting the opportunity to deliver the command for drivers to start their engines at the race.

To determine who will receive the honor, a group of customers will be chosen to participate in a contest at the Sprint Experience, the mobile display Sprint brings to every NASCAR Sprint Cup Series event. Beginning at 2:30 p.m. (EDT) on race day, contestants will deliver their best “Gentlemen, start your engines” to a panel of celebrity judges, who will rate the contestants and select a winner. Later that evening, the chosen Sprint customer will deliver the command at the start of the 100-lap all-star event. 

Judges for the contest include NASCAR personalities Jeff Gluck (SBNation.com), Marty Smith (ESPN) and Miss Sprint Cup.

“The Sprint All-Star Race is all about the fans, so Sprint wants to reward a fan who is also one of our loyal customers by naming them the Grand Marshal for what we feel is the most exciting race of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season,” said Tim Considine, director of sports marketing at Sprint. “We use our advanced wireless technologies to bring fans closer to the sport and in this case, being the title sponsor of the race allows us to bring a customer closer to the sport by providing them with this once-in-a-lifetime VIP experience.”

The Honorary Starter for the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race will be Paget L. Alves, president of the Business Markets Group for Sprint. Alves is responsible for all of Sprint's sales and marketing to enterprise, general business and public sector customers and also oversees the development of strategic alliances for Sprint.

For those who’d like to attend the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race in person, Charlotte Motor Speedway is offering NASCAR fans a limited-time “Buy One, Get One Free” ticket offer. To take advantage of this promotion, follow the link http://bit.ly/feJPly.

Tune-in at 7p.m. (EDT) on May 21, to SPEED for coverage of this year’s NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race. Sprint customers can enjoy coverage on their capable Sprint phones via NASCAR Sprint Cup Mobile. To download the NASCAR Sprint Cup Mobile application, which is free with any data plan, Sprint customers should text “NASCAR” to 7777 (Standard text messaging and data rates apply). Tickets for the event start at $39 and are available at www.charlottemotorspeedway.com or by calling 800-455-FANS

About Sprint Nextel

Sprint Nextel offers a comprehensive range of wireless and wireline communications services bringing the freedom of mobility to consumers, businesses and government users. Sprint Nextel served more than 51 million customers at the end of 1Q 2011 and is widely recognized for developing, engineering and deploying innovative technologies, including the first wireless 4G service from a national carrier in the United States; offering industry-leading mobile data services, leading prepaid brands including Virgin Mobile USA, Boost Mobile, and Assurance Wireless; instant national and international push-to-talk capabilities; and a global Tier 1 Internet backbone. Newsweek ranked Sprint No. 6 in its 2010 Green Rankings, listing it as one of the nation’s greenest companies, the highest of any telecommunications company. You can learn more and visit Sprint at www.sprint.com or www.facebook.com/sprint andwww.twitter.com/sprint.