No-Smoke Signals in NASCAR, but Soccer Kid Is on Fire

Casey Mears will carry Nicorette message in Nextel (formerly Winston) Cup. (Glaxosmithkline Consumer Healthcare)

It's a world gone mad! What's stranger than Nicorette sponsoring a car on the racing circuit formerly known as Winston Cup? How about Manchester United and other top European soccer teams scouting a 9-year-old?

Nicorette gum became the first smoking cessation product to enter NASCAR when GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare signed a sponsorship deal with Chip Ganassi Racing yesterday.

Three of its quit-smoking products -- the gum, the NicoDerm CQ patch and Commit lozenges -- will be advertised on the rear decklid of Casey Mears's car for the entire season. Nicorette will also be the primary sponsor on the No. 41 Dodge for one race in a deal estimated to cost the company $3 million annually.

The anti-smoking products enter the sport one year after R.J. Reynolds Tobacco's Winston brand ended its 33-year run as title sponsor of NASCAR's top race series. With wireless company Nextel replacing Winston, NASCAR has made an effort to distance itself from its tobacco-chewing, cigarette-smoking image.

Steve Kapur, marketing manager for Nicorette's parent company, said GSK encountered resistance from NASCAR when it first proposed entering the sport in 1996.

"They were appropriately loyal to their sponsor," Kapur said. "We understood and moved our efforts to other areas. But when the opportunity came for us to get back in, we were thrilled."

And then there's 9-year-old Jean Carlos Chera, who makes Freddy Adu look like an elder statesman. At 4 feet 6 and 77 pounds, Chera currently plays for the youth teams of Associacao Desportiva Atletica, a small club in the Brazilian state of Parana.

"Seven or eight European clubs have already contacted us to know more about Jean," team president Adilson Batista Prado said. "They want to know what he is all about, and I tell them he's a phenomenon, probably the best player to come out of Brazil."

Prado and team officials would not identify all the clubs interested in Jean, but confirmed that representatives of Manchester United have asked for videotapes of his matches.

Chera began to attract attention after the club put videos with highlights of his matches on its Web site. In the videos, he is seen scoring goals from midfield, dribbling past defenders and playing among 13- and 14-year-olds.

-- From News Services