New FDA Rule Costs Ron Hornaday Longhorn Moist Snuff Sponsorship

New government regulations on smokeless tobacco sponsorships will cost two teams their sponsors on June 22, and it comes at a bad time for both.

Kevin Harvick Inc.'s Ron Hornaday will lose the Longhorn Moist Snuff from his No. 33, and Baker-Curb Racing's Greg Biffle will lose Red Man Moist Snuff from his No. 27.

The Food and Drug Administration has new rules further restricting and limiting the ways tobacco companies can market their products.

Effective June 22, cigarette and smokeless tobacco sponsorships can no longer be included at any athletic, musical, social, cultural, or team-related events.

Hornaday's last race with the Longhorn sponsorship will be the June 12 VFW 200 at Michigan International Speedway.

The sponsorship deal with Longhorn in 2010 was for nine races, and Michigan will be the ninth race of the season.

Last year, Longhorn was on for 10 races with Hornaday, one with Harvick, but spread throughout the season, and they won the championship.

KHI owners Kevin and Delana Harvick have known about the pending new regulations for 18 months now and are still looking for sponsorship for half of the remaining 16 races.

They'll have Karl Chevrolet at Iowa and Tide at Bristol. The rest of the sponsored events still have to be announced—presumably they're all one-race deals.

Regardless of whether or not the Horn's No. 33 has a sponsor, it will race, but it would be nice to see Hunt's Brother Pizza, Best Buy, Rheem, or even the Veterans of Foreign Wars pick up some races with the wily veteran.

Source: jacksonville.com