Talk about coincidence.

Boca Raton’s Ryan Hunter-Reay won his first IndyCar Series race on Sunday.

It was good timing since he was already a towering figure in Times Square. Well, his likeness anyway, in an 80-foot tall billboard for sponsor Izod.

The billboard originally said “I am next,” but check out how Izod changed the ad to read “I am now,” after Hunter-Reay’s win at Watkins Glen, N.Y.

“The timing with the win and everything, it’s unreal,” an awed Hunter-Reay said by phone on his way to the billboard’s official unveiling Monday afternoon. “Right in Times Square, the busiest intersection in New York. It’s indescribable.”

Hunter-Reay loves the idea people might not be recognize the 2008 Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year.

“That’s the beautiful thing about that,” he said. “They will say ‘Who is that?’ They’ll check out the IndyCar thing.”

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Dunkin’ Donuts keeps expanding its relationship with sports.

The company is capitalizing on baseball’s popularity this summer with its Bases Loaded promotion that combines free food and other prizes with a video game component that allows fans to face one of two pitchers online to try to get a hit. Dunkin’ is partnering with MLB, the MLB Players Association and 2K Sports.

Through Sept. 30, all cups of cold Dunkin' beverages – iced tea and coffee and smoothies – come with a peel-away sticker that carries a login code for fans to win prizes and coupons for flatbread sandwiches and pizzas. At dunkindonuts.com/basesloaded, baseball fans can choose to face either New York Yankees pitcher Joba Chamberlain or Boston Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon to try to get a hit. Prizes include 2K Sports games, high definition TVs, and Xbox video game systems.

Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Cole Hamels and Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Scott Kazmir are also helping advertise the promotion in their markets – meaning the Rays' success on the field is getting them notice off the field, too. Fans in most Florida counties -- excluding South Florida and the Treasure Coast -- will also be eligible to win Rays tickets and a trip to Boston to see a Rays-Red Sox game.

Meanwhile, the Massaschusetts company also got involved with NASCAR this past weekend, stopping at Daytona International Speedway for the Nationwide Series Daytona 250 on July 4. A Dunkin' logo and hot coffee cup appeared on driver Eric McClure’s No. 24 car and his crew got Dunkin’ items for meals last Thursday and Friday.

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Looking for a way to save on your rising gas bill? NASCAR driver Jeff Gordon knows how.

He’s partnered with Sunrise-based N2Revolution to promote the company’s PurigeN98, a high-purity nitrogen tire inflation system. PurigeN98 helps keep tires properly inflated, thereby reducing fuel costs and improving the car’s handling. Nitrogen-filled tires also reduce fuel emissions, according to a company release.

The release quotes U.S. Department of Energy stats saying: “Americans waste 10 million gallons of fuel every day by driving on under-inflated tires. Annually this amounts to 3.6 billion gallons of wasted fuel and 77 billion pounds of greenhouse gases needlessly dispersed.”

Gordon has used the high purity nitrogen for his racecar’s tires for years, but he can use it in his non-racing vehicles as well. And so can consumers. The system is available at some car dealers, tire stores and service centers. Check here, to find a dealer.

The system is also being used by the Jeff Gordon and Mario Andretti racing schools, which operate NASCAR and IndyCar driving experiences, respectively, for fans at 16 tracks across the country, including Homestead-Miami Speedway.

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The winner of Office Depot’s and Harlequin Enterprises' “Say Yes to a Winning Proposal” contest will have his or her marriage proposal unveiled Saturday at the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series All-Star Race in Charlotte.

The question will go spinning around the track on the back of Carl Edwards’ No. 99 Office Depot Ford Fusion. It’s just one of the many ways NASCAR sponsors are working to bring the regular fan as close as possible to the sport. The winner also gets a diamond ring and trip to Sedonar, Ariz.

Delray Beach-based Office Depot is collecting entries for its “Official Small Business of NASCAR” sweepstakes through June 22. That contest will allow a business with 99 or fewer employees to put its name on the back of Edwards’ car for one race – Sept. 28 in Kansas -- and in a less prominent spot for other races during the rest of the season. The company also gets a $10,000 business makeover and to use “Official Small Business of NASCAR” on stationery and business cards for a year.

The office products company has added a new component to the contest, now in its fourth year: the opportunity to increase your entries by asking friends and family to nominate your business online. The company launched “Connect with Carl,” which allows you to send recorded messages from Edwards asking to nominate your business, enter the sweepstakes or just visit the company’s racing Web site. The messages can be customized with your name and a variety of descriptions of the recipients – the technology isn’t new, but somehow it’s always entertaining.

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It took 50 starts, but Danica Patrick was confident she’d eventually win a race and would not become known as the Anna Kournikova of auto racing.

Now that she won the Indy Japan 300 – becoming the first woman to win an open-wheel race -- will the Indy Racing League’s most marketable star be even more marketable?

After all, her sponsor roster includes Tissot, GoDaddy.com, Motorola, and she appeared in a bikini in Sports Illustrated’s Swimsuit issue. AirTran capitalized immediately with a commemorative plane called “AirTranica Won” – that bears her photo and is expected to be on planes through the IRL season.

Bob Dorfman, executive creative director of Baker Street Partners in San Francisco, says her first win could be worth at least $1 million more.

“Her current marketing partners will spend more on her, and new companies who may have discounted her driving talents will now consider her more seriously,” Dorfman said. “This opens her up to more performance-based products, as well as any advertiser to women with an ‘achieve your dreams’ message. It means a marketing portfolio that’s less cheesecake, and more blue chip.”

But Mike Bartelli, president of motorsports for Millsport, isn’t convinced the win will do much more for Patrick or the IRL.

"I believe it will help her marketability some, but given that her success off the track these last few years has been disproportionate to her success on the track, and given that IndyCar is a niche sport and will remain so for the foreseeable future, I don't think it will make a
significant difference to the scope of her appeal," Bartelli said.

"Will she likely see a few more endorsement opportunities? Probably,” he said. “Will this win, alone, translate into substantial growth for the IRL? Probably not."

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