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RICHMOND, Va. — The U.S. Army will pay Stewart-Haas Racing $11.6 million to sponsor Ryan Newman's car for 23 races this season and the Army official who oversees it says the money is worth it.

Army and National Guard (Dale Earnhardt Jr.) were the only branches of the military that served as primary sponsors for cars in Saturday's NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Richmond International Raceway.

Lt. Gen. Benjamim Freakley said the Army looks at different ways to determine if the sponsorship is worth but admits it comes down to one thing.

"At the end of the day, for the Army, its does someone join the Army or not," Freakley said.

He said that 41 people agreed Saturday at the Army's booth at the track to be interviewed by an Army recruiter.

"That's powerful," Freakley said.

The deal with Stewart-Haas this season is for 22 points races and the All-Star race later this month. Army sponsorship is a year-to-year agreement.

Because Congress controls the money that goes to the military, the budget can fluctuate year to year. That, Freakley says, makes it challenging to do multi-year deals. He said that he won't know his budget until this summer.

He said he and his group have started to assess the sponsorship and what it wants to do for the 2010 season but no decisions have been made.

IN BETTER SHAPE: Last year's Darlington race taught David Reutimann that he needed to improve his workout program.

"That was the only race of my entire life that I felt like I wasn't going to have an opportunity to finish it because I was absolutely wore out and sick and just absolutely baking inside that thing," he said. "We had a problem with the cool box and didn't have the car ventilated exactly quite right.

"I've stepped up my training program during the offseason and this year as well to try to combat that because I don't want to have that feeling again. That place is challenging enough when everything is going right. I don't think words can even put in just how tough the place is."

The series heads to Darlington next weekend.

ALL-STAR RIDE: Brad Keselowski is set to drive for Phoenix Racing in the All-Star race. Keselowski qualified for the race with his Talladega victory last weekend with the team, but there was some question of it Hendrick Motorsports would field a car for Keselowski for the all-star race since Keselowski also drives some races for Hendrick.

However, a Hendrick official said Saturday that Phoenix Racing would field the car for Keselowski.

Contact Dustin Long at 373-7062 or dustin.long@news-record.com