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FOX Sports Interactive Media and Cingular Wireless Retain Pole Position with Virtual Crew Chief Wireless Customers Could Win a Trip to Daytona ATLANTA and LOS ANGELES, March 24 /PRNewswire/ -- So, you think you know racing? Then pull out your Cingular Wireless phone during the next big NASCAR on FOX race and be a "Virtual Crew Chief." You'll get a chance to text your way to Daytona Beach, Florida, to hang out with the FOX Sports crew. FOX Sports Interactive Media and Cingular Wireless today announced the return of Virtual Crew Chief -- the pioneering wireless poll that allows race fans to give their opinions of key moments and decisions during the race by way of text messaging. But this year, there's extra incentive: each text message sent in response to a question during a NASCAR on FOX broadcast will be entered into a sweepstakes to win an all-expense paid trip to Daytona Beach. Included in the package is the opportunity to attend driving school at the Richard Petty Driving Experience. "Race fans make up a very passionate group of sports fans," said Jim Ryan, vice president of data product management and business segment marketing for Cingular Wireless. "And that's why Cingular is back for the third year of Virtual Crew Chief. In that time Cingular has seen a 17-fold growth in participation by race fans. This year we have added prizes into the mix to make virtual polling even more exciting." Virtual Crew Chief will be active during 17 selected NASCAR on FOX races. Announcers will present race-related questions during the course of the race for Cingular customers to vote on from their wireless phones. Poll questions cover action from the race, controversial moments and other race predictions. Cingular customers can cast their vote on the multiple- choice questions via text messaging. The votes are tallied in real time and results are sent to each participant's phone as well as displayed during the telecast of the race and online at FOXSports.com. The wireless polling component of Virtual Crew Chief is powered by Proteus, a leading application developer for wireless devices. "At FOX Sports we are constantly innovating to provide the sports fan with ways to get involved," said Ross Levinsohn, SVP and general manager, FOX Sports Interactive Media. "FOX Sports, Cingular and Proteus were among the first to introduce wireless polling in 2001, and each year since, the program has become more popular." A leader in wireless data services, Cingular was the first U.S. wireless carrier to offer text message voting tied to a national television broadcast with FOX Sports and Proteus during the 2002 stock car race season. About FOX Sports Interactive Media FOX Sports Interactive Media (FSIM) develops new media initiatives for FOX Sports and FOX Sports Net. FSIM distribution channels include Internet ( http://www.foxsports.com/ ), broadband, wireless and interactive television. FOXSports.com is a comprehensive and entertaining online source of sports news, information, listings, gamesand special features about programming on FOX Sports, Fox Sports Net, FOX Sports Radio and much more from the world of sports. FSIM is owned and managed by FOX Sports Networks, a subsidiary of FOX Entertainment Group, a division of News Corp. About Cingular Wireless Cingular Wireless, a joint venture between SBC Communications (NYSE:SBC) and BellSouth (NYSE:BLS), serves more than 24 million voice and data customers across the United States. A leader in mobile voice and data communications, Cingularis the only U.S. wireless carrier to offer Rollover(tm), the wireless plan that lets customers keep their unused monthly minutes. Cingular has launched the world's first commercial deployment of wireless services using Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE) technology. Cingular provides cellular/PCS service in 43 of the top 50 markets nationwide, and provides corporate e-mail and other advanced data services through its GPRS, EDGE and Mobitex packet data networks. Details of the company are available at http://www.cingular.com/ . DATASOURCE: Cingular Wireless CONTACT: Lou D'Ermilio of FOX Sports, +1-212-556-2573, or lou.d'; or Chris Clark of Alta PR for FOX Sports, +1-415-503-3925, or ; or Clay Owen of Cingular, +1-404-236-6153, or ;or Lauren Butler of Ketchum, +1-404-879-9283, or , for Cingular Wireless Web site: http://www.cingular.com/ http://www.foxsports.com/

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