In a day when sponsors are retracting their NASCAR campaigns and pinching every penny, one company that has committed themselves to the sport in a big way is Ask.com. The search engine, started in 1996 as AskJeeves.com, has jumped into NASCAR for the 2009 season becoming the Official Search Engine of NASCAR, powering the search engine on NASCAR.com and committing to be the primary sponsor on the No. 96 Ford Fusion driven by Bobby Labonte.

"We're the kind of company that really takes a look at opportunities maybe when other people are ducking for cover, if you will." said Andrea Riggs, Vice President of Consumer PR for Ask.com. "Sometimes we'll find opportunities that may not be obvious, and the biggest thing that struck us about NASCAR was the passion and loyalty of the fans. Really they're the most passionate and brand loyal in any sport anywhere in the world."

At a time when a tough economy has made finding a secure sponsor more difficult than ever, Ask.com has joined a team that was at one point in jeopardy of closing it's doors for good. Their influx of sponsorship dollars along with their merger with Yates Racing has helped salvage this team and breathe new life into the organization.

Joining Hall of Fame/Yates Racing, Ask.com has put their faith in former series champion Bobby Labonte. The 2000 Cup series champion made the move to the No. 96 in January, primarily thanks in part to the sponsorship deal with Ask.com.

"I just came out from the merchandise trailer," Riggs said as we sat in the media center before the start of Daytona 500. "There are just some long-time Bobby fans. In fact, I saw a 14-year-old kid who had been a fan of Bobby's since he was three. His legacy with his brother Terry and his reputation in the industry have already proven he will be a great fit with our company. He's just such a class act, a family man, former champion, 21 career wins and the people who genuinely like Bobby are loyal to him and that is translating over to us."

In a world in which Google has a near monopoly on the search engine business, Ask.com is hoping to attract the brand loyal customers that make up the NASCAR demographic.

"Very few people use just one search engine," Riggs added. "Usually they use two, we just hope we can be the second one."

The goal of Ask.com is to provide the user with an answer in just one click. Riggs pointed out, it takes users on average three clicks to find their answers on other sites, but thanks to the use of Smart Answers and other resources - such as related searches and a Q&A feature - users are truly able to find their answers with just one click.

Take for example their NASCAR-related content. If you were to type the question, "Who is Bobby Labonte?" the page that would come up would be unlike any other search engine. Instead of a page full of links, you will find a photo and biography of Labonte, career statistics, a countdown to the next race and then links to more information about the driver.

"We saw a good opportunity to give something to the fans that they're not getting anywhere else," Riggs went on to say. "If you want to know who came in 16th-place in Daytona in 2001, where would you go to find that? So, we saw an opportunity with our search engine to let fans ask natural language questions on our search engine and get their answer pretty quickly."

The best way to truly understand and see all that Ask.com offers to the Hardcore Race Fans is to log on and type a random question and see how long it takes to find your answer.

"If you can't find it on Ask," Riggs added, "it's not on the Internet"