Smokey and the Bandit petroleum company Mobil 1 produced television commercials, featuring NASCAR star Tony Stewart, closely based on the film. Called "Smoke is the Bandit" playing on Stewart's nickname, the commercials featured him as the Bandit opposite Darrell Waltrip who played Snowman and Jeff Hammond as Buford T. Justice. The story replaced the Coors beer with Mobil 1 products. The adverts poked fun at the film and even featured a Pontiac Trans Am and a cover version of the song "East Bound and Down". The commercials were produced after Stewart mentioned that the movie was one of his favorites. When "Smokey and the
Smokey and the Bandit star, that the film was aimed at a more mainstream release; Reed would now portray Bandit's friend Snowman (Reed would eventually play the Bandit in "Smokey and the Bandit Part 3"). At that time Reynolds was the top box office star in the world. In the original script Carrie was called Kate while Big Enos and Little Enos were called Kyle and Dickey. Bandit's car was a second generation Ford Mustang and the prize for completing the run was a new truck rather than $80,000. Burt Reynolds revealed in his autobiography that Needham had written the first draft script on