BOSTON — After decades with the marathon world to itself, the Boston Athletic Association watched races in other cities begin offering prize money and appearance fees and flatter, easier courses that attracted the top talent.

The choice was clear for the world’s oldest and most prestigious marathon: Accept the changing times, or become an also-ran in the running world.

Twenty-five years ago, the organizers of the Boston Marathon signed a sponsorship deal with John Hancock that for the first time provided prize money for the winners — and portable toilets for the masses — and acknowledged what runners had been saying for years: You can’t eat prestige.

“It wasn’t just the prize money,” said Greg Meyer, whose victory in 1983 remains the last for an American man in Boston. “They didn’t get you a hotel room. There were no Porta-Johns on the course. This was the old B.A.A. They thought, ‘The marathon makes the athlete; the athlete doesn’t make the marathon.’

“The partnership between the B.A.A. and Hancock has kept the race at a level that makes our victories meaningful. Without that, it would have been irrelevant. It would have been a regional race.”

When Hancock signed on for the 1986 race, it was before stadium naming rights were the norm and before the Olympics welcomed the Dream Team of pro superstars at the Barcelona Games. Amateurism was still seen as the purest form of sport, and many within the B.A.A. thought that being a Boston Marathon champion — along with the traditional olive wreath and bowl of beef stew — should be prize enough.

“It was a different time and place back then. This turmoil about amateur vs. professionalism, it had been raging for many years,” said Guy Morse, who was brought on by the B.A.A. to modernize race 25 years ago and is now its executive director. “It’s hard to understand now, given the state of the sport.”

But with the hemorrhaging of top competitors to more lucrative races such as London, which sprung up in 1981, the race’s organizers realized that if they didn’t change something, they might have little left to protect.

“It was a tough decision,” Morse said. “We had standards and values that we wanted to preserve. They really wanted to protect all the traditions, and didn’t want to negatively impact the race. It became apparent to the board at the time that you can offer prize money and maintain all the values that make Boston special.”

Morse said the B.A.A. was not willing to sell naming rights — “It was not going to become the XYZ Company Boston Marathon,” he said — and that weeded out some of the more corporate proposals. They soon found a kindred spirit in John Hancock, which is headquartered just blocks from the finish line.

“We definitely recognized the value of the tradition,” Rob Friedman, the head of the company’s sports marketing division, said this week as the sponsors and organizers alike prepared for Monday’s 114th running of the race. “Boston was always sort of the Augusta of road racing.”

From an initial prize of $39,000 each for the first-place man and woman — gender parity was another issue that was important to the B.A.A. — the winners’ share has grown to $150,000 of a $806,000 purse; there is another $220,000 in potential performance bonuses for course, American or world records.

“Prize money made the Boston Marathon 100 times stronger,” four-time winner Bill Rodgers said.

The sponsorship also opened other avenues, and not all of them corporate. A program that gives runners bib numbers in exchange for a commitment to raise money for charity, which started in 1989, is expected to surpass the $100 million mark for local causes this year; 1,350 runners from 24 charities are expected to take part in 2010.

The B.A.A. also began reimbursing the cities and towns along the route for their expenses, a program that has paid out $8.5 million over 25 years.

Hancock itself raised $3.7 million for its nonprofit bib program last year, Friedman said. The company also uses its involvement in the marathon as a promotional tool for its own salespeople, clients and customers.

And the field, which boasts two American contenders this year for the first time since the 1980s, is as strong as ever.

“Without the money, even the most prestigious of marathons fall back,” said Mary Wittenberg, the director of the New York City Marathon. “The prestige and glamour of a win will always be big, but college kids today know that they’ll be able to have a career in running.

“I think it was a visionary move here.”

FORT WORTH, Texas — Double-file restarts and the chance for multiple attempts at green-white-checkered finishes are certainly changing the end of NASCAR races and late-race strategy.

Or is it even strategy anymore?

“It’s a crapshoot,” Kyle Busch said.

Going into today’s race at Texas Motor Speedway, four of the seven Cup races this season have already gone to NASCAR’s version of overtime with extra laps. Two of those included multiple restarts after the scheduled final lap.

“It has really made finishes less predictable,” four-time defending Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson said. “I don’t know if there really even is a strategy now. It’s more what the masses do.”

The problem this weekend could be getting the race started with rain in the forecast for today. Cup practice was canceled because of rain Saturday, a day after Tony Stewart earned his first pole in five years for what will be his 400th career start.

When Busch pulled onto pit road last weekend at Phoenix International Raceway during another late caution, the only thing that could thwart his dominating run, he got four tires. So did Johnson, with crew chief Chad Knaus figuring the odds were good that there would be more than one try for a green-white-checkered finish.

“It’s definitely a gamble, for sure. We knew who we were racing. We were racing the 48 car,” said Busch, whose two-second lead over Johnson with three laps left was wiped out by the caution.

Except six cars that took only two tires beat Johnson and Busch out of the pits, then only one restart was needed. Johnson moved up to third in that final two-lap shootout, while Busch remained eighth.

“Luckily, it was only a green-white-checkered and not four to go,” said Ryan Newman, who snapped a 77-race winning streak by leading the last two laps. “I’m pretty sure that we wouldn’t have made it to the checkered if it was (more than one restart).”

Had there been another caution, there could have been up to two more green-white-checkered attempts since NASCAR before this season increased the number of possible retries to three. That would have put Johnson and Busch back into contention for a victory.

If Busch and Johnson had come out of the pits still in front, the No. 18 Toyota and No. 48 Chevrolet would have restarted side-by-side with the double-file system implemented midway through last season.

Adding to those changes already in place, the spoiler effect is likely to come into play in Texas.

Even though the rear spoiler replaced the wing on the back of the cars two weeks ago, the biggest change at smaller tracks was the more traditional look.

The spoiler had minimal impact on racing at the 0.526-mile Martinsville track or even the mile-long Phoenix International Raceway. But that could be much different at the 1 1/2-mile high-banked Texas track that is one of the Cup circuit’s fastest.

“I’m hoping it will be a little different so we get an opportunity to shake things up and maybe take advantage of the change,” Carl Edwards said.

The only three-time winner at Texas, Edwards hasn’t won a race anywhere since the 2008 season finale.

“I think no matter what happens here, there’s going to be a verdict on the spoiler,” Jeff Burton said. “If we have a great race, if we have a poor race, there’s going to be a determination that the spoiler was really good or the spoiler was really bad.”

But Burton, the only other multiple winner at Texas (1997 and 2007), was quick to caution that it will take some time for “all the teams to get tuned into” the change.

“If we have a good race here, I think that’s a good sign, honestly,” he said. “If we have a bad race here, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s bad. … We kind of just need to run the race and see how the race goes and then make a determination after that.”

Three years ago, NASCAR phased in a new race car that replaced the spoiler with a wing, and the Car of Tomorrow has been used full time since 2008. The wings were taken off last month after several tests, the first with drivers (only four) on the track coming at Texas in January before an open test at Charlotte last month.

“Everybody has to keep in mind, it’s just like when we came out with the CoT car initially in the first place, it’s an adjustment phase,” Stewart said.

Jeff Gordon has gone 36 races — the equivalent of a full season — since his last victory at Texas a year ago that ended a 47-race winless streak. It was his only win in 18 starts at Texas, where he has the only two last-place finishes of his 588 career starts. Homestead is the only active track where he hasn’t won.

Gordon was the runner-up at Phoenix last week and third at Martinsville the race before that, leading on the final restarts in overtime in both.

“It’s been frustrating for sure,” he said. “At the same time, it’s encouraging that we’re putting ourselves in that position to be able to go out there and possibly win. I think we are heading in the right direction to get ourselves wins and that’s what I’m excited the most about. “