When I first started watching NASCAR in the dim and distant past, some 20 years ago now, it was absolutely the norm for one company to be a primary sponsor all season long. Drivers would be intimately associated with a singular brand, and the company adorning the hoods and the sides of their cars would be as well-known as their car numbers — the Budweiser No. 8 of Dale Earnhardt Jr. being one such example.
Looking back at 2005, my first season working in the sport, and you can truly see how much this was the case: Jeff Gordon in the rainbow colors of Dupont, Tony Stewart in the burnt orange of Home Depot, Jimmie Johnson in the blue of Lowe’s; Kasey Kahne and Jeremy Mayfield both with Dodge Dealers/UAW schemes; Junior in the aforementioned iconic Budweiser red, Dale Jarrett in the brown of UPS, the irrepressible Mark Martin in the Viagra car, Rusty Wallace in the retirement season of his illustrious career with Miller Lite, Michael Waltrip in the NAPA ride, Casey Mears in the red-and-white of Target, Dave Blaney in the Jack Daniels machine and Kevin Harvick with GM Goodwrench, to name just a few. Other drivers with at least 32 of 36 races with the same primary sponsor included Elliott Sadler (M&Ms), Ryan Newman (Alltel) and Jamie McMurray with Texaco/Havoline.
The 2005 season was also when FedEx joined NASCAR as a sponsor, with the sadly departed Jason Leffler as the wheelman initially carrying the colors on the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing machine. And, to come full circle, in a story yesterday (Sept. 24) in the Sports Business Journal, veteran journalist Adam Stern broke the news that FedEx is looking to reduce its presence with Joe Gibbs Racing on Denny Hamlin’s No. 11 Toyota and could even leave the sport entirely at the conclusion of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season.
Now, on the one hand, this isn’t exactly surprising news. FedEx had begun cutting back their iconic sponsorship in 2021 after 15 years of sponsoring just about every race, and last year the company ran as primary sponsor for only 13 of the 36 races. This year, the primary sponsor car count is at nine to date, with a few more to follow before we finish up at Phoenix Raceway, but the pattern is clear to see – a heavy, significant reduction from sponsoring every race.
This pattern isn’t something specific to NASCAR, however, with the transportation, e-commerce and logistics behemoth looking to reduce expenses — a number publicly quoted at four billion…
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