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Authentic Sponsorships: The Relationship Between Sponsor and Driver

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Photo Credit: Patrick Smith/Getty Images

In the wake of Dale Earnhardt Jr. announcing a new sponsorship with eBay, appearing on his No. 88 Chevrolet for the NASCAR Nationwide Series June race at Michigan International Speedway, there is a lot to be said for authentic sponsorships within the sport of NASCAR in this day and age.

Having learned at the end of the 2013 NASCAR season that Earnhardt is an ardent eBay user, the recently announced partnership is without a doubt legitimate. It is not about a driver forcing a smile and promoting something he or she doesn’t believe in, it’s about selling a product or service that they have their own faith in as a consumer.

Though in a time where sponsorship is spread thin, money is tight and some teams are forced to stretch every last dollar, the ability to always be picky with sponsorships is not always there.

Which leads to the question, do fans actually care whether a sponsorship or partnership between driver and business is authentic?

Sponsorships and partnerships come in all forms. Whether it’s a product or service funding the race car, a charity placing their name on the car for large amounts of promotion, or simply a driver appearing to promote a company or cause, they all align a driver’s image with their brand identity.

Danica Patrick, driver of the No. 10 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, has been a magnet for the concept of brand identity. GoDaddy.com’s use of her in their television commercials put them on the map as well as boosted her recognition outside of the racing world. But does becoming one brand’s identity limit what other companies would choose to partner with her?

Another sponsorship that stands out as authentic is Bass Pro Shops, who sponsors drivers Tony Stewart, Austin Dillon, and Ty Dillon, all of whom are avid outdoorsmen. If their partnership was with someone outside of that fit, it could create a different reception from fans.

While the sport rarely sees completely off-the-wall sponsorships, many often do not make sense or do not seem to be a great fit for the driver or team. We have entered a time though, where the name on the car means nothing to many fans, it is simply the writer of the paycheck.

There is no telling whether having that authentic connection between driver and sponsor is necessary for positive fan reaction, but there is reason to believe these strong partnerships may end up standing better in the long run.

RAB Racing No. 99 Rheem Toyota Camry NNS Post-Race Report: Dover International Speedway

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POWER TAKES OPENING ROUND OF BELLE ISLE DOUBLEHEADER

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Kyle Larson, AJ Allmendinger Impress in Qualifying at Dover

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Photo Credit: Getty Images

Kyle Larson and AJ Allmendinger, two underdogs entering this season, are beginning to make headway, especially after having strong qualifying efforts at Dover International Raceway this weekend.

Larson, a current rookie in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, qualified fifth after advancing to the final round in qualifying on Saturday – a respectable run for any competitor, including a developing driver.

“Qualifying was pretty good for us, I think we ended up fifth,” Larson explained. “We had a good Cottonelle Chevy in practice and then worked on it a little bit there in our qualifying runs and got a little bit better. So, happy with a top-five starting spot for Sunday’s race, just got to get our race car a little bit better and we should be right up there with the top guys.”

Allmendinger, like Larson, advanced into the final round, however, he placed 11th* quickest after being a bit conservative in his attempts.

“I think the first run I probably under drove a little bit trying to be too smooth with the car,” Allmendinger expressed. “I could see everybody had slowed down a little bit so I was trying to be smooth with it and probably under drove. I was really happy the second run to pick up time and make it into the second group. He concluded with, “We will just try to keep up with the race track now for the rest of the weekend.”

Larson, 22, is making his first appearance at the Monster Mile in the Sprint Cup Series this weekend and according to him, the track has been generous and frustrating, so far.

“I don’t know sometimes I like this place and sometimes I hate it,” Larson further commented. “In the Nationwide car so far today we have been off pretty bad. I feel like we handle okay, but it’s really slow. That is going to be frustrating over there, but then when I come over to the Cup car I actually like the track.”

“It all just depends on how good the car is,” he continued. “This track is definitely tricky and a little bit on the edge. I feel like I’m pretty comfortable around here.”

Allmendinger, 32, claims this is one of his favorite and best racetracks, and his stat line proves that, having posted two top-10 finishes.

“Dover International Speedway is one of my all-time favorite tracks on the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series circuit,” Allmendinger said. “It always has been since I came into the sport. It is just an awesome fun place to drive. It will be interesting to see how everything goes this weekend and how the cars work around the track especially with the new rules we have this year.”

The underrated duo, of Larson and Allmendinger, will be able to showcase their talents beginning at 1:00 PM EST on Sunday when the FedEx 400 Benefiting Autism Speaks takes the green flag.

 

 

 

Kyle Busch Four for Four Wins in Truck Series with Monster Mile Victory

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SM Staff
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Kyle Busch, in his No. 51 Kyle Busch Motorsports Betty Jane France Humanitarian Award Toyota, scored yet another ‘W’ in the Camping World Truck Series Lucas Oil 200, making it four wins in four races this season.

This was Busch’s fourth victory, fourth top-10 finish for the 2014 season, and his fourth victory at Dover International Speedway. Busch achieved his eighth perfect driver rating in the Truck Series as well.

“We had a really good truck,” Busch said. “Eric (Phillips, crew chief) and these guys have done a really good job this year. Last year and maybe a little bit more the year before, we’ve been working on our stuff to make it a little bit faster. All that work’s paying off this year.”

“I think these guys here and everyone back at the shop prepared some good trucks,” Busch continued. “It’s been fun to be up front and lead laps in the Series. A couple of our lead competition guys, the 88 had trouble today and the 29 just came on a little too late. Excited to see Toyota in Victory Lane and the NASCAR Foundation too.”

Busch credits his four for four victory spree on “being focused and in good stuff, believing in it and believing in these guys.” The team that bears his name is first in the Owner Points and Busch is excited to continue to run for that honor.

Busch advised that he was handing the wheel back to Erik Jones for the next few races until he steps back into the race truck at Kentucky.

“I’m really excited now to see Erik Jones get in the car and run some races,” Busch said. “I told him that just because they change the name on the roof, doesn’t mean he shouldn’t end up in Victory Lane. The pressures is on these guys to keep going and keep the Owner’s Championship up in the points.”

While Busch dominated the Monster Mile for most of the race, he was getting some heavy competition from Matt Crafton, that is until Crafton’s tire went down and he hit the wall on Lap 156. The driver of the No. 88 Rip It Energy Fuel/Menards Toyota finished 23rd and fell out of the points lead as a result.

With Crafton out of the race, Ryan Blaney, behind the wheel of the No. 29 Cooper Standard Ford came on strong to finish in the runner up position. This was Blaney’s second top-10 finish in two races at Dover and is his third top-10 finish of the season.

Blaney now sits in the seventh spot in the points standings.

“We didn’t start in the best spot, in 14th, but got into the top five fairly quickly,” Blaney said. “We had to work our way to the front from there. They did a great job on pit road all day and had good stops. We gained some spots there a few times.”

“With about 50 or 60 to go, we had a pit stop and had a loose left front wheel,” Blaney continued. “Luckily we caught it before we went back green. We were able to come back and change it and then we had a caution maybe 20 laps after that. I was able to line up sixth and finally got a break. But I don’t think it mattered as nobody was going to catch the 51. He was something else.”

Truck Series veteran Johnny Sauter, driver of the No. 96 Nextant/Curb Records Toyota, finished third. This was Sauter’s third top-10 finish in six races at the Monster Mile.

“For whatever reason, we were a long run truck,” Sauter said. “I didn’t run my fastest lap until Lap 18. Having said that, we knew that we needed to get some speed. We started the race too tight and made some adjustments.”

“I’m just proud of my guys, especially the over the wall guys,” Sauter continued. “They made gains by leaps and bounds on pit stops today. We had a solid day. We weren’t the fastest truck by any means but we were comparable to the leaders on the long run. Solid points day for us and the truck is in one piece, which is easier said than done at a place like Dover.”

Ben Kennedy, behind the wheel of the No. 31 Click It or Ticket Chevrolet, was the highest finishing Rookie of the race. And as such, he readily admitted that he had plenty of lessons learned from the Monster Mile track experience.

“It was pretty good,” Kennedy said. “It was a day of ups and downs for us I guess. We were crazy free in a couple of runs and then got really tight. I’m proud of the whole team because coming from practice we weren’t that great. It was a good day for us and a good day for the Delaware Highway Safety team.”

“Changing track conditions is something I really learned today,” Kennedy continued. “It was pretty drastic with the setup we had. We went from the first half of the run being pretty awesome to the second half of the run being wrecking loose.”

“The shade coming up from the casino as the sun sets over there was a big thing for me. Every time I get behind the wheel I learn and gain confidence. Hopefully, we will be up there in the top five running consistently soon.”

Brandon Jones, driver of the NO. 33 Exide Chevrolet, and Joey Coulter, in the No. 21 Allegiant Chevrolet rounded out the top five in the finishing order.

Peters emerged as the points standings leader by one point over Matt Crafton. The unofficial results from the Lucas Oil 200 are as follows:

POS Car # Driver Make

1 51 Kyle Busch Toyota

2 29 Ryan Blaney Ford

3 98 Johnny Sauter Toyota

4 33 Brandon Jones Chevrolet

5 21 Joey Coulter Chevrolet

6 8 John Hunter Nemechek Toyota

7 31 Ben Kennedy Chevrolet

8 19 Tyler Reddick Ford

9 77 German Quiroga Jr Toyota

10 17 Timothy Peters Toyota

11 30 Ron Hornaday Jr Chevrolet

12 5 John Wes Townley Toyota

13 92 Scott Riggs Ford

14 0 Cole Custer Chevrolet

15 50 T.J. Bell Chevrolet

16 54 Darrell Wallace Jr Toyota

17 2 Tyler Young Chevrolet

18 13 Jeb Burton Toyota

19 63 Justin Jennings Chevrolet

20 10 Jennifer Jo Cobb RAM

21 20 Gray Gaulding Chevrolet

22 32 Ben Rhodes Chevrolet

23 88 Matt Crafton Toyota

24 39 Ryan Sieg Chevrolet

25 99 Bryan Silas Chevrolet

26 35 Mason Mingus Toyota

27 9 Brennan Newberry Chevrolet

28 57 Norm Benning Chevrolet

29 7 Jake Crum Chevrolet

30 8 Jimmy Weller III Chevrolet

31 56 Raymond Terczak Jr Chevrolet

32 42 Charles Lewandoski Chevrolet

33 40 Todd Peck Chevrolet

34 0 Ryan Ellis Chevrolet

35 36 Blake Koch RAM

For Jeff Gordon, His Back Is Unfortunately Back

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SM Staff
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He may be leading the point standings, running consistently, and already have a win in his pocket, but for Jeff Gordon, all the talk at Dover International Speedway was about his back issues being back.

Last weekend, Gordon had to step out of the car for one practice prior to the Coca Cola 600 and actually had Regan Smith, the Nationwide Series point’s leader, on standby for the race in the event he needed to get out of the car.

“I wouldn’t say I’m 100% but I’m closer to normal,” Gordon, driver of the No. 24 Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet, said in the media center. “I still feel some of the effects from last week but I didn’t have any sharp pains. I just had a week of rest and normal activities and lots of ice this week. I was pretty sore on Monday and Tuesday after the long 600. That’s not totally unusual but a little more than normal.”

Gordon acknowledged that his back problems over the Coke 600 weekend were none like he had experienced in the past.

“The issues that I’ve had in the past never were like I dealt with last weekend,” Gordon said. “That was the first time that something like that happened in the car, on qualifying day into a race weekend.”

“I’ve rolled out of bed and had things like that happen,” Gordon continued. “That’s just being tight and not having the muscles loose. That’s part of just getting older.”

“So, it was a little bit foreign to me to have that where I had to get out of the car.”

Gordon actually had to be treated with an injection in order to be able to compete during the race weekend. And thankfully he did get relief, a result that he had not experienced before with the same treatment.

“The treatment I had was an epidural, a type of injection, some type of cortisone that is fairly typical and common,” Gordon said. “I don’t know all the stuff that was in there but it made the pain go away. So, that’s the first time I’ve had to do that on race weekend. I’ve done that in a different part of my back and it didn’t really do much for me. This time it did.”

Gordon seemed a bit frustrated with the back pain in that he has been training regularly in an attempt to keep his back as loose as possible.

“I’ve been working a lot harder on my training, riding a bike and exercising,” Gordon said. “The problem with that is that it tightens everything up even more so than normal. And so if I don’t stay loose and ice it and do the things to keep me loose on race weekend, what happened could possibly occur again.”

It was also evident in Gordon’s remarks that he was indeed taking the back issue seriously, in fact, enough so to potentially put him out of the car permanently.

“If that happens many more times, I won’t have a choice,” Gordon said about the back pain and the dreaded ‘retirement’ word.

Gordon primarily credited his down time and the lack of activity during that time as the major contributing factor to his back pain. That, of course, along with his age and the length of time he has been racing have had impact as well.

“It’s just not sitting,” Gordon said. “The biggest contributor was the fact that we had about a three hour delay from practicing to qualifying and I sat in the truck for too long in one place. I really think that caused the issue that I had and inflamed and irritated it. Once that happened, there was nothing that was going to fix it until I had the injections.”

“Doing this for thirty or forty years, that has contributed to it,” Gordon said. “It’s not different than a golfer or a tennis player with that continuous motion and pushing those muscles and parts of the body. I do have some degenerative disk issues, which is again very common for a lot of people, but when you put that into racing, it is a little bit tougher. It’s just something that I have to deal with.”

Gordon was visibly strained when he talked about making the difficult decision to get out of his race car, even for the one practice session. But once Sunday came and it was time to race, Gordon felt that his sticking in the car in spite of his back pain proved just how strong he is, to himself and to his team.

“I got out of the car on Saturday and it was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my life to make that decision,” Gordon said. “It was not an easy one and I was doubting myself but my body was telling me it was the right thing to do.”

“But Sunday went well and we got through it,” Gordon continued. “We actually had a good car up until that last caution came. I think that if anything that only built momentum for our race team to go through what we went through and to go have that kind of a race to show the team what kind of determination I have as well as kind of show our competitors that it’s going to take a lot to get us down.”

“I think that did more good for us for this season and our chances for a championship than anything else.”

So, how hard will Dover be on Gordon’s sensitive back and how will he know if he is set to race the Monster?

“Yeah, there were loads and there were muscles in my back that were being used a lot because it’s a high-banked very fast race track with big sweeping corners, Gordon said. “But there was no shooting pain.”

What will heal the four-time champ’s back the most, however, is very simple, at least from Gordon’s perspective.

“If I win this race on Sunday, I will feel better,” Gordon said. “It’s amazing how a win takes away all your pain.”

 

Kyle Busch Dominates Lucas Oil 200 at Dover International Speedway

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SM Staff
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Credit: Drew Hallowell/NASCAR via Getty Images

On Friday afternoon at Dover International Speedway, it was all Kyle Busch as he dominated, leading 150 of the 200 laps on his way to winning the Lucas Oil 200. It marks Busch’s fourth victory this year in four starts.

“I can’t say enough about everyone on this Kyle Busch Motorsports team, everyone at Kyle Busch Motorsports chassis — they are building us some awesome chassis — they’re fast,” Busch commented. “I just want to say thanks to Toyota and Toyota Care that we had the Betty Jane France Humanitarian Award with us this week. I know the submissions are over, but it’s a great award at the end of the year that goes to the people that help the kids in their community the most. We appreciate people being able to do that and reminds us a lot of the Kyle Busch Foundation.”

Busch would lead from the pole all the way till lap 74 when he’d head down pit road under green just as the caution flew for Brennan Newberry wrecking on the frontstretch. Eric Phillips made the heads-up call to send Busch down pit road without stopping, keeping Busch on the lead lap. Busch would lose his track position, restarting seventh. He would then work his way through the field, passing Matt Crafton at lap 121 for the lead and never looking back.

“I’ve been loose in traffic even by leading just coming up on lapped trucks and everything,” Busch commented. “I basically came down pit road there when we were coming in for our stop and I said, ‘Hey, now that I’m going to be further back in traffic make sure you tighten me up some just to put some extra wedge in and put some extra track bar to it.’ Sometime to help secure the back of the truck just to make sure that I didn’t make a mistake back in traffic. It certainly took me a little bit to get back up to the front. I got to third real quick and then I just kind of stalled out there.

“The 88 (Matt Crafton) was really good. I hate to see Matt have trouble like that especially hits like that. I mean, man, I hope he’s alright. The 29 (Ryan Blaney) was fast. So, the 88 and the 29 we knew were in our league and those were the guys that we were going to race and those are the guys that I had the hardest time passing. But, overall, I just kind of bided my time. Knew I had a long ways to go.”

Ryan Blaney would run in the top-five all day, finishing second. It marks a good rebound for the second-generation driver following the bad luck that he has suffered the past two races. Johnny Sauter kept his consistency going, finishing third.

“It was an eventful day,” Sauter noted. “Just proud of everybody at ThorSport. Proud of my guys in the pits today. They were phenomenal. They’ve done a lot of work making that matter and I think that this finish has probably a lot to do with that. Our Nextant Aerospace/Curb Records Toyota was really good on the long run, I just lacked short run speed and kind of did all day like we talked about on the pre-race show. I just didn’t run my fastest lap in practice until lap 18.”

Brandon Jones and Joey Coulter rounded out the top five, followed by John Hunter Nemechek, Ben Kennedy, Tyler Reddick, German Quiroga and Timothy Peters. Notably, due to Busch’s speed, only seven trucks finished on the lead lap.

Gray Gaulding and Ben Rhodes were both running in the top 10 today, though wrecked out with 29 laps to go due to Quiroga getting loose and making contact with Gaulding.

“They gave me a great truck, but without practice, we were in a bad predicament,” Rhodes commented. “I was really loose at the beginning, fell back a bunch of spots. We were climbing our way back up through there. The 77 was passing the 20 – I was trying to go high and the 77 got aero loose, into the 20 and I was in the bad spot at the wrong time.”

Matt Crafton came in as the points leader, though had a tire go down while running in second spot, resulting in heavy contact with the wall with 45 laps to go.

“Just the right front went down. Just didn’t give me a lot of warning,” Crafton commented. “All of the sudden it went boom and it was good. First run we were good, second run we were a little off and we were trying to get it back to where it needed to be. We free’d it up a little too much, and I thought that we’d be in good shape for the end of the race.”

As a result, Peters moves into the points lead, one point ahead of Crafton and Sauter.

Keselowski and Team Penske Capture Monster Mile Pole

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SM Staff
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Brad Keselowski, driver of the No. 2 Miller Lite Ford, and Team Penske did it again, capturing the pole for the FedEx 400 benefiting Autism Speaks at Dover International Speedway with a new track record of 164.44 mph.

This was Keselowski’s fifth pole in the Cup Series and his second pole, as well as his tenth top-10 start in 2014. Keselowski also ripped off his Monster Mile rookie pole stripe, scoring his first pole in nine races at Dover.

“It’s been a good year for qualifying,” Keselowski said. “And for most years that has not been the case. Very happy because pit road selection is so important here. We are very pleased with our qualifying position.”

Keselowski credited Team Penske’s total package for the success that he and his teammate Joey Logano have had so far in qualifying.

“Speed is the backbone of any success in this sport,” Keselowski said. “But being the backbone it is not the totality. There are ancillary things that you also have to work on with these cars. We are executing and we need to keep that up.”

“We are qualifying a lot better than this time last year,” Keselowski continued. “I think the cars are better and Ford has done a good job, especially with the nose. We needed those pieces that were outside our control to fall into place.”

“This is a good start to the weekend.”

For pole sitter Keselowski, as well as Kyle Busch, who qualified second and Joey Logano, who will start behind his teammate in the third spot, watching the sky was also important to their qualifying efforts.

“At a track that is concrete like the Monster Mile, it doesn’t attract as much heat as the black asphalt does, but the sun does make a difference,” Keselowski said. “I missed the clouds by about a minute. We still put down a good lap but the track probably had a little more speed in it.”

Kyle Busch second No. 18 M&Ms Peanut Butter Toyota

“The car was really fast in practice, Kyle Busch, driver of the No. 18 M&Ms Peanut Butter Toyota, said. “I really liked it but just wasn’t able to get the speed and kind of slowed down. Just couldn’t quite get enough for that lap.”

“I think a lot of people were just waiting there and waiting on that cloud,” Busch continued. “We were trying to go as late as we could to see if the track would cool down.”

“We were fast but came up a little short,” Logano, driver of the No. 22 Pennzoil Ford, said. “We picked up a lot of speed from practice and made some good adjustments. It just was over adjusted a little bit from the first to the second run.”

“I think everyone was looking for that cloud,” Logano continued. “We were staring at the clouds and I saw all the crew chiefs staring up into the sun. We were doing the same thing and maybe we were chasing ghosts.”

This was Busch’s sixth top-10 start of 2104 and his tenth in 19 races at Dover and this is Logano’s third top-10 start 10th in 13 races this season.

Kyle Larson, driver of the No. 42 Cottonelle Chevrolet, was the highest qualifying rookie.

“It was pretty good for us ending up fifth,” Larson said. “We had a good car in practice and we worked on it there a little bit. I’m happy with a top-5 starting spot for Sunday’s race. If we get our car a little better, we should be right up there in the front.”

“Sometimes I like this place and sometimes I think it’s awful,” Larson said. “It depends how good the car is because this track is definitely tricky and on the edge. But I feel like I’m pretty comfortable around here. It’s like Bristol and I like that place.”

Hendrick teammates Jimmie Johnson, driver of the No. 48 Lowe’s/Kobalt Tools Chevrolet, and Jeff Gordon, driver of the No. 24 Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet, rounded out the top sixth in qualifying, starting the race in fourth and sixth respectively.

The full run-down of the FedEx 400 qualifying results, including manufacturer and speed in miles per hour are as follows:

1 Brad Keselowski Ford 164.444

2 Kyle Busch Toyota 163.785

3 Joey Logano Ford 163.688

4 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet 163.362

5 Kyle Larson Chevrolet 163.080

6 Jeff Gordon Chevrolet 163.066

7 Denny Hamlin Toyota 163.066

8 Kevin Harvick Chevrolet 162.499

9 Brian Vickers Toyota 162.411

10 Clint Bowyer Toyota 162.243

11 AJ Allmendinger Chevrolet 162.155

12 Greg Biffle Ford 160.995

13 Dale Earnhardt Jr Chevrolet 162.933

14 Ryan Newman Chevrolet 162.903

15 Paul Menard Chevrolet 162.889

16 Martin Truex Jr Chevrolet 162.844

17 Kasey Kahne Chevrolet 162.690

18 Brett Moffitt Toyota 162.602

19 Jamie McMurray Chevrolet 162.580

20 Tony Stewart Chevrolet 162.550

21 Matt Kenseth Toyota 162.536

22 Casey Mears Chevrolet 162.250

23 Austin Dillon Chevrolet 162.155

24 Kurt Busch Chevrolet 162.009

25 Aric Almirola Ford 161.754

26 Ricky Stenhouse Jr Ford 161.747

27 Marcos Ambrose Ford 161.725

28 Danica Patrick Chevrolet 161.623

29 Carl Edwards Ford 161.573

30 Justin Allgaier Chevrolet 160.887

31 Cole Whitt Toyota 160.592

32 David Gilliland Ford 160.435

33 Josh Wise Chevrolet 160.206

34 David Ragan Ford 159.419

35 Alex Bowman Toyota 159.391

36 Landon Cassill Chevrolet 159.200

37 J.J. Yeley Chevrolet 159.081

38 Reed Sorenson Chevrolet 159.046

39 Michael Annett Chevrolet 159.032

40 David Stremme Chevrolet 158.569

41 Ryan Truex Toyota 158.124

42 Dave Blaney Ford 157.618

43 Blake Koch Ford 156.359

 

Mark Dilley To Make OSCAAR Super Late Model Return At Kawartha Speedway

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Kelly Balson Looking To Start Fresh At Kawartha Speedway

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