UPS to scale back sponsorship with RFR, yet continue sponsorship with NASCAR.

UPS plans to cut back dramatically on its support of Roush Fenway Racing's #6 Ford driven by David Ragan in 2012, SportsBusiness Daily reported sources familiar with the company's plan said it will drop its full-season primary sponsorship of the #6 car and sponsor 4-8 races at RFR in '12. The company is in talks to shift its sponsorship to Carl Edwards, who drives the team's #99 Ford. RFR president Steve Newmark declined to comment and said the team is still in discussions with UPS. The company did not return a call seeking comment. The move will further reduce the number of sponsors paying for their logo to appear in all 36 NASCAR races. UPS was one of seven sponsors slated to be on the same NASCAR hood for all 36 Sprint Cup races. The other full-season primary sponsors are #11-FedEx [34 races, Sports Clips at Darlington, Charter Comm at Atlanta], #20-Home Depot, #48-Lowe's, #27-Menard's, #2-Miller Lite and #56-NAPA Auto Parts. (Red Bull and Furniture Row own the teams that feature their logos.) The move comes on the heels of UPS’ four-year, $100 million deal with 68 colleges. The company had a long history in NASCAR and was one of the first in the sport to effectively make a driver the public face of its brand by featuring Dale Jarrett in a multiyear campaign. Known as “Race the Truck,” the humorous campaign showed the company trying to convince the driver to race its “Big Brown” truck in a race. Though UPS won't renew its full-season primary sponsorship at RFR, sources said the company is expected to renew its official partnership with NASCAR. It has been the sport's official delivery company since 2000.(Sporting News/SportsBusiness Journal)

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Permalink Reply by NIKAL on September 2, 2011 at 5:52pm

Am I the only one that notices how many companies over the years that have quit sponsoring individual teams, yet continues to be a NASCAR official sponsor? Or you hear about a company looking to get into NASCAR and then make the change to being the official whatever of NASCAR. I think NASCAR forgets that without the teams on the track NASCAR does not exists. I think NASCAR needs to support these teams and push more of these companies to sponsors cars and quit looking for the next company to line their pockets.

We just heard that Robby will have to start and Park most of the balance of the year due to sponsorship issues. The Wood Bros are still part time and yet their driver won the Daytona 500 this year. When you see this and then hear that mega teams like Roush and RCR are struggling to find sponsorship and are losing some to NASCAR Corp, you have to wonder how many more smaller teams could become S&P or how many mega teams might be forced to scale back to 2 or 3 car teams.

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Permalink Reply by Mike Kenyon on September 2, 2011 at 6:04pm

Brian France can't help himself.IMO

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Permalink Reply by Dave-O on September 2, 2011 at 6:16pm

The exposure/cost mix isn't that great for sponsoring a car that isn't in the 6 focused on in a race. I bet being the official _________ of NASCAR gives better value.

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Permalink Reply by TOG on September 2, 2011 at 6:27pm

yup.

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Permalink Reply by WJM on September 2, 2011 at 6:31pm

Average of 46 entries per race and only 6 have full time primary sponsors. That says a lot about the state of NASCAR.

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Permalink Reply by RG7FAN on September 3, 2011 at 12:23am

Nikal just nailed it

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Permalink Reply by Chris Anello on September 3, 2011 at 1:25am

So how do you fix it?

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Permalink Reply by Kevin Sweeney on September 3, 2011 at 1:56am

Stop making Official everything of NASCAR, which sometimes restricts other companies from even sponsoring cars.

Let Bruton Smith pass away.

More have it boys.

More leeway on what teams can and can't do to the cars

Need more races back on regular networks like it used to be

Add 1 more road course race

Less media ass kissing, and less of the drivers kissing ass to NASCAR. (highly unlikely this will change)

Those are just a few of my thoughts

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Permalink Reply by Chris Koropeski on September 3, 2011 at 11:12am

F*** the cup races. The only reason I watch is for Robby.... otherwise they are boring and way too long. for a good REAL stock car race, I watch the Canadian Tire Series, and it's way more entertaining.. and last I checked, they were able to hold more full time sponsors than the cup series. Not to mention nearly 50% road courses...