(By NASCAR Wire Service)
Posted: Tuesday,September 7th, 2010
Negotiations have broken down between Wal-Mart and Hendrick Motorsports over sponsorship of the No. 24 Chevrolet driven by Jeff Gordon.
However, NASCAR’s new licensing body, the NASCAR Teams Licensing Trust, remains confident a deal will be struck to make Wal-Mart the exclusive mass retailer for the sport’s apparel.
Those talks between the trust and Wal-Mart are ongoing, according to industry sources, and a deal is expected to be in place in time for the 2011 season.
Wal-Mart had been deep into discussions with Hendrick Motorsports to sponsor Gordon’s car, but Wal-Mart’s interest in a primary sponsorship on a single car has waned.
One source said Wal-Mart is in a re-evaluation process to determine the right place for its sponsorship spending and that it could still develop personal-services deals with an array of drivers, instead of going with a primary sponsorship of a single driver.
Industry sources added that word of a potential deal between Wal-Mart and Hendrick had created a significant level of angst among the other Sprint Cup teams. They had expressed concern over how Wal-Mart, as the licensed mass retailer for the trust, would manage its relationship with all of the teams when it was a primary sponsor for Gordon, and whether Gordon’s merchandise would receive favorable display in the stores.
Without Wal-Mart, Hendrick continues its search for a primary sponsor on the No. 24. DuPont has been the only primary sponsor Gordon has known since he came into the sport in 1992. The trio of DuPont, Gordon and Hendrick is the longest-running sponsor-driver-owner relationship in the Sprint Cup Series.
But DuPont’s current deal runs out at the end of this season, and Hendrick has been on the hunt for a replacement. DuPont could remain with the team as an associate sponsor, and Hendrick might even revisit DuPont about the primary sponsorship. Pepsi also sponsors Gordon.
Michael Smith is a reporter with SportsBusiness Journal.
Share on Facebook - Email this page: 
Rate this article:
What's Your Take?You must be logged in to post a comment.
|
