By Staff
One variable in the Dale Earnhardt Jr. to Hendrick Motorsports saga was answered this week. As expected, Hendrick released a statement confirming that Budweiser will not follow Junior next season and a new primary sponsor will be in place.
All signs point to PepsiCo signing on as the new sponsor for Junior next season in a yet to be numbered Chevrolet. As we all know, Pepsi has a long relationship with Hendrick, most notably with Jeff Gordon's team. I, however, didn't realize all the different products under the PepsiCo umbrella. The company markets not only the familiar Pepsi Cola line, but Mountain Dew, Mug root beer, SoBe drinks, Gatorade, and the Frito Lay line of snacks.
For the reported sponsorship package of $25 million per year, Pepsi could rotate brands depending on track location and time of year, making a very effective marketing program around the sport's most popular driver. It will be kind of neat to see a Mountain Dew or Gatorade car back out on the track and with Junior's affinity for the sport's history, it would be right up his alley.
Unlike Budweiser, aligning with PepsiCo would allow Junior to expand his reach to a much younger audience, opening a whole different audience and different products. With deals with Sony and adidas already done, you could very well see many more of these deals on the horizon for Junior. Now, all he needs to do is win races and championships.
Now the question becomes, what happens with the Budweiser sponsorship? Early indications are that Kasey Kahne and Evernham Motorsports are Budweiser's top target. However, if history is any indication, Budweiser might have a tough time getting the Dodge Dealers off of Kahne's car. Last season when the UPS sponsorship was up in the air, Kahne was in their crosshairs and Evernham couldn't make it happen because of an air-tight contract with the Dodge Dealers.
You can bet that Bud will put together a good package and sponsor a competitive team. They could stick with DEI, depending on who Mother Teresa lures to fill the current vacancy. With the recent performance of Martin Truex and the recent Richard Childress alliance for engine building, I fully expect DEI to attract a quality driver and Bud could very easily stick with that company.
What in the world was Tony Stewart thinking Saturday night? He hits Denny Hamlin in the tail end, wrecking them both, and then blames Hamlin for taking him out. Huh? Tony insisted that Hamlin pretty much slowed to a crawl, on a restrictor plate track no less, and he couldn't help but to hit him. Problem is that either of those guys could have easily won that race, but Tony took them both out. I bet Coach (Joe) Gibbs had fun with that one on Monday morning.
The USG Sheetrock 400 at Chicagoland Speedway is the 19th and next race of the season. This is a mile and a half track cookie cutter track where the Roush teams seem to perform so well. With Jamie McMurray's long overdue win at Daytona last week, the Cat in the Hat makes it two in a row with Matt Kenseth winning this week.