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Waltrip thrilled NAPA giving his team chance; company plans to return as primary sponsor

By SceneDaily Staff

Friday, August 08, 2008

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Jim McIsaac / Getty Images

Jim McIsaac / Getty Images

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WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. – NAPA and Michael Waltrip Racing announced Friday that the auto parts store chain will return for a ninth consecutive season in 2009 as the primary sponsor for Michael Waltrip’s NASCAR Cup car.

NAPA began its sponsorship of Waltrip in 2001 at Dale Earnhardt Inc. and later followed the driver to Bill Davis Racing and Michael Waltrip Racing, which debuted in 2007.

Waltrip, who owns Michael Waltrip Racing and competes as one of the team’s three Sprint Cup drivers, carries the sponsorship on his No. 55 Toyota.

“When you’re a new business and you’re building your business, you have to have a foundation and they’re part of our foundation,” Waltrip said. “I think what it says more than anything is that the sponsorship works. Their store owners appreciate the car, the commercials, the performance at times. Obviously they want to perform up front every week but they’ve seen us up front, they’ve seen us win the Daytona 500 and they believe in our direction.

“To me it’s important for two reasons: one, just because the business has to have sponsorship to go forward. Two, it says we sponsor MWR and it works for us - we’re able to market our products through them so therefore we’re going to keep sponsoring them.”

How does knowing NAPA will return make Waltrip feel given the uncertain economic climate in which many teams don’t have sponsors in place for 2009.

“It makes me want to work harder,” Waltrip said. “It makes me want to be driving down the road and pull into a NAPA store and say, ‘Thank you,’ like I’ve done before. It makes me want to do every TV show, any interview, anything I can do to help them because they’re giving us a chance.

"I like to look at it as they made our runway longer. Like, we’re going down the runway and we feel like we’re getting ready to take off, we’re doing a bunch of good things but if it ran out we would never get to show anybody. They’ve made our runway longer so we’re going to be able to continue to develop and grow our young team.”

Waltrip has earned all six of his career victories with the sponsor, including his first career win in the 2001 Daytona 500 and his second Daytona 500 win in 2003.

“NAPA just really means everything to us because they’re such a cornerstone,” said MWR Vice President and General Manager Ty Norris. “They’ve been together with Michael for a long time and what NAPA shows is they’re still believers. They’re believers in what Michael started, they’re believers in NASCAR, period. They’re believers in sports marketing.

“When you have options to either leave or get out and they make a conscious decision to stay, I think it’s a good sign not only for MWR but a good sign for the whole garage that companies are still seeing a very good value in this sport as a marketing platform.”

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Comments

7 responses to "Waltrip thrilled NAPA giving his team chance; company plans to return as primary sponsor"
  1. 1
    anonymous said:
    Aug 8, 2008 at 12:05 PM

    Congratulations Mikey and NAPA

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  2. 2
    Michael Murray said:
    Aug 8, 2008 at 12:08 PM

    NAPA must like crashing out of every race. I thought this might be the year we were finally rid MW in a race car. NAPA needs to see more ROI on the ads poking fun at Waltrip. I just recieved my 08' 55 die-cast for him to sign. It's titled "Caution maker" due next month is the "Green,White, Checkers causer" edition.

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  3. 3
    Robert Anderson said:
    Aug 8, 2008 at 1:30 PM

    Congratulations NAPA. Michael Waltrip is a great spokeman for yours, or any company really, your lucky to have him in your camp. He never lets us forget who helps him bring his team to NASCAR. I don't think I'm the only one who feels that I have to support the companies that help make car racing such a great sport. Keep up the good work with the commercials they have been above average good lately.

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  4. 4
    Robert Wingert said:
    Aug 8, 2008 at 5:27 PM

    Does NAPA get a refund for ever race the 55 crashes or blows up? I guess their thinking is they are on TV when Waltrip crashes or blows up his cars. I hope they don't use NAPA parts as it doesn't say much about them. He is fun to watch we have a pool every week picking out which lap he will wreck his car.

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  5. 5
    james Johnson said:
    Aug 8, 2008 at 6:52 PM

    Congratulations NAPA for having a spokesperson with the character that Michael has. I am glad that you recognize what an asset he is to your organization. There is not another driver in Nascar that serves his sponsor and fans as well as Michael does.

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  6. 6
    james Johnson said:
    Aug 8, 2008 at 6:53 PM

    Congratulations NAPA for having a spokesperson with the character that Michael has. I am glad that you recognize what an asset he is to your organization. There is not another driver in Nascar that serves his sponsor and fans as well as Michael does.

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  7. 7
    Jack Keough said:
    Aug 9, 2008 at 9:09 AM

    in answer to James Johnson nobody is as hard a worker for their sponsors than MW but character i dont know cheated at Daytona stole parts from Roush Fenway walked away from a car crash ????? he may not have actually done the first two but a fish rots from the head

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