Walmart no longer interested in sponsoring Jeff Gordon’s car, but continues talks with NASCAR about apparel license
Hendrick Motorsports is still looking for a primary sponsor for Jeff Gordon's No. 24 Chevrolet. // Jeff Velte, NASCAR Illustrated
Negotiations have broken down between Walmart and Hendrick Motorsports over sponsorship of Jeff Gordon’s No. 24 Chevrolet, but NASCAR’s new licensing body, the NASCAR Teams Licensing Trust, remains confident a deal will be struck to make Walmart the exclusive mass retailer for the sport’s apparel.
Those talks between the trust and Walmart are ongoing, according to industry sources, and a deal is expected to be in place in time for the 2011 season.
Walmart had been deep into discussions with Hendrick Motorsports to sponsor Gordon’s car, but Walmart’s interest in a primary sponsorship on a single car has waned and team owner Rick Hendrick confirmed at Atlanta last weekend that those negotiations are over for now.
“You talk to a lot of people, and they were someone we talked to,” Hendrick said of discussions with the retail giant. “We got down the road a bit but timing is one of those things – possibly we’ll do something down the road with them but it won’t be next year.”
One source said Walmart 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 Walmart and Hendrick had created a significant level of angst among other Sprint Cup teams. They had expressed concern over how Walmart, 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 Walmart, 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.
