Valvoline will discontinue its sponsorship of CART’s Walker Racing #5 Gil de Ferran at the end of the 1999 season. The company cited business reasons for the decision and a reallocation of marketing resources toward its SynPower and Eagle One brands and business plans don’t include primary team sponsorship in CART in 2000( SpeedNet / goRacing ). Why am I reporting this you ask? Well it was reported on RPM2Nite last night by Robin Miller who also said the Valovline may consider cutting back on it’s Winston Cup sponsorship of the #6 Valovline Ford driven by Mark Martin or Roush Racing itself after their contract runs out at the end of 2000. A package believed to be worth $7.5 million(RPM2Nite) and from the goRacing story: At this time, Valvoline has no plans for primary team sponsorship in either the CART or IRL open-wheel series in the year 2000 and speculation has Valvoline also leaving NASCAR and the Mark Martin #6 car at the end of the 2000 season. — UPDATE: Geoff Smith, president of Roush Racing, said that Valvoline’s recent announcement that it is cutting back its sponsorship in open-wheel racing programs does not mean that they will in turn cut back on their Cup series program when their contract runs out after the 2000 season( NOL )
