Early this month, Valvoline announced that it would not renew its primary sponsorship of Derrick Walker’s CART racing team, which features driver Gil De Ferran. But that prompted speculation that Valvoline might quit the sponsorship game altogether — even ending its relationship with NASCAR Winston Cup star Martin and the Jack Roush racing team. A spokesman for ESPN said an announcer on sister network ABC erroneously said on Sunday that Valvoline was getting out of motorsports sponsorships altogether. Then on ESPN2’s “RPM 2night,” the news about the Walker CART team was repeated, with the clarification added that Valvoline is not ending other sponsorships. Valvoline never even considered ending its sponsorship of Martin, Kish said( Tennessean )
