hearing the U.S Navy will not return to sponsor the #88 JR Motorsports Chevy of Brad Keselowski in 2009, no word if they will leave the sport or hook up with another Nationwide team or move up to the Sprint Cup Series.(7-8- 2008)
UPDATE: Add Dale Earnhardt Jr. to the growing list of car owners searching for sponsorship. The Navy is leaving the #88 Chevy in the Nationwide Series at the end of the season, forcing Earnhardt to search for funding for the flagship car at JR Motorsports. “We were informed last week that our sponsorship with the U.S. Navy will not renew at the end of the year,” team spokesman Mike Davis said Tuesday. “It’s been an exceptional partnership since 2005, and we look forward to a strong finish to the season as Brad Keselowski and the #88 Navy team contends for a NASCAR Nationwide Series championship.”(Associated Press/Yahoo Sports)(7-8-2008)
UPDATE 2: Navy officials have decided to pull the plug on their support for a NASCAR racing team after seven seasons and concentrate instead on other types of advertising products. The decision on whether to go ahead with another year of the $7.5 million sponsorship was due on July 1. [Spokesman for the Navys chief of personnel in Arlington, Va. Capt. Jack] Hanzlick … says the move does not impact the Navys other contract with Earnhardt, a separate $800,000 deal in which the driver made fleet and other appearances for the Navy and agreed to sponsor a recruit division at Great Lakes that will form up in August and go through training with Earnhardt paying periodic visits to the recruits as they become sailors. In addition to Earnhardts own fee, the Navy also paid $1.7 million in advertising placement costs to help get the word out.(Navy Times)(7-12-2008)
