Camping World is happy with its first year of sponsorship of the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, the company’s director of motorsports said Friday. “We definitely are [happy with it],” said Camping World’s Kurt Hunt prior to the Camping World East Series race Friday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. “The vital signs are good there. The TV numbers, at a time when the numbers [of other series] aren’t as strong as people would like them to be, are strong there. The truck count is strong and we’re seeing first-time winners.” On reports that his company wants to get out of the series sponsorship, Hunt said they “certainly are untrue.” Camping World hasn’t necessarily had the presence that former sponsor Craftsman had at the track and Camping World representatives have not been out front and center at many events. Hunt said there will be a major promotion soon that will be announced for the late summer and fall. “One of the things that probably helped fuel some rumors was the fact that we were getting away from sponsoring on-track with individual teams and drivers,” said Hunt, whose team ended its sponsorship of Kevin Harvick Inc. when it assumed the truck series entitlement. “That’s a tremendous duplication and an unnecessary duplication. We’re not as out there. There were races where sometimes we had two or three cars in the same race. You go from being way exposed on an on-track sense to changing your program to being a series sponsor and it’s really just a change in philosophy for us.”(SceneDaily.com)(6-27-2009)
