Negotiations have broken down between Wal-Mart and Hendrick Motorsports over sponsorship of the #24 Chevy driven by Jeff Gordon. However, NASCAR’s new licensing body, the NASCAR Teams Licensing Trust, remains confident a deal will be struck to make Wal-Mart the exclusive mass retailer for the sport’s apparel. Those talks between the trust and Wal-Mart are ongoing, according to industry sources, and a deal is expected to be in place in time for the 2011 season. Wal-Mart had been deep into discussions with Hendrick Motorsports to sponsor Gordon’s car, but Wal-Mart’s interest in a primary sponsorship on a single car has waned. One source said Wal-Mart 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 Wal-Mart and Hendrick had created a significant level of angst among the other Sprint Cup teams. They had expressed concern over how Wal-Mart, 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 Wal-Mart, Hendrick continues its search for a primary sponsor on the #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.(SportsBusiness Journal / Sporting News)(9-6-2010)
