FedEx is expected to continue reducing its sponsorship presence with Joe Gibbs Racing after this season and could conclude the longtime deal altogether, according to people familiar with the matter, a move that would end one of the more winning driver-sponsor combinations in NASCAR history.
The Memphis-based global delivery and logistics giant has been a major sponsor of the team since 2005, and at its height was spending close to $25 million a year just in rights fees to JGR. The company or its divisions and sub brands over the years sponsored every race on Denny Hamlin’s No. 11 Toyota during NASCAR’s 38-event schedule up until 2021, when it began cutting back and JGR started finding other companies to fill the open positions.
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JGR has been in the market looking for new sponsors for the No. 11 for next year, sources say, and that’s being done in anticipation of FedEx dropping more – and possibly all – of its remaining primary positions. It could not be confirmed whether JGR was still holding last-ditch talks with FedEx and the sides have yet to comment on the matter. FedEx did not respond to a request for comment, while JGR declined comment.
FedEx has been reshuffling its sports marketing portfolio in recent years amid a broader cost-cutting drive, including this past offseason ending its longtime stadium naming-rights deal with the Commanders, the franchise that JGR owner Joe Gibbs coached to three Super Bowl wins. That deal had been in place since 1999.