Teams in the NASCAR Cup Series simply cannot sustain in the sport without stable sponsorship at this age. Securing financial aid from partners is the biggest challenge that team owners face today and the lack of it is one of the biggest reasons why teams are forced to shut shop. Stewart-Haas Racing is the biggest and most recent example of them all.
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The racing outfit owned by Tony Stewart and Gene Haas has been steadily losing sponsors over the past few years due to a lack of performance on the track among various other reasons. Discussing this in a recent episode of Actions Detrimental, Denny Hamlin touched upon how there are only three teams in the sport that have mastered the art of obtaining reliant sponsorship.
He said, “I think that the only people that have the staying power in our sport for forever and ever are Penske and Hendrick. It’s why they probably win the bulk of the races. I mean, Gibbs, you can definitely throw there as well. They’re the only ones that can sustain their sponsorship because of the B2B that they leverage to get that sponsorship.”
Organizations like Team Penske and Hendrick Motorsports transcend stock car racing. They’re involved in various facets of business apart from motorsports and this provides them a platform through which they can create new bonds, such as in racing sponsorship, with their partners. Hamlin believes that this ability is what makes the smaller teams so very fragile.
How do teams like Team Penske secure sponsorship?
Hamlin continued to explain how the concept of sponsorship from B2B relationships works. He used Team Penske and Shell as an example and noted, “Penske with Shell Oil. They have a lot of trucks going down the road and when they say we’re going to exclusively buy your fuel and oil and things like that, lubricants from you, that’s a big number to Shell.”
“So, they say, ‘Okay, we’re willing to sponsor your race team if you do that.’ It’s just something that those guys have a strategic advantage over.” This is something Hendrick Motorsports does with NAPA Auto Parts. The driver added that most of the brands that are seen on the cars of these teams are in direct business relationships with them outside the avenue of racing.
This breakdown makes it easy to see how tough it is for smaller names like Front Row Motorsports and Wood Brothers Racing to compete in the highest order. It also clarifies why Hamlin and other team owners have been involved in the revenue-share battle with NASCAR for such a long time.
