Navy leaving Earnhardt’s No. 88 at season end
By JENNA FRYER, AP Auto Racing Writer
51 minutes ago
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP)—Add Dale Earnhardt Jr. to the growing list of car owners searching for sponsorship.
The Navy is leaving the No. 88 Chevrolet 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 No. 88 Navy team contends for a NASCAR Nationwide Series championship.”
Keselowski gave the Navy its first NASCAR victory last month with a Nationwide win at Milwaukee. He’s second in the series standings, and trails Clint Bowyer by 202 points.
The Navy has been sponsor of Earnhardt’s first car as a NASCAR owner since the formation of JR Motorsports. Last year, he merged his operation with Hendrick Motorsports and now fields two cars out of his new shop in Mooresville.
The second car, the No. 5, has been driven by multiple drivers and has used multiple sponsors all season. Mark Martin drove that car to Earnhardt’s first win as a car owner at Las Vegas in March.
Sponsorship woes are affecting many NASCAR teams in this economic downturn. Just last week, Chip Ganassi shuttered his No. 40 Sprint Cup Series team driven by Dario Franchitti because of a lack of funding.
Several other teams have stopped coming to races—the number of cars that attempted to qualify for Saturday night’s Sprint Cup race at Daytona was down eight from the 53 who attempted to make the season-opening Daytona 500. Of those, six lacked full sponsorship.
By current count, only 24 Sprint Cup teams have secured full sponsorship for 2009 and the numbers in the Nationwide Series are likely much gloomier.
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Just when I think you said the stupidest thing ever .....You keep talking To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
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With the way the little brat is running I don't see Jr. having to look too hard for a sponsor. For some reason I cannot stand him. Haven't figured out exactly why not though.
With the way the little brat is running I don't see Jr. having to look too hard for a sponsor. For some reason I cannot stand him. Haven't figured out exactly why not though.
Ditto. Except I think the reason is he thinks too highly of himself. Sometimes being sure of yourself is a very good thing, but he's to the point of cocky every time he's interviewed.. especially when asked about mistakes he's made.
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Why not exactly? Are you against all military advertisement?
No but I know some of our folks in the military don't have all the equipment they need. Maybe the money should go to them? Or maybe when they compete in Nascar the branch of service on the car should have active personnel from that branch of service attending the car? I think this country has bigger problems than this. God bless those folks, They protect our freedom.
No but I know some of our folks in the military don't have all the equipment they need. Maybe the money should go to them? Or maybe when they compete in Nascar the branch of service on the car should have active personnel from that branch of service attending the car? I think this country has bigger problems than this. God bless those folks, They protect our freedom.
1) A lot of races, if not all, servicemen from their respective service get special privileges before and after the race (Ie, I know there are a lot of National Guardsmen around Jr's Nationwide team), that's part of the sponsorship.
2) Sponsorship is simply a form of advertising which serves to draw in recruits. It's basic economics that to get recruits they need to spend money. So yeah, in theory it would be nice to see that money spent on body armor and weapons, but in reality there needs to be X amount spend on advertising and recruiting so I don't think it's fair to think that anyone is getting screwed out of equipment by this money being spent on Nascar. If it wasn't spent on Nascar, it would go to some other form of advertising.
3) The Armed Services have a huge Nascar following and to see their service displayed on the hood of a car is a form of pride for many servicemen.
4) Compared to the budget of our military, who cares about 10 or 20 million spent on Nascar anyway
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