Foster: Furniture Row Racing closure shows the importance of sponsors in NASCAR
By Kyle Foster, photo courtesy of Don Lex (LuckyDuckImages.com)
Twitter: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
In today’s era of NASCAR racing funding is even more important than ever before.
So, when news broke on Tuesday that the No. 78 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Furniture Row Racing team would cease operations at season’s end it came as a shock to me as a NASCAR fan.
The team had announced earlier in the season that 5-hour Energy would be leaving at the season, and I thought nothing of it due to the fact other co-sponsors Bass Pro Shops and Auto-Owners Insurance covered 21 of the 36 points-paying races. However, 5-hour Energy sponsored the 78 for the Advance Auto Parts Clash at Daytona and the Monster Energy All-Star race both of which are non-points paying events. The amount of funds that is lost by the 5-hour Energy loss comes out to about $1.1 Million, which is a heftier amount of money than even I thought it was.
Similarly in 2018 Lowes announced it will no longer sponsor the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Cup Series car driven by seven-time champion Jimmie Johnson at the end of the season. These are both eerily similar to me because Truex Jr. and Johnson have both won Cup Series titles and in the fact that two longtime NASCAR sponsors are now leaving the sport.
Even with none of the 39 points and non-points paying events funded Hendrick Motorsports signed Jimmie Johnson to a three-year contract extension earlier this season, which is a bit of a mind-baffler due to the fact sponsors are what run these teams.
This season the 78 team and driver Martin Truex Jr. have won four races so far to go along with 15 top-five finishes, 15 top-ten finishes, four poles, and 706 laps led. He currently is in third place in the driver standings after 25 races.
Truex Jr. won the Toyota/Savemart 350 at Sonoma Raceway on June 24th.
With today’s announcement it means Truex Jr. will be a free-agent at the conclusion of the season. He’s been rumored to go to the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota or the No. 41 Stewart-Haas racing Ford. Whether he goes to JGR or SHR he will still be one of top cars in the Cup Series come next season. I can only imagine Truex Jr. being teammates with Kyle Busch or Kevin Harvick, who along with Truex, are being called “The Big Three” so far this season due to their dominance over the rest of the field.
We shall see where Truex Jr. and his crew chief Cole Pearn end up next season, but man is this a blow to the NASCAR brand. If a change doesn’t happen with NASCAR and sponsorship NASCAR is going simply evaporate down to nothing.
