What’s the strangest sponsor you’ve ever seen on a NASCAR car? For some, it could be David Gilliland being sponsored by Waste Management. The Forest Green-Yellow paint on the 2007 car made it look like a trash truck on steroids! Speaking of enhancements like steroids, remember Kevin Conway being sponsored by Extenze in 2010? Well, sticking to the tagline of the brand, the ‘size’ of a stock car cannot be increased, but, Conway’s ‘performance’ did lead him to win the year’s Sprint Cup Series Rookie of the Year, increasing his ‘pleasure’. But, the sponsor we look at next is a bit more direct (read it uncensored).
Recently, Dale Earnhardt Jr. summed up this sponsorship, which attracted attention, generated laughs, and developed into one of NASCAR’s most memorable collaborations. However, how did a seasoned driver end up serving as its face and what made it so special?
An Unlikely Partnership That Redefined NASCAR Sponsorships
Let’s set the premise before diving into the matter. The year was 2000, and Roush Racing had just lost their primary sponsor, Valvoline. The company left to side with the MB2 Motorsports driver, Johnny Benson. The backing then arrived from medical giant, Pfizer in July. But, the medicine was ‘Viagra’. They directly sponsored the seasoned driver, Mark Martin for 2001. The 2000 season went terrible for Martin, having just one win at Goody’s 500, landing 8th on the points table. Additionally, it was the first time he had finished outside the top 5 since ’92!
In 2001, Mark Martin‘s Blue No. 6 ‘Viagra’ Ford Tauras was more than just a race car to fans. Even though there has been no official release by the team or the company about the valuation of the deal, it was believed that it was in the same ballpark as that of Jeff Gordon’s DuPont, a whopping $14 million per season. Let’s not forget the DuPont deal was described as one of the biggest deals in NASCAR history. However, the product promoted was a rolling joke and marketing oddity, with Martin even appearing in commercials for the same.
And when this old memory reappeared on The Dale Jr. Download, Junior couldn’t contain his laughter! Mark Martin was never a showy man. However, Martin managed to make it work with his straightforwardness, as Dale Jr. pointed out in his podcast. “Like Mark Martin made the Viagra sponsorship just fine. There were a few funny puns and things like that, but for the most part, he normalized the partnership,” Earnhardt Jr. said.
Anyways, 2001 saw Martin struggle, and going winless for the first time since 1996, not the kind of performance you would expect from the sponsee of a ‘performance enhancer’. But, for Viagra, product awareness was more important than brand recognition. Echoing what Dale Jr. said in his podcast, Martin’s professionalism provided Pfizer with a trustworthy ambassador, who as years passed by, impressed people with skills, landing himself in the Hall of Fame. With such potential and backing, Mark Martin is regarded as an unfortunate talent who never won a Cup series title. However, this was not the only ‘sus’ sponsorship in NASCAR history!
Dale Jr. also remembered another—the sponsorship of Legs Pantyhose, donned by Sterling Marlin in the late 1980s. It was on the lower quarter panel of the car, and when broadcasters closed up, it was evident. “He [Marlin] was the one guy in the whole garage that could have that as an associate sponsor and it was not problematic. Like Sterling could make it cool, I mean he could make anything cool,” Junior said. But, if racers are selling the product out to fans, how is NASCAR receiving its piece of cake?
NASCAR’s changed face when big brands took over
Due to the change in NASCAR sponsorship from long-term corporate agreements to a dispersed multi-sponsor model, financial stability is becoming an increasingly difficult task. Teams now depend on rotating partners, necessitating ongoing discussions, after formerly being supported by single-brand giants. The way teams function and how drivers safeguard their futures in the sport have changed as a result of this transformation.
Full-season sponsorships from companies like Budweiser, DuPont, and Lowe’s allowed NASCAR teams to prosper for many years while maintaining brand continuity and financial stability. Teams now have to adjust to a fractured sponsorship landscape as a result of the loss of that stability. Chase Briscoe has openly discussed the shifting sponsorship landscape and said, “It’s always been money-driven, but it has changed. At the Cup level, teams go out and find who they want, but there are still cases where drivers bring sponsors to secure a seat.”
As far as Denny Hamlin has taught us, the annual cost of operating a single Cup vehicle, excluding driver pay and other expenses, is approximately $18 million. Sponsorships support marketing, company expansion, and fan interaction in addition to funding racing. Leading teams like Joe Gibbs Racing and Hendrick Motorsports obtain numerous sponsorships, usually totaling between $12 million and $18 million annually, which supports their R&D. Spire Motorsports and other smaller teams depend on sponsorships to stay afloat, underscoring NASCAR’s financial disparity.
Due to this change, even the best drivers now have to find money, thus financial acumen is just as important as racing prowess. Instead of linking deals to specific drivers, Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) adopts a different strategy, combining sponsor cash into a single fund to support all four cars. Reece Kennedy, a JGR representative, explained the rationale behind this by saying, “At Joe Gibbs Racing, we’re four cars, one team. All sponsorship money goes into our overall budget and is divided evenly among the teams, no matter how much a particular sponsor pays.”
Although JGR’s pooled sponsorship approach encourages teamwork, it carries a financial risk. Despite his star power, Kyle Busch left the team after M&M’s left in 2022 because they were unable to find a successor. “Did JGR try hard enough to sell me? My answer to that is no… They offered me a contract to race there, but with no sponsor, and I didn’t think that was fair after 15 years with them,” Busch said.
Busch’s exit underscored a harsh truth: even top drivers face financial uncertainty. With sponsorship covering nearly 80% of team revenue, NASCAR teams now rely on multiple partial-season deals while leveraging digital engagement to attract partners. The era of single-sponsor dominance is over, forcing teams to adapt and redefine financial stability in the sport’s future. Here are some more controversial sponsorships for you to dive into!
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