Farmers Insurance signed a three-year deal late last week to become the primary sponsor of Hendrick Motorsports' No. 5 car, beginning in '12 when Kasey Kahne replaces Mark Martin as the car's driver. Sources said the deal makes Farmers the primary sponsor on the car for 22 races. Terms of the agreement were not available, but typical primary sponsorships sell for as much as $15M. The agreement comes less than a month after the Farmers logo made its first appearance at a NASCAR race on the No. 25 car during the Sprint All-Star Race and builds on the insurer's recent surge in sports sponsorships. Over the last two years, it has signed on as the title sponsor of a PGA Tour event at Torrey Pines, the naming-rights partner for a new NFL stadium in L.A. and as the primary sponsor for five NASCAR races this season on the No. 5 car. At the time of signing its initial deal with Hendrick in April, Farmers President of Enterprise Marketing Paul Patsis said, "It's hard to ignore NASCAR and the NFL. They dominate sports. This seemed like a natural extension for us." Farmers is the second new sponsor Hendrick Motorsports has brought into NASCAR in the last year. At the end of '10, it signed a deal with the AARP Foundation to sponsor its No. 24 car driven by Jeff Gordon. Hendrick Motorsports declined to comment.
