Pure Michigan Reaches Three-Year Deal To Title Sponsor MIS Sprint Cup Race

Michigan's tourism promotion arm yesterday announced a three-year $4.2M deal "to sponsor the Aug. 19 NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Michigan International Speedway,” according to Doug Guthrie of the DETROIT NEWS. The new deal “puts the Pure Michigan name on NASCAR's well publicized schedule before the season starts next month with the Daytona 500.” It also includes “naming rights negotiated separately with race broadcaster ESPN guarantying repeated national exposure through the network's television and radio promotions during the 2014 NASCAR season.” The television deal “actually costs more than race sponsorship: $2.51 million to ESPN over the life of the contract as compared with $1.87 million to the track's owner, International Speedway Corp.” Michigan Economic Development Corp. VP George Zimmerman said that being mentioned repeatedly on ESPN “extends the reach of the nationwide $12 million Pure Michigan television advertising campaign” (DETROIT NEWS, 1/12). In Detroit, Mike Brudenell notes Pure Michigan “was the title sponsor of the 2011 Sprint Cup race at MIS on Aug. 21, the first time a state's branding agency ever sponsored NASCAR's premier stock car series.” Zimmerman said, “We estimated we got about $9 million worth of promotion through our sponsorship of the Pure Michigan 400 (last year)" (DETROIT FREE PRESS, 1/12).

I CAN SEE CLEARLY NOW: YAHOO SPORTS’ Jay Busbee reported NASCAR driver Kurt Busch will be “getting some sponsor love from Tag Heuer Eyewear.” The company “already has a personal-services agreement with Busch, which means he wears their product whenever he's out in public.” Now the logo “will decorate Busch's car for three races: the Bud Shootout (where it'll be the primary sponsor) and the Daytona 500 and Kobalt Tools 400 in Las Vegas, where it will be an associate sponsor” (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 1/11).