In the sixth annual NASCAR Sponsor Loyalty survey, recently conducted for SportsBusiness Journal/Daily by Turnkey Sports & Entertainment, NASCAR fans proved they are well in tune with the sport’s sponsors. According to the survey results, more than 67% of respondents correctly identified Goodyear as NASCAR’s official tire. That percentage is higher than any other company’s response rate among the six other sports properties studied, dating back to '07. The next-closest relationship identified among those studies was FedEx' relationship with the PGA Tour (60%). Nationwide had its best showing ever in the study. More than 41% of all fans were aware of Nationwide’s status as the official insurance company of NASCAR (54% among avids, 29% among casuals). Its 18 percentage-point increase in response rate also is the biggest year-over-year improvement in the survey among all brands tracked in the study. Coors was the only official sponsor not to top a rival brand. However, since '07, Coors’ overall awareness numbers have jumped from 6.8% to 25.8%, while rival Anheuser-Busch has dropped from 70.8% to 39.1%. A-B was NASCAR’s official beer from '87-'07 before Coors Light took over in '08. Two sponsor brands -- Visa and Sprint -- saw year-over-year declines in awareness, but both remained ahead of their respective rivals.

HOW TO READ CHART: In the soft drink category, 62.5% of avid NASCAR fans correctly identified Coca-Cola as an official NASCAR sponsor, up from 50.3% in last year's survey and 52.7% in '10. Meanwhile, 40.2% of casual NASCAR fans identified Sprint as an official NASCAR sponsor, down from 51.8% the last two years.