Cessna, the Kansas-based airplane manufacturer, and its parent company Textron signed a multi-year agreement with Ganassi Racing that will make them a co-primary sponsor of Earnhardt Ganassi Racing’s No. 1 Sprint Cup Chevy driven by Jamie McMurray. The deal, which is expected to be announced tomorrow at Concord Regional Airport in North Carolina, makes Cessna and Textron an official sponsor of Ganassi’s NASCAR and IndyCar teams. Terms of the agreement were not available, but sources familiar with the deal said it is a cash deal. Ganassi lost longtime sponsor of the No. 1 car Bass Pro last year when the company left for Stewart-Haas Racing. That left Ganassi with 18 races to fill on the No. 1 car. The combination of the new Cessna/Textron deal and a co-primary agreement with McDonald’s, which has sponsored the No. 1 car since '10, leaves Ganassi with only four races to sell on the No. 1 car. The Cessna agreement expands on the associate sponsorship the airplane company signed last August with Ganassi’s four IndyCar teams. Textron is publicly traded and has a number of subsidiaries including Bell Helicopter; E-Z Go, a golf cart manufacturer; Jacboson, a landscaping machinery company; and Kautex, an automotive supplier that makes engine camshafts and other products. Its market cap is $7.67B.
