UPS notified NASCAR and Roush Fenway Racing that it plans to end its sponsorship of the sport and team following the ‘14 Sprint Cup season. The move comes after UPS in ’12 dropped its full-season primary sponsorship of the No. 6 Cup entry then driven by David Ragan. The company has shifted its focus over the last several years from NASCAR to college sports, signing one of the first national sponsorships with IMG College. UPS signed a four-year, $100M deal with 68 colleges in August ’11. UPS is the latest in a series of blue-chip sponsors to end their official NASCAR agreements, including PNG and DirecTV. Meanwhile, NASCAR added HP and Sherwin-Williams as sponsors this year. NASCAR Chief Sales Officer Jim O’Connell in a statement said, “UPS has been a fantastic partner to NASCAR over the last decade-and-a-half. As we celebrate its long and successful tenure, we also welcome seven new companies to the family of Official NASCAR Partners. Additionally in 2013, more than 50 new sponsors have entered the sport at the team level alone. Some of the world’s largest and most admired brands continue to invest in NASCAR -- including one-in-four Fortune 500 companies -- because their sponsorships of teams, tracks and the sanctioning body help drive business.” UPS PR Dir Susan Rosenberg added in a statement, "UPS has enjoyed tremendous success through its partnership with NASCAR, including sponsorships at the league, team and track level. The business-to-business opportunities provided within NASCAR have proven valuable to UPS and have helped achieve desired results and accomplished the goals we set forth. The UPS decision to exit NASCAR is strictly a business decision to align with new business priorities." UPS had a long history in NASCAR and was one of the first in the sport to effectively make a driver the public face of its brand by featuring Dale Jarrett in a multiyear campaign. Known as “Race the Truck,” the humorous campaign showed the company trying to convince the driver to race its “Big Brown” truck in a race.
