Out with the duck calls, in with the duct hoses.
Texas Motor Speedway has signed longtime partner O’Reilly Auto Parts to replace Duck Commander as title sponsor of its spring NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race.
The sponsorship, which a source said is worth low seven figures annually and is being described as a long-term deal, will be announced this week and see the race renamed the O’Reilly Auto Parts 500, the first of which will be held April 9, 2017.
O’Reilly, which first sponsored a race at TMS in the Camping World Truck Series in 1999, two years after the track opened, will continue to sponsor the track’s November Xfinity Series race, though that event will be rebranded to the O’Reilly Auto Parts 300 beginning in 2017. The company gets Sprint Cup-level signage, tickets, hospitality space and a display in the track’s fan zone as part of the deal.
Since it now has a year-round presence at TMS, the auto parts chain, which had sales of $7.97 billion and net income of $931 million in fiscal year 2015, will undertake a yearlong, national race activation campaign at its more than 4,500 stores in 44 states.
O’Reilly made it known a couple of years ago that it would be interested in stepping up if the opportunity arose, said Eddie Gossage, TMS president.
“That’s always a good thing when you see someone who gets in initially with us as a truck series sponsor, moves up to Xfinity and then ultimately moves up to the top rung,” Gossage said. “That shows you they’re liking what they’re doing and being very deliberate about it.”
Activation details have yet to be finalized, but the in-store effort likely will involve a sweepstakes of some sort and tout the chain’s claimed differentiator of being able to restock any part at any of its stores overnight due to having a sprawling set of distribution centers.
O’Reilly, which negotiated the deal in-house, declined to be interviewed for this story.
