Stewart-Haas Racing this morning announced a multiyear deal with Nevada-based on-the-go healthy-snack maker Nature’s Bakery to serve as the main primary sponsor of Danica Patrick’s No. 10 Chevy starting in ’16. Nature’s Bakery, a family-owned company founded in ’10 that sells products in all 50 U.S. states and 22 countries, replaces GoDaddy as Patrick’s top partner. It will be the primary sponsor for 28 of the 36 Sprint Cup races. While not disclosing the precise length of the contract, SHR co-Owner Tony Stewart during this morning’s press conference said it “is not a short-term deal by any means.” He indicated that it is at least a three-year pact. Financial details were not mentioned, but a source had previously said that SHR was seeking $18M annually to fill the void left by GoDaddy. The deal came together by NASCAR’s highly touted B2B infrastructure: SHR is co-owned by Gene Haas, whose Haas Automation machine-parts company did business with Nature’s Bakery, which needs the parts for its ovens. Amid the search for a new sponsor, a Haas Automation employee asked Nature’s Bakery exec Sam Mason, son of Founder Dave Mason, if his family would be interested in the partnership. Talks consummated from there. Dave Mason, who had numerous members of his family at today’s press conference and described himself as a NASCAR fan of 20 years, said the company was “not looking at all” for this partnership, but is now looking at “leveraging this opportunity with the NASCAR fanbase.” As part of the move, SHR also has signed a multiyear extension with Patrick to stay on as driver of the No. 10. She said that she did not talk to any other teams during the free-agent process and felt "fortunate" to have the sort of stability where she didn't need to.
DUSTING OFF THE WELCOME MAT: While Nature’s Bakery is not a Fortune 500 company -- and Dave Mason said there are no current plans to take it public -- Stewart called the deal a “huge victory” for the sport of NASCAR because it marks a new company coming into the sport in a significant fashion. Patrick said she is excited about this partnership because she has a healthy-living lifestyle already, and “in this day, authenticity is hard to come by – but recognized.” She added she does not currently “know the scope of all the things were going to do” from a marketing standpoint, but that Nature’s Bakery has an “open mind to exploring all kinds of ways” to activate.
