Nationwide, which serves as the primary sponsor of Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series car, will "take the time" to assess its sponsorship following the driver's retirement, but a decision "can't take all that long as marketing plans need to be made," according to Bob Pockrass of ESPN.com. Earnhardt told Hendrick Motorsports of his decision March 29, but Nationwide was told "only in the last week." Now he "must wait for Nationwide to make a decision on what it wants to do." It could "remain with the Earnhardt family and sponsor Earnhardt's Xfinity Series team," or it could "find a new driver." Whoever it finds, the driver "won't be as popular as Earnhardt (but most likely will be cheaper)." When Nationwide "decided to leave Ricky Stenhouse Jr. for Earnhardt, it made that announcement" in May '14, the year before the change, although it was doing some races for Earnhardt later that year after National Guard "dropped its sponsorship." Nationwide Dir of Sports Marketing Jim McCoy said that the company "doesn't want to be up against timelines in the fall." Meanwhile, Hendrick "still needs to re-sign Jimmie Johnson." That "probably will happen, but Johnson certainly doesn't have a lot of years left in his career, either." If Lowe's "wanted to cut its number of races, Nationwide could be in play there" (ESPN.com, 4/26).
NEXT IN LINE FOR THE CROWN: FS1's Jeff Hammond said he can see Earnhardt in retirement being able to "carry our sport forward after Richard Petty is gone." Petty maintains a "strong fan base" despite retiring 25 years ago, and Hammond said, "That's the same thing you could see Dale Jr. doing" ("NASCAR Race Hub," FS1, 4/26). In Charlotte, Tom Sorenson wrote, "Petty believes one of his missions is to sell his sport, and he does. Earnhardt does, too" (CHARLOTTEOBSERVER.com, 4/26). However, in Tampa, Martin Fennelly writes Earnhardt's departure is an "earthquake" for NASCAR as the sport "needs him." Fennelly: "More than it should, probably. Maybe it was lazy in always thinking Junior would be there." There are some "great young talents in NASCAR," but this is a "bad time" for the sport to lose Earnhardt with attendance and TV ratings down. He was a "connecting point between old NASCAR and new NASCAR" (TAMPA BAY TIMES, 4/27).
