5-hour’s spend this year is valued at around $10M with 14 races as primary sponsorGETTY IMAGES
5-hour Energy will not renew its deal with Furniture Row Racing and is planning to exit the sport of NASCAR after this year, the team announced yesterday. 5-hour’s spend this year is valued at around $10M with 14 races as primary sponsor, leaving Denver-based FRR in the position of needing to find a sizable amount of replacement funding. After a multiyear stint at the now-defunct Michael Waltrip Racing, 5-hour joined FRR in ’17 as the primary sponsor of its No. 77 Toyota driven by Erik Jones before it switched over this year to splitting primaries with Bass Pro Shops on the No. 78 driven by Martin Truex Jr. FRR will have just a couple months to try to find replacement sponsorship before most companies lock in their marketing budget for next year, and team Owner Barney Visser could be forced to decide whether he wants to use his own funding again to supplement the team after finally being able to stop doing that this year (Adam Stern, Staff Writer). 5-hour parent company Living Essentials President of Sales Rise Meguiar praised FRR and said that it was "simply a business decision." FRR President Joe Garone said that a new sponsor will "become one of the highest-profile brands in NASCAR and a partner with the namesake Furniture Row, Bass Pro Shops, Auto-Owners Insurance, Toyota and Denver Mattress" (AP, 7/18).
JUST A COINCIDENCE? NBCSPORTS.com's Dustin Long noted the decision by 5-hour comes as Truex’ contract with FRR "ends after this season." Truex last weekend at Kentucky Speedway said, "We’ve got some stuff to figure out, for sure. I don’t plan on doing anything different. Just give the team some time to figure things out. We’re all kind of trying to figure it all out together so we can make it happen." Truex said what needed to be figured out was "sponsorship commitments and all the stuff that goes along with that" (NBCSPORTS.com, 7/18).
TAKING HITS: YAHOO SPORTS' Nick Bromberg wrote 5-hour leaving Truex is a "huge blow for NASCAR." With 5-Hour’s exit, major sponsors for each of the last two Cup Series champions are now "planning to leave NASCAR at the end of the season." Lowe’s previously announced that it would "end its sponsorship of Jimmie Johnson" at the end of'18. NASCAR’s future is "very sponsor-dependent and the well of sponsors seems to be getting drier" (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 7/18). In Charlotte, Brendan Marks notes other significant brands who have "decreased or entirely cut their NASCAR sponsorships in recent years include Target, Home Depot, Dollar General, Subway and UPS, among others" (CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, 7/19).
