Racing sponsorships can be great, long-term agreements between a company that is seeing benefit in its advertising dollars or they can be disastrous, short-term follies. Most fall somewhere in between. The truly special deals are the ones where the racer and sponsor become synonymous with one another. Several of the deals on this list are no longer active for one reason or another, but they all had a large-scale impact on both the sponsor company and the entity being sponsored when they were active.
The Top 11 Best Motorsports Sponsorships
11) Wynns/ Don Garlits: Don Garlits first put a Wynns decal on his car back in 1963. It rode the flanks of Swamp Rat III. Wynns would remain on the sides of Garlits’ dragsters all the way through Swamp Rat XXIII, nearly 30 years later in 1977. Racing fans thought of one thing when they thought Wynns for nearly three decades: Don Garlits.
10) Hot Wheels Snake/Mongoose: Most pundits rank the deal struck between Hot Wheels, Don Prudhomme, and Tom McEwen as the landmark drag racing sponsorship deal as it ushered in a time when companies outside of the automotive parts and supply industry were brought into the sport at a high level. Hot Wheels sold zillions of little Funny Cars and the two men became near household names across America.
9) Elf/Formula 1: Elf is a large European oil company and its name has been appearing on signage, race cars, and all other manner of advertising attached to Formula One racing for more than 40 years. Starting in 1968, the company has had its name attached to more than 150 Formula One wins as a sponsor. Look at any vintage road racing photo from Europe and try not to see an Elf sign. It’s virtually impossible.
8) Rolex/Jackie Stewart: This relationship started in 1968 after Jackie Stewart, while traveling after the Indy 500, used some of his race winnings to buy a Rolex in a Texas store. Later that year he was contacted by the brass at Rolex for permission to use his photos in advertisements. Forty one years later, his active driving days long past, he’s still pitching for Rolex. We’d always heard of Scotsmen being cheap!
7) Dodge/Plymouth Landy/Sox Performance Clinics: There were no more legendary names in the Stock and Super Stock ranks during their heyday in the 1960s than Sox and Martin or Dick Landy. Plymouth and Dodge put their sponsored guys to good use, having them tour the country, dealer by dealer, putting on performance clinics, teaching the young gearheads in the area how to tune and drive their stuff like the big boys. The events were akin to the circus coming to town for anyone who loved cars. To think that Sox and Martin were one free car away from signing a longterm deal with Mercury has got to make you laugh. Their middle names are practically Plymouth.
6) Marlboro/Penske: Here’s a relationship so strong, the sponsor company can’t even run its logos on the car, yet it still pays the fee. In 1990 Marlboro became the primary sponsor for Roger Penske’s open-wheel racing operation. Through the years and with various rules and regulations regarding tobacco advertising, the team has been able to run Marlboro’s name on the car at some points and others they have not. In 2007 all vestiges of Marlboro’s logo were removed from Penske’s cars, aside from the red and white paint. Phillip Morris, the parent company of Marlboro still pays Penske sponsorship money.
5) Castrol/Force: For 24 years Castrol’s name has been the most prominent one to be found on the side, roof, escape hatch, or spoiler spill plate of a John Force Funny Car. John has always done well by them. If it was not winners’ circle recognition it was publicity because he had exploded, flipped, or burned a Funny Car to the ground in a more spectacular fashion than anyone before him. He also never misses an opportunity to name drop when on camera. Not only is Force one of the great drag racers of all time, he’s also one of the sport’s greatest pitchmen.
4) Budweiser/ Kenny Bernstein: Recently it was announced that this 30-year relationship would conclude at the end of the 2009 season. It was an announcement that many saw looming after Budweiser was snapped up by Belgian brewer InBev. Kenny wrangled the sponsorship by literally parking his Funny Car at the employee gate of the St. Louis brewery. Company officials were amazed to see the hordes of workers swarming around the car and Bernstein pounced on the chance to close the deal. It will be a sad day in drag racing not to have the Bud King streaking down the quarter mile.
3) STP/Richard Petty: Petty and STP hooked up in 1972 and are still involved to this day. STP was with Petty during the high-profile glory years of his career along with his eventual decline. Petty is loved almost universally by NASCAR fans, and it was unthinkable to see Petty in a car without STP’s logo slathered down the side.
2) Winston/ NHRA Drag Racing: RJ Reynolds Tobacco company, using its Winston brand, became the title sponsor of NHRA drag racing in 1972 and held the spot until 2001. It can be argued that things have not been the same since. Aside from sponsoring several cars, special races, and the entire points fund, Winston did loads of other smallish, behind the scenes work like providing paint to the tracks for their guard walls and timing towers. Much like Stock Car racing, professional drag racing would never have achieved its current level of exposure without the cash infusion from Winston. The ethics argument can be made all day long on the merit of promoting smoking, but the business case was an unquestionable success.
1) Winston/NASCAR: Sure we’re supposed to be calling it the “Sprint Cup” but let’s face it: Unless you are a 10 year old kid, you’re thinking Winston Cup every time you see a Stock Car circling a track. Winston provided untold millions in funding for the rights to the title sponsorship and they also put up specialty races and challenges, like the Winston Million that Bill Elliott won in 1985. There would be no massive television package, mega-marketing deals, or seven-figure team budgets these days without the foundation set by Winston.
