Bobby Labonte, in the No. 19 Hunt's/Van Camp's Chevrolet, passes Paul Menard, during the CarQuest Auto Parts 300 at Lowe's Motor Speedway. Credit: Nick Laham/Getty Images

ConAgra: Out of the fridge, onto the track

Remember when you could tell what sort of NASCAR fan a person was by looking in the garage? Names like Purolator, STP, Motorcraft, GM Goodwrench, Valvoline and Havoline told more about a fan's loyalty than anything else.

Those days are gone, replaced by a new location with a better indication for how a particular fan's feelings run.

It's the refrigerator-freezer, the laundry room and the kitchen cabinets that tell that story these days.

ConAgra Foods, one of North America's largest packaged food companies, has long been a supporter of motorsports. Its Banquet brand was a team sponsor for Travis Carter in NASCAR, and Mama Rosa's Pizza was a top-line drag racing sponsor in the mid-1990s. Slim Jim, a name synonymous with the Labonte family, is also a ConAgra product.

Bobby Labonte, the only driver to win a NASCAR Busch Series title as well as a Nextel Cup crown, returns to the ConAgra fold this season with an eight-race Busch Series program designed to showcase four premier ConAgra brands.

Bobby Labonte Credit: CIA Stock Photo

"We're pleased to expand our racing relationship with Bobby, and excited to have additional involvement in the NASCAR Busch Series," said Mike Hargrave, ConAgra Foods vice president of Sponsorship and Event Marketing. "We look forward to Bobby having great success with the Banquet, Eckrich, Hunt's and Slim Jim cars this racing season."

ConAgra is no slouch when it comes to picking winners in racing, and Labonte, in addition to being one of the most popular drivers in the sport, is also a consummate pitchman. His work for Interstate Batteries, especially the television commercials he's done with team owner Joe Gibbs, is first-rate, and as was mentioned earlier, he's a long-time ConAgra favorite, driving the Slim Jim car to the Busch Series title.

The company also has an extensive relationship with Joe Gibbs Racing, having sponsorship deals with Tony Stewart as well as Labonte and the teams. ConAgra itself has been an associate sponsor of Labonte's since 2003.

Using the Busch Series as an additional outlet has become popular lately among sponsors. Unilever, one of ConAgra's prime competitors, has had its Hungry Driver program up and running for a while, and ConAgra's eight-race Busch deal with Labonte to highlight four of its brands is a horse of the same color.

Labonte and JGR kicked off the new association last month at Lowe's Motor Speedway, with Labonte driving a Hunt's-sponsored Chevrolet in the CarQuest 300. He'll run that scheme again at Bristol in August.

Banquet will be on the car in Chicago, Richmond and Kansas, while Eckrich is the sponsor for Michigan. Slim Jim returns to the Busch Series at Texas and Phoenix in November.

NASCAR BUSINESS •   More business news and features •   Have a story idea for Ron? Click here  to send it! ALSO •   Driver Page: B. Labonte

Each of the tracks has some sort of significance to Labonte or ConAgra, which is a unique twist these days. Mostly, it's about markets and entry points and expansion, but this time it seems to be about the racing.

"Bristol was where I got my first pole and my first win in the Busch Series," Labonte said. "I was born in Texas, got my first Nextel Cup pole at Richmond and Banquet has sponsored the Cup race at Kansas for a few years now. So, there's a lot of history for me at these tracks."

No doubt you'll recognize some of ConAgra's brands. ACT II, Armour, Blue Bonnet, Butterball, Chef Boyardee, Fleischmann's, Gulden's, Knott's Berry Farm, La Choy, Libby's, Manwich, Marie Callender's, Orville Redenbacher, Peter Pan, Swiss Miss, Van Camp's Wesson and Wolf are just some of the brands under the ConAgra umbrella.

Rotating the brands on the car means more bang for bucks, and it also is a popular marketing tactic in modern-day NASCAR. Food companies like ConAgra tend to do this a lot because they have so many brands to promote, but automotive endemics like Valvoline and Havoline (just to name two) do it as well. Valvoline, being a part-owner of the No. 10 car, is especially savvy at switching schemes to promote things like Eagle One car care products and its synthetic oils.

More than just trying to get new paint schemes on the track, ConAgra knows Labonte is bound to be successful when he goes Busch racing. In a pair of Busch starts in 2004, Labonte finished in the top 15 with Banquet on the car. He made one other Busch start that season, which also resulted in a top-15, and those races were his first in the Busch Series since 1999.

The Michigan and Bristol races are important from a marketing standpoint when you consider their sponsors. Michigan has GFS Marketplace as its Busch Series race sponsor, and Food City backs Bristol's Busch bash. Both are solid ConAgra customers.

Business and pleasure usually don't mix, but in the case of ConAgra Foods and Bobby Labonte this season, it seems an exception has been made. Partnerships are usually driven by the marketplace, and this one is no different, but it seems as if in thinking it through, both team and sponsor allowed racing to dictate at least a little of what will happen.