DOVER, Del. -- It's a continent away from the California city he was born in, far removed from the Indiana town where he first became a racing star. But Dover International Speedway is very much a home track to Jeff Gordon, and with good reason given his 18-year connection to a company that has come to define the First State.

“

Being involved with DuPont for all these years, I can't imagine working with anybody else from a primary sponsor standpoint.

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-- JEFF GORDON

This week's trip to Delaware began as so many others have for Gordon, who on Thursday was in Wilmington visiting with employees and customers of DuPont, the chemical company that's served as primary sponsor on his No. 24 car since his first Cup race at Atlanta in November 1992. Car owner Rick Hendrick sealed the deal by agreeing to use DuPont's automotive finishing products at his dealerships, and the result has blossomed into the longest-running active relationship between a driver, a team, and a sponsor in NASCAR.

It's reached the point where Gordon and DuPont have become somewhat synonymous, and nowhere is that more evident than in Delaware -- where DuPont's name is on the highway that runs in front of the Dover speedway, and roughly 8,000 residents work for the entity that locals once referred to simply as "the company." To many Gordon has become the public face of DuPont, and it's difficult to imagine him driving a race car with anything other than the company's familiar oval logo on the hood.

And yet, that very thing could be on the brink of occurring. The two-year extension that DuPont signed with Hendrick in 2008 -- and was announced at the Dover track -- runs out after this season, and the company's sponsorship plans for next year and beyond are uncertain. It's not exactly shocking, given that DuPont slashed thousands of jobs during the recession, and has scaled back some of its involvement on the No. 24 car to the point where the National Guard appeared as the vehicle's primary sponsor eight times last year. Gordon mentioned a few weeks ago that his team was in the mix to land Shell/Pennzoil, which wound up with Roger Penske. That had to be a wake-up call to anyone hoping to see the four-time champion in blue and red forever.

"Being involved with DuPont for all these years, I can't imagine working with anybody else from a primary sponsor standpoint," Gordon said at Dover. "And I didn't say they weren't coming back, I was just saying we're in discussions with them. With the economy, the way it's been in the past couple years, you just don't know exactly where it's all going to play out. I feel pretty confident that we're going to work something out with them, and continue to work with them in the future."

But as a primary sponsor, or an associate? "We're in discussions with all that right now, so we're not really ready to talk about the details," Gordon said. DuPont officials declined multiple requests for comment.

It's all part of a somewhat unsettled sponsor picture in NASCAR, one where companies are still battling latent effects of the recession, and even championship-contending teams aren't immune from sponsors changing business strategies and walking away. DuPont's future with Gordon is clouded. Kevin Harvick's team at Richard Childress Racing is losing Shell/Pennzoil to Penske after this season. Old Spice, primary sponsor of Tony Stewart's car for 14 races this season, is leaving at the end of the year. DeWalt, which backed Matt Kenseth's cars at Roush Fenway Racing since 1999, left after last season. The message seems clear -- no matter how many race victories, no matter how many championships, these days no one is safe.

"I think it has almost nothing to do with on-track performance. I think it has almost nothing to do with NASCAR. I think it has everything to do with their particular business models changing, or business opportunities that come up," said Ty Norris, vice president of Michael Waltrip Racing, which in recent days announced associate deals with two new sponsors, Tire Monkey and Monster Diesel, on Martin Truex Jr.'s No. 56 car.

"No one is safe from being affected by outside 'B-factors' -- the factors that affect other companies. If you're associated with BP/Chevron, the B-factor is what happened in the Gulf [of Mexico] ... All of these issues that have come up, they're B-factors. They're something you never plan on, and you can't control. If you'd have taken Lehman Bros. three years ago, you'd think, these guys are hemorrhaging cash and need a place to put it. And in 30 days, they're out of business. So no one is safe, not because of NASCAR, but because of the business climate."

For Old Spice, for instance, that B-factor could have been the stock of parent company Procter and Gamble, which was central in a dizzying Wall Street plunge and rally that came days before the brand announced it would leave Stewart's team. DeWalt's pullout was precipitated by a decline in the construction industry. And Shell/Pennzoil didn't leave the sport, but left RCR for likely a bigger deal with Penske. Despite the economic environment, Childress said he's had "several contacts" from potential replacements on the No. 29 car, and was confident about signing one.

"A lot of companies look at things a lot differently today, but we've got new companies already talking to us about next year," said the car owner, who has won six titles at NASCAR's highest level. "You've got to go after different companies, you've got to put together a different package to offer sponsors today than just the same package they've been getting. That's what we're doing. We're getting more creative to ensure that our sponsors get their money's worth."

NASCAR isn't alone here; there's a lot of ebb and flow in the sponsor market overall right now, including FedEx's recent decision to step aside as corporate backer of the Orange Bowl, and Budwesier's pending moves in both racing and the NFL. David Carter, executive director of the Sports Business Institute at the University of Southern California, doesn't rule out the prospect of some companies re-evaluating their NASCAR involvement because of the sport's attendance figures and television ratings, which have slipped in recent years. But getting a more accurate picture involves examination on a case-by-case basis.

"You have to go back and study these companies individually to study how damaged they were in the recession," Carter said. "Somebody like DuPont may get to the point -- not to write the obituary on that deal -- where I would imagine that relationship would be among the last they'd want to get rid of, because it provides them with such great continuity and business development opportunities, I would imagine. At that stage, maybe you pare back other areas of marketing hoping to hold on to your NASCAR deal with Gordon. Maybe it's just that difficult to pencil out, and that may have nothing to do with Jeff Gordon. But he brings such a hefty price tag. Deals of that magnitude are either the first one to get cut or the last one to get cut, based on priorities. I would imagine it's something they'd rather not do."

Norris points out that DuPont has never really been a consumer brand, and sells its products primarily to other companies. "They're always business-to-business, and they entertain customers and things of that nature. And they've probably entertained the same customers, the same customers for a long time, and they want to reevaluate," he said. "But anyone who associates themselves so deeply with a driver, it's tough for them to say, 'I need to make a change.'"

For fans of Gordon, such a change would indeed be startling, like seeing Richard Petty backed by a company other than STP. "Think about what it would be like to be the company that comes in to replace DuPont," Carter said. "It would almost be like the renaming of a big stadium. People don't easily pick up the name of that new venue. They always associate it with what it was called before the name change."

In that regard, like Mile High Stadium or Candlestick Park, the No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet could live on for some time, even if the company decides to step aside as primary sponsor after this season. Should that happen, it would indeed be strange to see Jeff Gordon showing up each weekend in a firesuit other than the one he's sported for nearly two decades. And for one driver, trips to Delaware wouldn't carry quite as much significance.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.