Sponsor to serve as primary on No. 88 XFINITY ride through 2017
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MARTINSVILLE, Va. — As the second year of their partnership nears an end, both Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Goody’s are looking for more from their relationship as the calendar approaches 2015. Judging by the news emerging Sunday morning from Martinsville Speedway, both sides did more than enough to up the ante.
Goody’s announced Sunday that the brand would expand its support of the Earnhardt-owned JR Motorsports team, serving as the primary sponsor for one NASCAR XFINITY Series race each season through 2017. Earnhardt will take the wheel of the operation’s No. 88 Chevrolet Camaro for each race, including the company’s primary sponsorship debut with JRM next season at Texas Motor Speedway.
The deal is an extension of the partnership that Earnhardt struck with the headache-relief powder manufacturer before the 2013 season, when he joined forces with original Goody’s spokesman and NASCAR royalty in “King” Richard Petty, the seven-time NASCAR premier series champion.
“It’s great when you can bring in a partner that starts off as a personal service agreement, they get an understanding of how our company works and get a good experience from that and want to grow that into sponsorship of a race car — it helps us a ton,” Earnhardt said. “Anytime we can get a sponsor grown from a personal service agreement to where they’re on the quarterpanel of a car is a success for us. We’re in the business of racing cars and trying to fund a race team, so them becoming a part of that process is really important for us.”
Besides the bigger sponsorship footprint, Goody’s also sweetened the deal with what’s either a unique technological advance or an extreme gimmick — a talking car. In the latest commercial video, shot with help from personnel on his own production company Hammerhead Entertainment, Earnhardt’s voice emerges from a No. 88 Chevy in Goody’s livery parked along the main drag in Davidson, North Carolina, startling passersby and giving a good-natured ribbing to the curious.
If the ability to have his car talk was available come Sunday, would it come in handy to tell his rivals to move over while working through Martinsville’s trademark rush hour traffic?
“I don’t know if any of them guys would listen as well as those people did walking around on the street,” Earnhardt said, “but honking and playing jokes on people is always a good time.”
Goody’s presence in NASCAR has been well-established, as the company signed Petty as its spokesman in 1977. The addition of Earnhardt to the Goody’s driver lineup was intended to appeal to the next generation of NASCAR fans.
The subsidiary of Tarrytown, New York-based Prestige Brands Holdings, Inc., has also been a longtime supporter of Martinsville Speedway. Goody’s partnership with the .526-mile oval reached its 27th anniversary this season; title sponsorship of the track’s October race for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series continues through 2015.
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