DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Joe Gibbs Racing officials have begun the process of replacing soon-to-be departed primary sponsor Dollar General, announcing an expanded program with DeWalt at Daytona International Speedway on Thursday for the organization’s No. 20 Toyota with driver Matt Kenseth.
The agreement, the length of which was described as “multiple years” by team owner Joe Gibbs, includes four of this season’s upcoming NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races — at Chicago, Dover, Kansas and Homestead. Those races were previously slated for Dollar General sponsorship.
Additionally, DeWalt will serve as the primary sponsor for the team in 15 Sprint Cup races next season.
Kenseth, 44, has 37 career Sprint Cup victories and won the Sprint Cup championship in 2003. The DeWalt announcement silences any talk of retirement shadowing the Cambridge, Wisconsin native.
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“I made my first (Sprint) Cup start with DeWalt and I hope to make my last Cup start with DeWalt, not today of course but hopefully a few years down the road,” Kenseth said.
“We don’t talk (publicly) about our contracts and stuff with our drivers but I will say this, our plan is that Matt’s going to retire here (at JGR),” Gibbs said. “So that’s what we’d say.”
JGR fields four full-time Sprint Cup entries for Kenseth, Kyle Busch, the defending series champion, Denny Hamlin, winner of this year’s Daytona 500, and Carl Edwards, a winner of 27 races and two-time runner-up in the points battle. It’s NASCAR XFINITY Series program features three teams with drivers Erik Jones and Daniel Suarez and a third entry fielded for various JGR drivers.
The DeWalt agreement will include exposure on the XFINITY Series entries of Jones and Suarez for a combined six races as well.
Dollar General has been the primary sponsor for the No. 20 entry since 2013. Officials with the company announced earlier this season that it would not return for 2017.
DeWalt will use the opportunity to push its new FLEXVOLT branding of battery-operated tools and equipment.
“We feel good about where we are with that (No. 20) car for next year and this is a big step,” Gibbs said. “We feel confident that car will be fully funded for next year.”