Sponsors That Stick Are a Rare Find These Days

We all know by now that we are in an economic recession and it has hit hard. Not a lot of sports are tied to the economy, but in NASCAR, the economy is what makes the sport run. If the economy is up, sponsors will be more than willing to brand a racecar, but when it's down, there is not a lot of sponsorship to go around. This week it was announced that Jack Daniel's will leave Casey Mears and Richard Childress Racing's #07 Chevy at seasons end, as well as Jim Beam bolting from Robby Gordon's #7 Toyota. Earlier this season, DeWalt announced they will leave 2003 champion Matt Kenseth's #17 Roush Fenway Racing Ford and Irwin Tools is leaving Roush's #26 Fusion in favor of sponsoring the night race at Bristol. There is also talk that Ask.com could leave Hall of Fame Racing's #96 Ford and 2000 champ Bobby Labonte, leaving yet another team to scrounge for every sponsorship dollar it can find. But not all sponsors are leaving their teams.

Bass Pro Shops has only scaled back the number of races it will fund for Martin Truex, Jr and the #1 Chevrolet. But it is still unclear who will drive this car next year, as Truex has left Earhardt Ganassi Racing for the comfort of a full season of sponsorship from NAPA Auto Parts at Michael Waltrip Racing, driving a Camry with his family's number, 56. Even current points leader Mark Martin could face a decrease in sponsor income from Kellogg's and CarQuest next season. Martin is signed to drive the #5 for Hendrick Motorsports through 2011 and only has 20 races worth of sponsorship from GoDaddy.com signed for certain so far. But some teams are in even worse shape.

Some teams do what is known as "start and park" where they go all out to qualify and only run a handful of laps and collect the last place money to compensate for their lack of sponsorship. However, this is not a long term solution, as very few of these teams make it through the season.

In the 2010 season there are only about 30 t0 35 teams planning to run the full season. Typically 43 teams make the field each weekend with at least two or three teams failing to qualify. Nine teams that ran the full season last year did not make it to through the off season due to lack of sponsorship and unless the aforementioned teams, like the #7, the #07, the #96, and some other smaller organizations find some sponsorship, that list of nine teams could grow a little bit bigger.