Search this site

Written by AJ Appeal - Motorsports has had the world's largest companies assist with their operating costs through sports marketing and sponsorships since the beginning. Through the years some drivers and teams have welcomed partnerships from family owned businesses while others have had access to Fortune 500 brands. When King Richard Petty's car adorned the now famous STP red, and Petty Blue in the 1970s, many of the drivers in the field started to sport well-known drink brands. From icy cold adult beverages such as Coors and Budweiser, to frosty and fizzy sodas like Coca-Cola and Pepsi, drink industries noticed the massive return on investment that existed through partnerships with NASCAR drivers. The Coca-Cola Company endorsed many drivers over the years, first with a one time sponsorship of Joe Weatherly at Darlington in 1959. Beginning in 1970, they supported primarily Bobby Allison, while additionally promoting the #37 of Don Tarr on a part-time basis. Other drivers carried the Coca Cola livery including Earl Ross, David Hobbs, Chuck Bown, John Krebs, Dave Marcis, and even Jeff Gordon for a short time. After becoming one of the hottest drivers in NASCAR in the early 1990s, Jeff Gordon was one of the first of the next-generation of Coca-Cola drivers. His famed #24 DuPont Chevrolet carried along the Coca-Cola banner on the decklid in the 1994 and 1995 seasons. At the end of the 1995 year, his contract ended with Coke, and Gordon became an overnight advertising sensation when he signed with rival Pepsi. Pepsi had promoted different drivers over the years including hall-of-famers Richard Petty and Darrell Waltrip, but this was the first time their brand was as reputable in the racing market as southern based Coca Cola. In his first 2 years with Pepsi, Gordon won the Daytona 500, two Brickyard 400s, and the NASCAR Cup Series Championship. Pepsi's brand was visible nearly every lap of every race during that time on network broadcasts. This became a major contributing factor to Coke's next move. Already partnered with NASCAR as the 'Official Soft Drink of NASCAR', Coke's new 'Coca-Cola Racing Family' was created on February 11th, 1998. Dale Earnhardt, Dale Jarrett, Bobby Labonte, Bill Elliott, Jeff Burton, Kyle Petty, Todd Bodine, Ricky Rudd, Kenny Irwin and Steve Park were the first members of the Coke family. In addition to having partnerships with 10 of the most popular drivers in the sport, several other layers of sponsorship activation took place leading into the 1998 season. A theme-park styled attraction was built outside of the Daytona International Speedway. There were racing simulators, a new traveling 'Coke Stage' was developed that traveled with the sport, and a surplus of Coke Racing driver engagements were promised to fans at the track each week. Additional, but smaller agreements with other 'true' family members such as Adam Petty and Dale Earnhardt Jr. were also arranged within NASCAR's then Busch Series. To even further push this new initiative, print, television, radio and online advertising all took over in NASCAR regions. New merchandise was also developed. If you could think of it, you could buy it with a Coca Cola Racing logo on it. "The Coca-Cola Racing Family celebrates the fans' passion for motorsports and good times spent at NASCAR events with friends and family," said Steve Koonin of The Coca-Cola Company. "Through the Coca-Cola Racing Family we will link fans with their favorite drivers and families in a variety of new and exciting ways." Each season Coke represented different drivers. Sometimes drivers would stay, other times they were let go due to conflicting agreements with other brands, or even poor performance. Some drivers also had exceptionally long tenures with the brand.

Become a Patron! Being the first race of the NASCAR Playoffs, Darlington brought its fair share of surprises, drama and aggression. With drivers like Alex Bowman, Kyle Busch and William Byron all currently sitting below the cutline, the remaining two races of the Round of 16 are sure to continue that trend. In a meeting with media Tuesday morning, Aric Almirola said “It’s going to be tough, it’s going to be intense. I have no doubt that you will see a playoff car, or a couple, run into some trouble. It just happens.” After Darlington, Almirola currently holds the 11th spot with an anything-but-comfortable three-point lead over the cut line. In a race that saw trouble for many of the playoff drivers, Almirola’s #10 Stewart-Haas Ford finished in 16th place. “While not ideal, especially with a car that was capable of running anywhere from 7th to 10th most of the night, we didn’t take ourselves out.” Therein lies the dilemma for the rest of this playoff round – how aggressive is too aggressive? Almirola said, “It’s certainly a balance, […] the first round is definitely a round that you’ve got to survive. Winning obviously makes it way easier, but surviving is key. Any given year, you look back, at least two or three cars end up taking themselves out just from one or two bad races, wrecks, blown engines, whatever it is.” While he makes a good case for staying conservative, he also added, “You have to be aggressive, though. It’s such a balancing act between not making mistakes […] but at the same time you’ve got to race for every point. Every single stage point matters, every single position on the racetrack at the end of the race matters.” “It really is a tough challenge and a balancing act between being aggressive to go get the spots you need to go get, and making sure you don’t put yourself in a bad position.” Despite the difficult task ahead, Almirola is confident heading into Richmond this weekend, a track that he says is one of his best. Despite a disappointing regular season, the #10 team finished 6th at the spring Richmond race back in April. Since then, Almirola feels his team has improved a lot, particularly with the 750 HP package, saying “It gives me a lot of confidence knowing that we ran well there in the spring, and that we’re going back with a lot better race car. […] We’re taking the same car we won at [New Hampshire] with, so hopefully we can produce a similar result.” Aric Almirola will hope to punch his ticket to the Round of 12 this Saturday when the NASCAR Cup Series returns to Richmond Raceway for the Federated Auto Parts Salute to American Heroes 400.

Martin Truex Jr celebrates with a burnout at Richmond International Raceway) https://twitter.com/WaiteToyota/status/1437064326129627146?s=20 Martin Truex Jr made a playoff statement tonight showcasing his team has not gone away and is in contention to not only be in the playoffs but for the championship. This win marks his fourth of the year and third career win at the D shaped short track. NASCAR added an extra pace lap in salute to first responders in co-ordinance with it being the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Denny Hamlin received the pole position for the start of the race as Kyle Larson who was supposed to start on the front row in second place had failed pre race inspection and is required to start the race at the back of the 40 car field. Green flag drops for the start of stage one but it's Truex Jr jumping the start beating teammate Hamlin to the start finish line. Truex is immediately black flagged and required to make a pass through pit road to serve his penalty for jumping the start of the race. Luckily for him, after serving the penalty he was able to stay on the lead lap. With the competition caution coming at lap 30, the main concern for teams early on as they spread out throughout the track and just being able to give feedback and take care of their equipment in this early run. Even with cars now beginning to be lapped, Hamlin dominates the first 30 laps as the caution comes out, Hamlin's two second lead is evaporated. Kurt Busch wins the race off pit road. Kyle Busch is forced to drop to the back of the pack for the restart as his team takes a penalty for equipment interference. Ku Busch leads Hamlin to the restart on lap 37. Top four under a blanket with Hamlin retaking the lead as teammates Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski challenge for the lead. Caution out lap 41, Ku Busch has a tire go down entering turn 1 ending his night early. No takers on this round of pit stops as Hamlin and Logano will lead the field to the green flag. with a big push from Ryan Blaney, Hamlin gets a giant launch on the restart as Blaney jumps into second position. Inside 20 laps to go, Truex Jr had come back from his early penalty to fight inside the top 10 as he shows a lot of speed near the end of the first stage. 5 laps to go Kyle Larson makes his way back from having to start at the rear to now running in the top five after passing Keselowski, but it's going to be Denny Hamlin going to win stage one with Chase Elliott coming in second after just passing past Logano. Hamlin wins the race off of pit road as he lines up with Elliott for the start of stage two on lap 89. Elliott challenges for the lead and takes it away from Hamlin with Logano hot on their tail. Ross Chastain although not in the playoffs makes a big move in the front stretch passing both Truex and Larson to jump into the top five in fourth place on lap 93. As Elliott continues to lead at lap 52 in stage two, green flag pit stops start to take place beginning with Tyler Reddick and Denny Hamlin. Elliott and Chastain soon follow the next lap. Michael McDowell gets caught speeding on pit road setting him back one lap down, a very costly mistake for the playoff driver. Hamlin resumes the lead after the cycle of green flag pit stops. With 74 laps to go in the second stage, after a lengthy battle between the 9 and the 11 cars, Chase Elliott takes back the lead as Hamlin encounters lapped traffic. 56 laps to go in the stage Hamlin retakes the lead from Elliott as the struggle to get around slower cars continues this time against Chase Briscoe who is fighting to stay on the lead lap. Just as Hamlin retakes the lead, another round of green flag pit stops emerges with Martin Truex, Kevin Harvick and now Denny Hamlin taking service. Elliott encounters a big problem on pit road after making slight contact with Chastain as he exits his pit, thinking he's not in his pit box correctly, goes to back up and runs over the jack while the stop begins destroying the jack and the needing to replace it. The pit stop ended up being 36 seconds but could have been longer but due to the crews awareness and quick thinking Elliott only lost one lap with 50 to go in stage two. Coming to 47 laps to go, Elliott fights to get his lap back and does so successfully. As laps whine down in the stage, 18 laps to go Denny Hamlin repasses Elliott as they encounter more lapped traffic. Inside 10 laps to go in stage two, Hamlin still leads but now puts Austin Dillon who's running in the 14th position a lap down meaning Chase Elliott cannot get the free pass if a caution comes out. Now threatening William Byron, with 5 laps to go Byron fights to stay on the lead lap. 3 laps to go in stage two, Elliott makes it three wide inside Byron and Josh Bilicki, he dives in hard pushing Byron up in turn 1 to pass him to be in the free pass position. Denny Hamlin is your winner for stage two. After pit stops take place Hamlin and Truex Jr lead the field to start the final stage. It continues to be Joe Gibbs Racing Dominating the race as the top 4 are all JGR cars. Bubba Wallace brings out the caution on lap 250 as a tire goes down and he ends up in the wall. With not many cars still on the lead lap, Brad Keselowski is the only one of the leaders who pit but does not take tires. Hamlin and Truex lead the field once again on the restart. Coming down to 100 laps to go, Michael McDowell gets caught speeding on pit road forcing him to make a pass through on pit road putting him multiple laps down and in a must win situation at Bristol next weekend to advance to next round of the playoffs. With pit stops cycling through, Ross Chastain takes over the lead, but with 95 laps to go Kyle Busch quickly passes Chastain and heads off into a big lead. Under 60 laps remaining another round of green flag pit stops which potentially could be the last for the night start as Joey Logano and Tyler Reddick come in for the first of the leaders. Busch comes for his stop but is caught speeding on pit road ending his chances of winning. With Truex Jr now resuming the lead with 47 laps to go after Kyle Busch serves his penalty, he extends the lead to more than eight seconds over teammate Denny Hamlin. Inside 30 laps to go in the race and Hamlin has cut the lead from Truex down to five and a half seconds. Truex running into heavier lapped traffic with 15 to go has allowed Hamlin to close into the lead now under four and a half seconds back. In the closing laps under 10 to go, Chastain makes contact with Kyle Larson moving him out of the way passing him for sixth but Larson quickly passes him back. Denny Hamlin will cut Truex's lead to under two seconds but it's too little too late as Martin Truex Jr wins the Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond Raceway and locks himself into the Round of 12. This marks his fourth win of the year and also two consecutive wins for Joe Gibbs Racing in the Playoffs. Federated Auto Parts 400 Salute to First Responders top 5: 1. Martin Truex Jr 2. Denny Hamlin 3. Christopher Bell 4. Chase Elliott 5. Joey Logano Honorable Mentions 7. Ross Chastain 10. Ryan Blaney 14. Aric Almirola 15. Tyler Reddick Written By: Matt Marr