Successful No. 17 epitomizes sponsorship struggle

[DeeDee]

[ARTICLE=Successful No. 17 epitomizes sponsorship struggle]From the Notebook: Daytona 500 champ still unsponsored for 15 races
By Dave Rodman, NASCAR.COM
March 06, 2012 2:19 PM, EST

Maybe the starkest proof of the bleak state of the NASCAR sponsorship landscape is borne out by Daytona 500 winner Matt Kenseth's Roush Fenway Racing team, which has more than a third of its 2012 season currently unsponsored.

It seems that current partners Best Buy -- which reaped the extreme benefits of Kenseth's dramatic, and second, Daytona 500 win two weekends ago -- as well as Valvoline, Fastenal and Zest, "get it."

Other potential partners, not so much, and they're really missing the boat with Kenseth, who is one of the fiercest competitors while at the same time being socially conscious, family-oriented and downright funny.

It figures, when asked about it last week on his post-500 "victory tour" Kenseth was low-key about his paint-scheme situation. Of course, car owner Jack Roush fully committing to running his 2003 series champion in a full schedule this season, sponsorship or not, certainly has something to do with that.

"The sponsorship thing, I'm not entirely sure," Kenseth said. "They give me some updates, but other than that, I kind of let the sales department do their thing and I try to do our thing from a performance standpoint. Hopefully, they'll do their part there and we'll find some more sponsorship to get the car filled up."

Zest will feature the sport's latest new scheme this weekend at Las Vegas, but a Roush Fenway spokesperson said Kenseth's team had "roughly 15 races" out of the 36-race schedule that were unsold. Kenseth said he was a little surprised at the current state of affairs, but he's no less appreciative of his sponsor history -- despite losing two of the organization's long-time backers in the past two years.

"I think I've been very fortunate through the years with DeWalt and Black & Decker," Kenseth said. "We had them for 10 seasons -- it might have been 11 including the one year in the Busch [currently Nationwide] Series -- but at least 10 and had a great relationship with those guys.

"We had a real long relationship with them and even with Diageo and Crown Royal -- all the way back to '03 and '04, they were on our cars as an associate and had been at Roush a long time. So I hoped that with the way our performance was last year that it would have been a little easier for the sales department to be able to fully sponsor the car."

Kenseth knows things could be a lot worse.

"I know that's been a struggle, not only for our car but for some of the other cars in our organization," Kenseth said. "They shut the No. 6 [Cup] car down because they didn't have a sponsor and they're trying hard to sponsor Ricky Stenhouse in a Nationwide car and he's fresh off a championship year."

Too many outside observers might think Kenseth has a bland demeanor, but that's truly far from the case. And Kenseth is smart enough to know that isn't what's most important to him.

"We can all dissect my personality or my looks or what I say or what I do or don't say and don't do and pick on that, I guess," Kenseth said. "But you can look at the opposite end of the spectrum. You can look at 20-year-old Trevor Bayne, who won the Daytona 500, who everybody was doing backflips over because he won the Daytona 500 with the Wood Brothers and all that stuff. And they can't get a sponsor for him in Nationwide or Cup either.

"I think him and I -- I wouldn't say we're opposite, but -- we're on other ends of the spectrum as far as where our careers are at and what we've done. I've thought about that. Of course, you think about it and you're like, 'OK, maybe there's something I'm not doing right or saying right,' but I don't know. I've been in this sport quite a while and I've always just tried to be myself and never really changed for anybody, and I don't think that's really been a bad thing.

"I'm pretty much a face-value guy, so I don't know."[/ARTICLE]

[TeamBlueOval]

Wow ... 15 races. I thought I had heard they only needed 5-7 more a few weeks ago. Really tough situation. Hope they are able to sell the rest of those races. Sponsors are missing an opportunity!!

[DeeDee]

You wouldn't think that a Daytona 500 winner would'nt have sponsor problems .... you would think that would be a great selling point

[JiggaStyles09]

Trevor had the same problem last year but i figured he couldn't find sponsors because he was directly involved with Ford and the Motorcraft brand and that limited the sponsors that could come on board. also i just figured that sponsors wanted to see proof that the could run up front on a regular basis like a Matt Kenseth. can't understand why their having such a hard time , hope they can find something!!