Larson Wins, But is That Enough to Find New Sponsors

By ESPN

Kyle Larson swears he won't worry about the search for sponsorship for the 2018 season.

He will leave that to the people at Chip Ganassi Racing. He'll do what he needs to do as far as the things required of him by a sponsor, such as what he did Monday morning, wearing a company logo and talking about how thankful he is for a company's support.

The 25-year-old driver, who sits third in the points and would start the playoffs in third in the standings, will try to focus on the driving part. That's the part he's best at while others have hunted for the funding.

Despite being one of the top young stars in the sport and making a case this year as a championship contender, Larson and Ganassi couldn't keep Target and its relatively new executive team from shifting its sports marketing dollars from NASCAR to soccer.

"I'm not too worried about it," said Larson, whose three wins ties him for second-most on the Cup circuit this year. "We've got a lot of important things to worry about the rest of the year. The championship being one of them.

"[My teammate] Jamie [McMurray] gets more involved in the business questions than I do. I just kind of worry about racing."

Team owner Chip Ganassi, whose team needs anchor sponsorship to replace Target as Larson's primary sponsor next year, announced a two-race deal for 2017 with First Data Corporation, which ranks 242nd on the Forbes 500 list. It is a company that facilitates secure credit card transactions.

The company also will be the entitlement sponsor for the NASCAR race at Martinsville Speedway. For a publicly-traded company with $11.5 billion in revenue and $420 million in profit in 2016, spending what probably amounts to a couple million in the combined sponsorships isn't a whole lot of money.

Ganassi hopes First Data, which did one race with the team in 2016, will come on for more races in 2018. For right now, it's just a hope. Even if First Data does more races, Ganassi still needs additional sponsorship to cover costs of the No. 42 car. He is committed to running it, but he doesn't want to have to open his wallet to do it.

"We still have some work to do, but obviously winning races doesn't hurt," Ganassi said. "If you know anybody interested and is so inclined, give them my number."

For a Ganassi team that has had primarily consumer products as it main NASCAR sponsors -- Target and McDonald's -- the deal with First Data shows another step to a different type of sponsorship.

Just like Cessna did with its Ganassi sponsorship, First Data will use its sponsorship to cultivate clients. It also will use it as part of a sales initiative program for its sales team with a promotion around the races, motivating the sales staff in a "race to the race."

"It's all about brand recognition and sales growth," said First Data chairman and CEO Frank Bisignano. "Ultimately we're in a business to grow revenue. On the client side, I think it brings us closer to our clients."

First Data, which got into NASCAR through its client Credit One (also a Ganassi sponsor, which has official NASCAR status), doesn't have many sports sponsorships. It does have the naming rights to the New York Mets' spring-training field in Florida.

That relationship, as well as those at Martinsville and some other International Speedway Corp. tracks, can be part of deals where those venues use First Data for their credit-card transactions.

The company hopes that some of the NASCAR fans who also own small businesses will look to First Data when they are looking to see what kind of system they want to handle credit card transactions.

Whether First Data could be the answer to Larson's sponsorship quest remains to be determined, although it is likely the team will need to have several sponsors cover the season.

Larson isn't alone in his sponsorship search. Of the 16 drivers who are currently in line to make the NASCAR playoffs, three haven't secured 2018 rides because of sponsorship. Target isn't the only Fortune 500 company to shift away from NASCAR as Farmers Insurance will also leave after this season. NASCAR says that this season, 139 of the Fortune 500 companies will invest in NASCAR.

"Chip's organization, not that it's easy to find sponsors, but it's more intriguing for sponsors with his team because he has so many race teams in different series," said Larson about the organization that also fields IndyCar and sports-car teams. "There are a lot of opportunities for sponsors."

Larson knows that performance could matter when trying to secure a sponsor. With two races left in the regular season and Martin Truex Jr. having more than a 100-point lead on his competitors for the top spot in the standings, Larson knows he won't catch Truex for the regular-season title. He fell behind by five points to Kyle Busch last week as they battle for the second spot.

The winner of the regular season earns 15 playoff points, while second is worth 10 and third is worth eight. A driver carries those points all the way through the first three rounds of the playoffs.

"[Truex and his team] seem to have gotten better and better every week where we kind of stalled out a little bit," Larson said. "I feel like we've gotten some speed back but with that speed, we had some bad luck. I'm just trying to finish second now in regular-season points."

Clements Takes Road America

A phone rang at the winner's podium just as Jeremy Clements was about to recap a memorable Sunday at Road America.

The driver for the small, family run team had finally captured a checkered flag for the first time in 256 Xfinity Series races. Suddenly, it seems like everyone wants to talk him.

Clements battled Matt Tifft down the stretch at Road America before pulling away to the finish line after the two leaders spun out near the end of the second-to-last lap.

"I drive for a small family team. Just to get a win in any of these starts is amazing," Clements said. Father and team owner Tony Clements sat next to him, slightly embarrassed after having to turn the ringer off on his phone.

They might be fielding a few more calls this week. Not only was Clements' No. 51 Chevy built in 2008, but the front end had to be pieced back together following a wreck two weeks ago at Mid-Ohio.

But Tony Clements figured that a road course like Road America might provide a more level playing field against more well-funded teams, especially on a weekend when the top-level Monster Cup series wasn't racing on the same track.

"To even be here is very hard," the younger Clements said. "We've got to make a lot of sacrifices."

Pit strategy paid off on an overcast afternoon on the 4-plus mile, 14-turn road course.

All the twists and turns can take a toll on tires, and second-place finisher Michael Annett said drivers also had to deal with some wet track around turn 12. Qualifying for the 45-lap race was cancelled because of weather, with rain having fallen earlier in the morning.

Working with fresh tires down the stretch, Clements chased down Tifft after pitting with nine laps left to surrender the lead. Clements finally caught up with Tifft on the 44th lap, with their cars spinning into the dirt on the last turn of the 14-turn road course.

The 32-year-old Clements recovered first and sped away to victory on the last lap. Annett passed Tifft to take second, 5.8 seconds behind Clements. Tifft settled for third.

"I was just trying to survive on the older tires," Tifft said. "Any time I would try to push it at all, the rear would get really lightened and not so happy with me."

Elliott Sadler finished in 14th, but the series leader holds a 107-point lead over second-place William Byron.

WHO'S HOT:

The early portions of the race were just as eventful as the end. Daniel Hemric took the second 10-lap stage that included four cars spinning out of the left-hand Turn 5. Hemric finished in 15th but captured his second stage win of the season. He is fifth in the driver standings.

WHO'S NOT:

James Davison said his No. 20 Toyota got clipped in the scrum around Turn 5 and a cracked radiator knocked him out of the race. He was knocked to the back of the field for Stage 2 because of a speeding violation on pit row.

It was a memorable afternoon until then for Davison, who started second and led the first 11 laps to win the first stage.

CINDRIC DEBUT:

The starting grid was determined by owner points, so Austin Cindric took the pole in his No. 20 Ford for Team Penske in his Xfinity series debut. The son of Penske team president Tim Cindric got a preview of the tight racing to come by competing in the ARCA series race earlier Sunday, finishing 12th in that race.

HE SAID IT:

"It's pretty neat to be in this field with about a 10-year-old car." -- Jeremy Clements. He said the team is slated to debut a new car at Richmond on Sept. 8, the first time that they will have a new car in at least three years.

UP NEXT:

Darlington Raceway, Sept. 2. Sadler is the defending champion.