NASCAR could lose two Cup teams following 2020
By Asher Fair
We already know that Leavine Family Racing won’t be back for the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season. Now Germain Racing’s outlook is even worse than it had been.
Confirming several months worth of speculation following the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, Leavine Family Racing announced in early August that they would be selling the team and that the #95 Toyota would not be returning to competition for the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season.
Unfortunately for the small teams at the sport’s top level, this doesn’t look like it will be the only bad news of Silly Season in terms of 2020 potentially being the end.
Speculation had been mounting about the future of the one-car Germain Racing operation due to GEICO’s lack of commitment to the team as their primary sponsor beyond the end of the year.
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The team responded to this speculation with a statement on the matter noting that everything was still on the table, good and bad.
Unfortunately, not everything is on the table anymore. What we now know officially isn’t on the table is GEICO, the “Official Insurance Provider of NASCAR”, returning to the #13 Chevrolet next year. This news was confirmed over the weekend as speculation continued to mount; the company has served as the primary sponsor of the #13 Chevrolet for 12 straight years.
Notably, GEICO, which signed a multi-year deal with the team along with driver Ty Dillon toward the end of the 2017 season, signed on as one of the four Premier Partners of the Cup Series under their new sponsorship model ahead of the 2020 season, along with Coca-Cola, Xfinity and Busch. That deal remains in place.
Germain Racing confirms Geico has told team it won't return to sponsor No. 13 car in 2021. Team has said with no sponsor signed, it's exploring sale of team. My understanding is Geico won't sponsor any team in NASCAR (and possibly other motorsports) in 2021. Series deal remains.
— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) September 5, 2020
Hard part on Geico deal is new CEO took over in January so could just be a different philosophy. They appear to be ending many team-associated sponsorships across all motorsports. NASCAR sponsorship mainly grouped all track/race sponsorships into 1 big deal for a little extra $$ https://t.co/bjzDHCrse7
— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) September 5, 2020
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We still don’t officially know what Germain Racing’s future holds in terms of what they can come up with to potentially return to competition next year, but things aren’t looking bright. To see two of the sport’s small one-car teams end up being sold within a few weeks/months of one another would be devastating.