NASCAR: Joe Gibbs Racing made an ‘unprecedented’ move
By Asher Fair
Joe Gibbs Racing made an “unprecedented” move involving JTG Daugherty Racing in an attempt to sell sponsorship ahead of the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season.
Joe Gibbs Racing, Toyota, and Kyle Busch have found themselves in somewhat of a precarious position as silly season progresses and speculation heats up regarding the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season.
Busch is in his 15th season with Joe Gibbs Racing behind the wheel of the #18 Toyota. While he is still performing at a high level, sitting in third place in the point standings through 13 of 36 races with a win in the dirt race at Bristol Motor Speedway last month, he remains without a contract for next year, and there is still no guarantee that he will be back for 2023.
Before the 2022 season started, longtime partner M&M’s announced that they would not be returning to the #18 Toyota for 2023.
Naturally, this left Joe Gibbs Racing with a massive sponsorship hole to fill.
Busch indicated at Talladega Superspeedway last month that it could very well be “goodbye” from Joe Gibbs Racing, perhaps even the Cup Series, without sponsorship.
But both team owner Joe Gibbs and Toyota Racing Development President David Wilson remain optimistic that a deal will get done to keep the two-time series champion under contract for at least another year.
However, when Wilson said earlier this week that all parties involved were “working on a number of different solutions harder than ever before”, he really meant it.
Joe Gibbs Racing have now made an “unprecedented” move with JTG Daugherty Racing — a Chevrolet team with which they have no affiliation — in an attempt to sell sponsorship.
On Thursday, Sports Business Journal’s Adam Stern reported that Joe Gibbs Racing have hired the marketing agency owned by JTG Daugherty Racing co-owner Tad Geschickter, Brand Activation Maximizer, to help sell sponsorship for the four-car Toyota powerhouse.
https://twitter.com/A_S12/status/1527327055955668997
Stern discussed a variety of reasons that made this unprecedented move possible, including the fact that JTG Daugherty Racing is just a one-car team and already has a full-time sponsorship deal for Ricky Stenhouse Jr.’s #47 Chevrolet with Kroger, plus the fact that Geschickter’s relationship with the Gibbs family goes back several years and has always been strong.
Next. 3 landing spots for Kyle Busch in 2023. dark
Ideally for Joe Gibbs Racing, this deal will lead to more than just help in terms of landing sponsorship for the #18 Toyota for a year. But that is clearly the priority at this point in the game as they look to retain Busch’s services for at least the 2023 season.