NASCAR extends deal with Monster Energy
NASCAR and Monster Energy have reached agreement on an extension of the energy drink company’s sponsorship of stock car racing’s top series.
Monster will remain as lead sponsor of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series through the 2019 season. The sponsorship has been in place since 2017.
“NASCAR and Monster Energy enjoyed a productive first year, and both parties have benefited significantly from the partnership,” said Steve Phelps, NASCAR’s newly named chief operating officer. “Monster Energy successfully utilized our sport as a platform to elevate its brand and drive business, while introducing NASCAR to new audiences.”
NASCAR is working toward making significant changes in its series sponsorship models for 2020 and beyond, and Monster’s 2019 agreement probably will be the last of its kind.
Daryl Wolfe, a NASCAR senior vice president, told USA TODAY on Tuesday that the new sponsorship setup could be “radically different, somewhat different or maybe minimally different” from the current situation.
He said the sanctioning body is looking at numerous possibilities, including an umbrella-like model that could involve speedways, racing teams, televi- sion partners and NASCAR under a single sponsorship approach. For example, an upper-level sponsorship under the new framework could result in a company’s name being splashed across virtually every facet of the sport.
“The way I look at it, there is an opportunity to create a model where you have a single brand have a very valuable, integrated position across the sport in one type of an agreement,” Wolfe said. “It would be a situation where they’re getting a better return and a more consistent, standardized place across the sport.
“You eliminate the situation where you buy one position and before you know it you have to buy a second and a third and a fourth position.”
Wolfe described the process to revamp NASCAR’s sponsorship model as exhaustive.
“Hopefully, we’ll land on one based on input from the tracks, the teams and our network partners,” he said. “It’s a very complex landscape and a pretty fragmented industry.”
Monster Energy could remain in the sport beyond 2019 under the new framework.
Monster Energy replaced Sprint as NASCAR’s lead sponsor, signing on late in 2016 for the 2017 and 2018 seasons. Discussions about renewal stretched longer than planned this year before an agreement was reached.