Who's Sponsoring NASCAR Next? Here's A Few Possible Candidates

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As many of you know by now, Sprint will be leaving NASCAR at the conclusion of the 2016 Season and NASCAR is currently in the searching stage of finding a entitlement sponsor for the Major NASCAR Series currently entitled the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series which features some of NASCAR's biggest stars. With 2017 looking like one of the most exciting seasons in a while and us not even out of 2016 it's not surprising that there are at least a dozen products who want to sponsor NASCAR. In the past we've had Nextel, which merged with Sprint and Winston and in

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most cases these sponsors last long enough to make these eras like the Winston Cup Series Era was dominated by Dale Earnhardt Sr. which will be something NASCAR will certainly need with a new sponsor to roll in the young gun era as I am calling it. There has "been concern in some corners of the industry about how the search is not yet complete, but NASCAR's top sales executive sounded confident a deal will get done." NASCAR Chief Sales Officer Jim O'Connell said, "We're in a really good place; we're exactly where we thought we'd be time-wise." Sources said that NASCAR is "likely to end up with at least a four-year deal" in the $25-35M range in annual rights fees. Sprint's original 10-year deal with NASCAR reportedly was worth $75M in "annual rights and activation fees combined." Here is a reported list of interested sponsors.

NASCAR Kroger Cup Series

Provided it remains the Cup Series the name of this series if Kroger joined would be the NASCAR Kroger Cup Series which would be abbreviated as the NKCS. It would certainly be surprising if Kroger became the entitlement sponsor as it's more of a regional store chain and could cause for concern amongst Bristol Motor Speedway and Sonoma Raceway who both have competitors as Entitlement sponsors of the weekend races with Bristol having the Food City 500 and Sonoma having the Toyota Save Mart 350. Only time will tell with this sponsorship but I think NASCAR learned it's lesson when it came to Sprint vs. Cingular Wireless back when Jeff Burton was sponsored by Cingular Wireless and the amount of controversy that surrounded Cingular Wireless leaving NASCAR all together. This could be different though. 

NASCAR Yum! Brands Cup Series

I didn't even know what Yum! Brands were before I googled them to find the logo and to find out it's the owner behind Long John Silvers, Taco Bell, KFC, A&W All American Food, and Pizza Hut. This could become a good thing but I doubt it would be entitled the NASCAR Yum! Brands Cup Series. It could become the NASCAR Taco Bell Cup Series, NASCAR Long John Silvers Cup Series, NASCAR A&W Cup Series or even NASCAR Pizza Hut Cup Series. All of these would be good catchy names and something that a lot of us NASCAR fans go out and support! Front Row Motorsports used to be funded by franchises of Yum! Brand Foods but I don't know if that is still the case. Either this one or the next one are my current favorites. The next one is based in Atlanta, GA which is a NASCAR Town.

NASCAR Coca-Cola Cup Series 

Coca-Cola has been with NASCAR for many seasons featuring the Coca-Cola Racing Family and an entitlement sponsor of the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte in May and Coke Zero 400 at Daytona in July. This sponsorship like Kroger has it's negatives not only on Driver Sponsorships but also what type of drink you can get at the track. It could completely eliminate Pepsi from NASCAR which would effect Hendrick Motorsports the most. I could see some cool things coming out of it like the Top-16 in the Chase become the following seasons Coca-Cola Racing Family which would be an incentive to make the chase. Based out of Atlanta with a Bottling Company in my Hometown of Chattanooga Tennessee along with a few others based in the South it could bring that southern touch back to NASCAR like many fans have been begging for. It's multiple drinks could sponsor many of the exhibition races like lets say the Coca-Cola Freestyle at Daytona and The Fanta or Sprite All-Star Race at Charlotte or maybe elsewhere.

NASCAR Samsung Cup Series

The South Korea Based Company Samsung has also put it's name in the hat for sponsorship and it would be about the closest of what we currently have as Samsung makes Cell Phones. Samsung used to sponsor the Texas Race but hasn't been seen as much in NASCAR as of late but as reported Samsung joins Coca-Cola, Yum! Brands, and Kroger as the new Entitlement sponsorship and with Samsung it could produce some product placement in numerous places and could make the Samsung Phone the official Phone of NASCAR and other things like that. It would also be called the NASCAR Samsung Cup Series with the abbreviation of NSCS just like we have now. 

NASCAR Hisense Cup Series

We have just now started to see Hisense in NASCAR within the Joe Gibbs Racing organization winning with Denny Hamlin at Charlotte earlier this season in the NASCAR Xfinity Series and being with Erik Jones some of the season. Hisense produces TV's and has been the entitlement sponsor of many races including at Charlotte the last two years. Hisense would get more recognition and more people would know what they were if they entitled a Series in NASCAR. I think that would help boost them to a higher level.