Hot Rumors from Jayskis

[JohnMickish]

This should toast a few pieces of bread out there. Remember, don't shoot the messenger.

Budweiser to Evernham? hearing that Budweiser could sponsor one of the Evernham Motorsports teams in 2008, leaving DEI and Dale Earnhardt Jr. it could be the sponsor for Kasey Kahne if Dodge lets him out of their sponsor deal of the #9 and if Bud feels Kahne meets their demographics, or even #19-Elliott Sadler team. Supposedly DEI could still be in play for the Bud sponsor, but looks like Bud will not follow Dale Earnhardt Jr. to Hendrick Motorsports and that Pepsi/Mountain Dew will sponsor Dale Jr. in 2008.(7-10-2007)

[Uncle Bill]

Sheesh!!

Throw Jr. under the bus.

He's really gone to the dark side now.

[iffwalleyes]

Time will tell it this is a rumor or not. After all wasn't it them that had Jr. going to RCR within days of not renewing with DEI. Interesting news though. I guess JR won't be part of the coke cola racing family anymore.

[HOF#13]

Not too suprising news. It's quite possible Jr. never intended, or cared if, Budweiser followed him to Hendrick. With Bass Pro Shops as Martin Truex's primary sponsor (just resigned for 3 years), the Bud sponsorship was not going to go to a big name, unless DEI hired Kyle Busch for instance.

Also, I don't think Dale Jr. was ever in the Coke Family Racing Team. I do know that his dad was though.

[LMITOUT]

Quote:

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Also, I don't think Dale Jr. was ever in the Coke Family Racing Team.

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Not officially, but he was somewhat involved with Coke and even sponsored by Coke back in his Busch days for a handful of races. Hard to be sponsored by a softdrink when your primary sponsor is a beer, but in the end he was unofficially part of Coke racing, as the rest of DEI was also.

With the Pepsi slurpers at Hendrick, unfortunately there will be no way Jr. will get a Coca-Cola sponsorship.

[JohnMickish]

Here is the update to the story, I pretty much have to believe that Jr. will not drive a Bud sponsored car next year.

UPDATE: Budweiser officials are shopping around for their best sponsorship option in NASCAR, a clear indication that the beer company will not sponsor Dale Earnhardt Jr. at Hendrick Motorsports next season, sources confirmed Tuesday. It's expected that PepsiCo Inc., possibly with the Mountain Dew brand or a combination of Pepsi products, will sponsor Earnhardt next season in the #5 Chevy [or possibly the #8] for Hendrick. And Anheuser-Busch is negotiating with Evernham Motorsports to possibly move the Bud sponsorship to Kasey Kahne's #9 Dodge next season. Budweiser officials also have contacted officials at Lowe's Motor Speedway about the possibility of holding a news conference at the Lowe's Speedway Club next week if a new team sponsorship agreement is reached. An Evernham Motorsports official said Tuesday that no agreement has been reached with Budweiser and that the Evernham marketing department was talking to several other companies about potential sponsorships for 2008. Team owner Ray Evernham has an agreement with Dodge, through the Dodge Dealers, to sponsor both Kahne's car and the #19 Dodge of Elliott Sadler through 2010. The Dodge dealers would have to sign off on any deal to allow Budweiser to move to Kahne's car.

One source close to the negotiations told ESPN.com that it's still possible Budweiser could stay at Dale Earnhardt Inc., depending on whom DEI signs to replace Earnhardt. Budweiser officials now have targeted four other drivers they would consider sponsoring next season, including Kahne. The other three drivers are not known.(more at ESPN.com)(7-11-2007)

[LMITOUT]

They mentioned on Nascar Now tonight that the split between Hendrick and Bud years back wasn't exactly a clean break and feelings still may remain. Ironically, that's when Bud left him to go to Jr.

I heard the talk of Bud+Kahne a few weeks ago too and it'll be interesting to see where they end up. I agree that it appears it won't be with Jr. the way it's looking right now.

[JohnMickish]

So what will the Jr. fans throw at Gordon now? It just wouldn't be right to throw pepsi stuff at him. I suppose they could always start to throw the Adidas shoes or Sony stuff.

[lawdog]

One thing that might play into this. Jr. and DW are pretty tight. DW was and still is a big time Mountain Dew guy. In fact Dew's marketing this year is throwback DW stuff and no current guys. DW won a championship or two in that Dew car and I can totally see a marketing campaign of old blending into new with DW passing the reigns to Junebug. THIS WOULD BE AWESOME! As I previously posted, my old Mountain Dew paint schemes would be available to Junebug!!!

[OUTDOORNUT]

I'm all hopped up on Dew....CHIP!

[vitalshot5]

ESPN is reporting that tomorrow morning Budweiser is announcing that they are leaving Dale Earnhart JR. and will say who they are going with....Stay Tuned!!

[HOF#13]

If they were going to stay with DEI, Bud would wait until they hired a driver to replace Jr. to make an announcement. If an announcement is coming this soon, I am guessing the rumors of signing with Evernham Racing to sponsor Kasey Kahne's are true. We'll see.

[OUTDOORNUT]

Jayski is reporting today about a release from Hendrick that BUDWISER will not be going to HMS.