Brad Keselowski 2018 sponsor deal looks like future of NASCAR

It’s time to accept the fact that even the top drivers in the sport are going to need as many as four or five sponsors to get them through a season in the years to come.

It wasn’t all that long ago, even back in the early 2000s, that it was easy to associate any of the top stars in NASCAR with one particular company or brand. Jeff Gordon drove the Dupont Chevy. Dale Junior was synonymous with Budweiser. For this writer, it was Mark Martin and Valvoline, and later (and somewhat awkwardly) Viagra.

But that tradition been changing as this decade has gone on, and next year is looking like the one that will almost completely shatter it. Jenna Fryer of the AP just wrote an excellent column on the changing financial realities for NASCAR teams, driven home by the idea that people have considered Brad Keselowski as “the driver of the Miller Lite car.”

As Fryer points out, Team Penske has been revealing its sponsorship deals for its drivers all week, and Keselowski’s situation is particularly interesting. Miller Lite is scaling back to be the primary sponsor on the No. 2 Ford for just 11 of his 2018 races, down from 24 this season.

At the moment, Keselowski’s announced primary sponsors for his 2018 campaign look like this:

• Miller Lite – 11 races
• Discount Tire – 10 races
• Alliance Truck Parts – 6 races
• Wurth – 3 races

He’s going to need more, or at least Penske will need to announce more, because that’s only 30 of the 36 NASCAR Cup Series races. It would be shocking if those didn’t get snapped up, because we’re talking about a driver who has virtually everything a sponsor would want: he’s a former champion, still runs up front, is a member of the coveted 18-34 demographic and find the middle ground between being too controversial and too boring better than just about anyone in the garage.

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(It’s worth noting as an aside that Kyle Larson, the 25-year-old stud who looks like a prime contender for years to come, currently has zero sponsors announced for next year since Target is leaving the sport, though Chip Ganassi Racing has promised we’ll hear something on that front soon.)

On the other hand, all of that is precisely what makes his situation cause so much anxiety. If no one wants to sponsor Keselowski for a whole season, who would want to sponsor anyone for 36 races?

The answer may very well be “no one” by the time the 2018 NASCAR season ends. One deal to watch very closely is the one between Lowe’s and Jimmie Johnson. Hendrick and Lowe’s have perhaps the sport’s strongest team-sponsor relationship, with the home improvement chain continuing to appear on the hood of every race for the No. 48. Considering Johnson has driven it to seven series championships, it’s hard to imagine Lowe’s didn’t get some bang for its marketing buck.

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That deal, however, reportedly ends next year. Johnson is signed through 2020, so maybe his longtime sponsor hangs on for two more seasons.

If it doesn’t, that probably seals the end of one-sponsor teams until and unless NASCAR experiences another boom in popularity. Take note of the No. 2 car next year, because it looks like the future — and if that future isn’t now, it’s on the way pretty darn soon.