Chevron Oil, the parent company of Texaco has announced that they will not continue to have a presence in NA$CAR and the #42 Chip Ganassi Dodge current driven by Juan Pablo Montoya. The current agreement expires at the end of the ‘08 season. In recent years, Texaco has split the major sponsor cost with Wrigley.
The Texaco Havoline brand first appeared in 1987 sponsoring the #28 Robert Yates Fords and driver, Davey Allison. The black #28 Thunderbird featuring the bright Texaco star on the hood was a top tier sponsor on a top tier car of its day. Besides Allison, Ernie irvan, Kenny Irwin jr, Dale Jarrett and Ricky Rudd all drove for Robert Yates with the Havoline brand.
The 2003 season opened with Havoline moving to the Chip Ganassi/Felix Sabates team #42. Besides Montoya, Jamie McMurray and Casey Mears raced for Texaco.
Chip Ganassi’s statement; “Despite the success of our partnership, we understand that priorities change and wish Chevron the best in implementing its new marketing initiatives.”
“We’re proud of our 20-year history with NASCAR,” said Shariq Yosufzai, president of Chevron Global Marketing. “It has served our Texaco and Havoline brands well. We value the partnership and professionalism of our NASCAR teams and the support that our loyal NASCAR fans have provided over the years.
Now, with oil companies swimming in profits from the skyrocketing market, this one is a surprise to the Grump. It is easy to see that the overall economy is shaky. Some sponsors are headed for the exits. Ganassi may have other trouble on the #41 Target team. Target Stores are suffering from slumping sales and profits. I am not sure if it has been made official, but they may have decided to drop their sponsorship with Ganassi as well. having one or two solid, long term sponsors like that leave at the same time could have a staggering effect of the whole Ganassi team. They already parked the #40 because of no funding. That move abruptly ended Dario Franchitti’s entry into NA$CAR’s elite series. Franchitti is still entered in selected cup light events.
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