INDIANAPOLIS — For sale by owner: Major sponsorship for NASCAR's most popular driver.
Act fast, time is running out.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. is not only looking for his first win of the season, he's still hunting for a big-bucks sponsor for 12 Sprint Cup races this season.
Earnhardt said he's not worried, a sign that perhaps Hendrick Motorsports has a deal on the horizon.
"It is important to try to fill out what we have this season and we will," Earnhardt said Friday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. "I don't have any doubt at all that we will get that done. I think we almost have to look forward beyond that to try to find out who is going to be the partner that we can put a long term deal together that matches up with what we want to do in the future."
That's part of the problem. Hendrick and Earnhardt would love to find a primary sponsor that would fund what's left on this season's slate as well as 2014, and possibly beyond. With 16 races left, putting together a multi-year deal with a committed corporate backer seems almost impossible to pull off.
"It's just all the dollars and cents are accounted for at this point in the year," Earnhardt said. "That doesn't mean we can't put some things together and do some creative stuff with some people and some partners that we already have."
Earnhardt's sponsorship woes started when Pepsi, through Diet Mountain Dew and Amp, sliced its sponsorship from 20 races to five in 2013. The National Guard did bolster its support of the No. 88, going from 16 to 20 races. Earnhardt, who's made the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship each of the last two seasons, is somewhat hindered in finding the right fit because of conflicts with committed corporate sponsors. For example, his Pepsi deal is the reason he ditched Budweiser when he signed with Hendrick for the 2008 season.
