Sponsor Wars: UPS Vs. FedEx
NASCAR expanded their sponsorship and marketing platform tenfold at the end of the 1990's due to a multi-billion dollar contract for national race syndication with Fox, NBC, and TNT. This interested nearly every fortune 500 company to be a part of sports marketing on a major level. In year 2000, historic Cup Series owner Robert Yates announced that Dale Jarrett was going to begin driving the #88 UPS Ford Taurus. It was the first time that UPS, or anybody from the logistics industry had entered the sport at this level. In addition to having a near monopoly in the relationship that freight companies had with NASCAR fans, UPS went above and beyond in pushing their 'Dale Drive The [UPS] Truck' campaign. The commercials were well received, and UPS became one of NASCAR's most recognized brands. In 2005, Dale Jarrett won his final career race at Talladega SuperSpeedway. He was driving the UPS sponsored Ford. This ended up being one of Dale's most popular victories. That ...