FedEx is expected to continue reducing its sponsorship presence with Joe Gibbs Racing after this season and could conclude the longtime deal altogether, according to people familiar with the matter, a move that would end one of the more winning driver-sponsor combinations in NASCAR history.
The Memphis-based global delivery and logistics giant has been a major sponsor of the team since 2005, and at its height was spending close to $25 million a year just in rights fees to JGR. The company or its divisions and sub brands over the years sponsored every race on Denny Hamlin’s No. 11 Toyota during NASCAR’s 38-event schedule up until 2021, when it began cutting back and JGR started finding other companies to fill the open positions.
JGR has been in the market looking for new sponsors for the No. 11 for next year, sources say, and that’s being done in anticipation of FedEx dropping more – and possibly all – of its remaining primary positions. It could not be confirmed whether JGR was still holding last-ditch talks with FedEx and the sides have yet to comment on the matter. FedEx did not respond to a request for comment, while JGR declined comment.
FedEx has been reshuffling its sports marketing portfolio in recent years amid a broader cost-cutting drive, including this past offseason ending its longtime stadium naming-rights deal with the Commanders, the franchise that JGR owner Joe Gibbs coached to three Super Bowl wins. That deal had been in place since 1999.
