Race The Truck Jarrett? (In A Tundra?)
Friday, May 19th, 2006 1:38pm CDT
By Luke, Thunder Lounge
Published on Thunder Lounge.
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[thumb:348:l:s=1:l=x]With the whole circus going on with Jarrett, my mind can’t help but wonder what’s going to happen in terms of the whole “Race The Truck” campaign. For years it’s been “Race The Truck”, and this year it switched to “We’re going to race the truck”. Is that still in the cards in light of recent announcements? Could it be that the truck could be a Tundra?
So, what happens to the branding that UPS has with Dale Jarrett if they indeed stay with Robert Yates and the #88 team? I can still see Miss Piggy beating up the muppets over it, and Ned offering Dale a piece of pie. If that isn’t branding, I don’t know what is. Rumors have played both sides in recent days. Some saying that UPS wants to stay with Yates as long as they produce a quality veteran driver (rumored to perhaps be one such Mr. Ward Burton, the guy that “grew up on the south end of the house” according to his brother Jeff), and the other side has them eventually announcing to follow Dale to his new team. So, who knows. Either way, UPS has a very heavy decision. No matter what happened, they would have been parting with DJ as the driver at the end of 2008 anyway. But it doesn’t mean he still couldn’t have been a spokesman for them after the fact, and help to build the image of the new driver.
Funny thing is, what if they did both? What if they sponsored the #88, but also were a partner sponsor on Jarrett’s new ride to some extent? Ah, the best of both worlds. They would still be able to keep the branding with Jarrett, but also at the same time build a new branding with the new driver. Of course, would it be likely that RYR would allow something like that? It would be similar to what coca-cola does with it’s “family of drivers”, which spans multiple teams and also represents every manufacturer. Next year won’t be any different, as they would be crazy to not sponsor Waltrip. As we’ve said before, Michael is a sponsor’s wet dream come true on Christmas morning.
But the question is still, what about Dale and actually racing the truck? Also, with what team? Is it all just some big marketing ploy, and there hasn’t been any intention of Dale actually competing in the Truck Series in some aspect under the UPS logo? Talk about an easy paint scheme. If the plan is to have DJ in a truck race, does that still stand now that he’s moving to a new team next year?
If UPS were to follow DJ over to MWR, the door is wide open for a truck deal as well. After all, Michael has DW and his truck venture that could easily field a truck or so for DJ’s adventure in racing the truck. Which leads one to wonder, while there is no proof, if maybe that isn’t in the grand scheme of things? It makes sense, since Yates isn’t known for truck rides, and one would assume that Dale would have/will have to run with an associate/friendly team to Yates. It is something to wonder about, at least for those that are curious.
Will Dale still race the truck?
Filed Under: Craftsman Truck Series, Nascar, Nextel Cup
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