DEWALT Will Not Return To Roush Fenway #17 Cup Team In 2010

With the economy still in a downswing, and sponsorship in NASCAR not as strong as it was a few years ago. One of the biggest industries that’s been hit the hardest is construction. Home Depot along with Lowes, which happen to be the country’s two largest home improvement warehouses, have seen their share of the declining economy. Home depot alone has already closed numerous stores, along with letting go of thousands of employee’s in the process. So its no wonder that the domino effect that always follows when hard times hit, was not that far off the horizon.

As sad as it may it seem since NASCAR does generate more of the advertising dollar, because of the different teams that race in the series. Now when you look at each of the different teams, how many of them run the same sponsor on each of their race cars? Now how surprising is it that Roush Fenway Racing who is NASCAR’s largest team operating nine Motorsports teams, was informed today that DEWALT Power Tools will not renew its sponsorship of Matt Kenseth and the No. 17 team for the 2010 NASCAR season.

For those of us who know anything about the construction industry, or that have done their own home improvements already knows that DEWALT along with Makita, Skil, Bosch, Milwaukee, and Porter-Cable are the biggest suppliers of power tools to the construction industry. So with the construction industry steadily declining, it was just a matter of time before the power tool end of the industry would be hit. Especially since we are already witnessing the home improvement warehouses, steadily disappearing from the horizon.

Roush Fenway president Geoff Smith, who oversees all nine of the Roush Fenway teams which include five in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series with drivers Matt Kenseth, Jamie McMurray, Greg Biffle, Carl Edwards and David Ragan; three in the Nationwide Series with Kenseth, Biffle, Edwards, Ragan, Erik Darnell, Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. and Colin Braun; and one in the Camping World Truck Series with Braun.

Smith had this to say when he was told that DEWALT would no longer be part of the team in 2010, “We would like to thank DEWALT for serving as a great partner for the past 10 years. During that time we have seen great success for both their company and marketing program, as well as with Matt on the race track. They will always be remembered and honored as the sponsor of Jack Roush’s first Sprint Cup Championship team.”

The decision that DeWalt made was not because of Kenseth’s performance, especially when take into consideration that DEWALT has served as the primary sponsor on the No. 17 for the past 10 seasons. During that span Kenseth and the team matured into one of the most successful in the sport; winning 18 races, the 2000 Rookie of the Year Award, the 2003 Sprint Cup Championship, the 2009 Daytona 500 and qualifying for the Chase every year since its inception in 2004.

But instead the decision was based on the struggling economy said Smith. “Despite this success – in the face of the significant world-wide economic decline in the construction industry – DEWALT’s decision to not return is not a great surprise to us.”

“Fortunately, we have several great companies interested in taking over and we expect to begin finalizing those sponsorship arrangements in the very near future. All of us at Roush Fenway Racing remain committed to keeping the No. 17 DEWALT car running up front, winning races and to put them in a position to contend for a second championship this season,” Smith added.