DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Alvin Kamara, NFL star and new NASCAR fan, put some of his own money into the sport as a team sponsor this past weekend at Daytona International Speedway.
from www.yardbarker.com, by way of www.espn.com……
The New Orleans Saints running back agreed to sponsor Ryan Vargas in the Xfinity Series race this past Saturday at Daytona. Vargas had no funding for the road course race, but was sponsored by The Big Squeezy, the Louisiana juice bar chain owned by Kamara.
The deal was initially brokered over Twitter, where Kamara posted frequently last weekend from the Daytona 500. Kamara learned from NASCAR president Steve Phelps of the different avenues for participation and tweeted his surprise at the many options.
Vargas, meanwhile, had crowd-sourced for funding for Saturday’s race and that tweet was flagged to Kamara. He replied to Vargas, who put the football player in touch with his team, and a deal was negotiated as Kamara drove home from the Daytona 500. It took roughly 36 hours for Big Squeezy to become a NASCAR sponsor.
“I had a price in my head but I never had any experience with NASCAR sponsorship. I’ve been a fan for a short time, and I had this number, ‘Man, this is going to be a million dollars,'” Kamara said Friday. “Then when I heard the price … I felt like everything was aligning in the universe — I had just talked about it and then this opportunity came up, it was like, ‘Man, shoot, why not?'”
Each team negotiates its own sponsorship rates, but Kamara likely spent in the low five figures for the race. Sponsorship for one Xfinity Series race typically costs anywhere from $10,000 to $40,000, depending on the team.
Kamara follows Michael Jordan and Pitbull as celebrities new to NASCAR this season. Jordan and Pitbull are both co-owners of NASCAR teams that debuted in last weekend’s Daytona 500.
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