Jeff Gordon - Sponsorship and Paint

Sponsorship and Paint

Gordon and his team have carried the nickname "The Rainbow Warriors" throughout the years. He has always carried DuPont as a sponsor. From 1993 to 2000, Gordon carried a rainbow scheme that got the team their nickname. Throughout the years, Gordon has sometimes carried different paint, such as Jurassic Park the ride in 1997, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace in 1999, and Snoopy in the 2000 Brickyard 400, and a Superman theme. In 1997, Gordon signed a long-term contract with Pepsi that is still in place today. Every year Gordon has driven a car with the Pepsi scheme (he almost always has a car with a Pepsi paint scheme at a night race, particularly Daytona International Speedway in July). In 2001, Gordon debuted a new scheme designed by NASCAR artist Sam Bass, which kept a blue base but changed the rainbow pattern to flames. In 2002, Gordon raced with a special scheme in honor of DuPont's 200th Anniversary. In 2006, Gordon acquired a new sponsor, Nicorette. In 2007, Gordon increased his partnership with Nicorette, and ran the paint scheme in 4 races. At Talladega in 2007, Gordon had a fan design contest. The design got a real treat, as Gordon won the race. Since 2007, Gordon has had the same design with different colors. (e.g. Nicorette scheme, green and yellow flames). Gordon will occasionally run a scheme that will support a different type of DuPont paint such as Cromax Pro.

Gordon announced that the primary scheme of the DuPont No. 24 Chevrolet was to change for 2009 and beyond on the QVC show For Race Fans Only. The 2009 scheme kept the flames format but the colors were radically changed to red and orange flames on a black base color. The new 2009 DuPont paint scheme was unveiled on NBC's Today show. In 2009, the National Guard signed a contract with Gordon, replacing Nicorette. The National Guard was the primary sponsor on Gordon's car for 6–8 races per season through 2010. Occasionally, a one-race sponsor steps in to sponsor Gordon's car for one race. For example, Gordon ran a Megatron scheme at Charlotte in the summer of 2009 to promote the movie Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen that was soon to come out on June 24, 2009.

Hendrick Motorsports owner, Rick Hendrick, said in November 2009 that he is working on signing a contract extension with DuPont, Gordon's primary sponsor since the beginning of his career. DuPont's current contract with Jeff Gordon expired at the end of 2010, and Hendrick said he wants it to be Gordon's primary sponsor for the rest of his career. In 2010, reports surfaced that Hendrick Motorsports was in talks with Walmart to be a sponsor for the No. 24 car, the deal never materialized. In October 2010, Hendrick Motorsports announced a scaled-down three-year extension of its sponsorship agreement with DuPont: DuPont will be Gordon's primary sponsor for 14 races, with AARP picking up 22 of the remaining races and long-term sponsor Pepsi continuing as primary sponsor for 2 races. In 2012 at Bristol, online game developer Zynga teamed with AARP and Gordon ran a FarmVille-themed scheme. Gordon also had a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle paint scheme on his car for the race at Charlotte Motor Speedway on October 13, 2012. In 2013, DuPont Performance Coatings was sold to Carlyle Group and became Axalta Coating Systems, which will run with Gordon for 14 races.