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If Jeremy Mayfield’s injunction against NASCAR is upheld during upcoming court proceedings, he may have a sponsor for the July 26 Allstate 400 at the Brickyard—and beyond.
In an interview Friday with Full Throttle Autos Online, Robert Craddock, the Florida-based owner of SmallSponsor.com, expressed his confidence in Mayfield’s innocence despite a failed drug test in May.
"How many years has Jeremy been doing this? Has there ever been an indication [of a drug problem] in all those years?” Craddock said. “I think the answer is no.”
Craddock went on to call the test “completely bogus,” citing reports that Mayfield would be dead if he tested positive at the level of methamphetamine NASCAR says he did. To that end, Craddock says he’s in very positive discussions with a Fortune 500-level company that would be willing to join SmallSponsor.com as a co-primary sponsor of Mayfield’s No. 41 Camry, similar to the Office Deport/Old Spice relationship with Tony Stewart.
Even if that partnership didn’t develop, Craddock said SmallSponsor.com has funding to support Mayfield.
“We could definitely support it, but it’s like everything else, you can never have enough money,” Craddock said of his company, which funded Mayfield Motorsports prior to the driver’s suspension and for a brief period after J.J. Yeley was put into the car.
Craddock’s upbeat prognostications came just a day after Mayfield’s wife, Shana, told the Associated Press that the team may have to sell its inventory of cars because it doesn’t have the funding to race.
Bobby Wooten, team manager of Mayfield Motorsports, was noncommittal about Craddock’s promises, although he called Craddock a friend of the team and said he was working hard to help put the No. 41 back on the track.
“We’re waiting for Robert to get everything put together,” Wooten said. “If he can bring to the table what he says he can, we’ll be more than glad to get out there with him.”
The business model of SmallSponsor.com is to provide companies that would never normally be able to afford NASCAR sponsorship a chance to benefit from a relationship with a Cup team. Similar incarnations, such as the now-defunct BAM Racing’s Diamond Sponsor program, have failed to bear fruit.
But Craddock says Mayfield’s suspension has held up big plans for the company, including a national television ad campaign and potentially naming rights to a Cup race at Michigan International Speedway.
“They’re shooting the hands that have literally been feeding them,” Craddock said of NASCAR delaying his program during a soft sponsorship and advertising climate.
He added that he had discussions with Roush Fenway Racing and Michael Waltrip Racing before the opportunity to go with Mayfield. And while he says he could try to take his sponsorship to another team, conversations he’s having with people who believe Mayfield’s story over NASCAR’s has him convinced to go forward as planned.
“Jeremy, given the right funding, will be able to have the right team and the right equipment and can be very competitive out there like he was before,” Craddock said.
Josh Stewart joined Full Throttle Autos and www.ftamag.com in May after more than four years covering NASCAR for the Long Island Press. He can be reached at jstewart@ftamag.com.
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