NRA Title Sponsor for NASCAR Race at Texas

The National Rifle Association is taking its relationship with racing to a new level as the title sponsor of a NASCAR Sprint Cup race. What better place then Texas? The deal with Texas Motor Speedway comes at a time when the NRA is involved in a renewed debate on gun violence in the wake of the December shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.

"It's not about politics. It's about sports marketing," TMS president Eddie Gossage said Monday after the announcement of the one-year agreement with the NRA that includes a renewal option.

It is about politics and it happens to be in sports marketing now with NASCAR. Who's kidding who? NASCAR is where those who want to promote a produce, political view or even push re-election for the president of the United States of America. 

The April 13 race at Texas, the first scheduled night race in the Cup Series this season, will be known as the NRA 500.

NASCAR said in a statement Monday that "race entitlement partnerships" are agreements directly between the track and the sponsor though NASCAR reserves the right to approve or disapprove those sponsorships.

The sponsorship does seem like a natural. It's been a tradition at TMS that the winner of the Cup race gets to fire a six-shooter in victory lane. And the winner of the pole gets a rifle as a prize. 

Those who support the constitution along with the NRA will embrace the sponsorship and those who oppose it will likely picket, rant and rave!