CBS Sports reported:
The National Rifle Association is taking its relationship with racing to a new level as the title sponsor of a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race.
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.
The April 13 race at Texas, the first scheduled night race in the Cup Series this season, will be known as the NRA 500.
This is not the NRA’s first title sponsorship in NASCAR. The group sponsored the second-tier Nationwide race last September at Atlanta, which like Texas is owned by Speedway Motorsports Inc.
“They saw it was obviously a very attractive sports marketing opportunity and seized it. That’s what it’s all about,” Gossage said. “It’s about putting on one of the great sporting events in America. I know in Atlanta last year they saluted a lot of the people that make America free. They are going to salute American freedoms and American families with this race. That’s their plan so it seemed to be a good fit.”