The #83 Red Bull Toyota driven by Brian Vickers will carry a new sponsor brand for the 2009 Sprint Cup Series season as Mighty Auto Parts joins Red Bull Racing Team as an associate sponsor. www.nascar.comCaterpillar Inc. and Richard Childress Racing have agreed to a multi-year partnership for the No. 31 Chevrolet driven by Jeff Burton beginning with the 2009 Sprint Cup Series season. The 2009 season will mark Caterpillar’s 17th year of sponsorship in NASCAR. It will also be Richard Childress’ 40th anniversary in the sport. “Success in the highly competitive environment of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series requires substantially greater levels of technology and investment than even a few years ago,” said Jim Parker, vice president of Caterpillar’s North American Commercial Division. www.nascar.com

Air Force officials announced that it will begin a new NASCAR partnership with Gillett Evernham Motorsports when it sponsors the No. 10 car driven by Reed Sorenson for the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup season. For the 2009 season, the Air Force is changing their marketing strategy to rebalance their sponsorship and activation programs to increase public awareness about the Air Force and to attract more recruits. “Advertising and marketing that goes beyond the race track will help us connect with fans and emphasize the speed, power, precision and team work that is common to both NASCAR and the Air Force,” said Col. Timothy Hanson, Air Force Recruiting Service Strategic Communications director. www.af.mil

NASCAR drivers, Johnson and Edwards’ sponsor exposure exceeded $1 billion in ‘08: Joyce Julius & Associates monitors sports sponsorships, measuring exposure given to sponsors during televised sports coverage. In NASCAR, Joyce Julius looks at telecasts of races in NASCAR’s three top series and clocks how long a sponsor’s logo can be seen clearly. It counts each second and then multiplies that by what it would cost to buy a second of advertising on that telecast… ABC, SPEED TV or ESPN 2 – Jimmie Johnson’s sponsors had their respective logos shown for 59hours, 28minutes, 39seconds. By the Joyce Julius formula, that means Johnson’s sponsors got $510,161,750 worth of exposure. Carl Edwards, who finished second in the standings to Johnson, had his sponsors shown for 58:50:11. That equates to $495,908,515 in exposure. (More at Charlotte Observer)