Did Denny Hamlin Lose Another Sponsor?
What’s Happening? In 2024, Joe Gibbs Racing lost its long-time sponsor, FedEx, at the end of the season. However, some fans…
With the start of a new NASCAR season comes NASCAR Production Days, in which NASCAR’s media can interview drivers, and NASCAR can take updated photos of drivers. But, when updated driver photos were released, fans once again noticed that a major sponsor was missing from Denny Hamlin’s firesuit.
What’s Happening? In 2024, Joe Gibbs Racing lost its long-time sponsor, FedEx, at the end of the season. However, some fans…
Mavis Tires and Brakes was a significant sponsor of Denny Hamlin’s 2023 and 2024 efforts in the NASCAR Cup Series. In 2023, Mavis sponsored eight races, and in 2024, seven races, alongside a one-off sponsorship from their sister company, Express Oil Change.
This sponsorship was relatively successful as Hamlin won four times in Mavis or Express colors. It also came at a time when Hamlin’s sponsor of almost two decades, FedEx, was pulling back their sponsorship of the No. 11.
Once the No. 11 teams’ only sponsor, in 2022, FedEx sponsored 30 races for Hamlin, dropping to 12 and 1313 in 2023 and 2024. At season’s end, FedEx and Hamlin announced they were ending the partnership.
While this was a significant hole to fill, Mavis’ recent support gave fans a sense of comfort; however, this preseason, it appears Mavis may be on the way out.
In early January, fans noticed that Joe Gibbs Racing had updated their Partners Page on their website. This page usually lists all the team’s primary sponsors, and fans use it to indicate new partnerships and missing partnerships for a new season.
This year, as expected, FedEx was missing. However, Mavis was also gone. While there had been no indication the brand would leave, it looked like Hamlin was out of two sponsors who covered his car for a combined 21 races in 2024.
As pessimists worried, optimists suggested that the brand’s late-preseason signing with JGR last season, which they announced on Jan. 31, could be the hold up for this year as well. However, in Hamlin’s Production Day photos, Mavis is missing from his 2025 firesuit.
To make this even more interesting, Mavis remains featured on Hamlin’s website. While this could be due to a lack of updates, FedEx is gone, and a new sponsor, King’s Hawaiian, is present. The addition of King’s Hawaiian, who signed with JGR since the discovery of Mavis’ disappearance, implies that the website is up to date.
As this mystery continues into the 2025 season, fans may soon have an answer as to what happened to one of Hamlin’s most significant sponsors.
What do you think about all this? Let us know on Discord and X, and remember to follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.
