For the majority of Denny Hamlin‘s career dating back to 2005, FedEx was his primary sponsor. He drove FedEx colors to Victory Lane in 47 of his 54 Cup wins, but in recent years, the brand quietly decreased its presence in NASCAR. Last year, they sponsored Hamlin in 13 of 36 races before finally exiting the sport.
It’s been a difficult hole for Joe Gibbs Racing to fill, securing smaller sponsorship deals with various brands. But it appears they’ve finally managed to sell the vacant sponsor space on the side of the No. 11 car, announcing a new deal with Progressive Insurance on Tuesday.
The partnership begins this weekend at Homestead and Hamlin will carry primary sponsorship from Progressive in 18 races this year. Some of the other notable races where Progressive will partner with Hamlin include the All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro, the Chicago Street Course, the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis, and the championship finale at Phoenix Raceway.
The new deal was announced via live stream with Hamlin saying: “Excited to have these guys on. I love the front of the car. To me, this gives me old Rockwell Automation vibes (old Hamlin sponsor) with the stripe that is going down the front. So awesome that Progressive is coming on. Love the blue. This is the color of the very first late model that I actually won in around 2000. So we’re bringing back the blue. Excited to represent this brand and get them some wins on the race track.”
Hamlin then offered the following warning to his competition: “So when you see the ‘P’, you better get out of the way.”
Progressive is no stranger to NASCAR and this isn’t even their first time sponsoring a Cup Series car. Ryan Newman carried Progressive colors as recently as 2020 at RFK Racing, but this is a significant partnership for JGR after piecing together smaller deals for Hamlin throughout the past two seasons.
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