Stewart-Haas Racing has acquired a new partner in Subway restaurants as a full-time associate sponsor and a multi-race deal as a primary sponsor, the team announced Aug. 24.
The brand will adorn the No. 4 Ford Mustang of Kevin Harvick starting Sept. 18 at the Bristol Motor Speedway night race and will return again on Oct . 24 at Kansas Speedway.
This is not the first time the brand has partnered with car-owner Tony Stewart, who drove with the Subway colors in his one and only win at Talladega Superspeedway in his NASCAR Cup Series career in 2008.
“Sometimes you’ve got to change direction and, for me, becoming a driver/owner in the NASCAR Cup Series was exactly the refresh I needed,” Stewart said in a team release. “Quality, quickness and the ability to adapt drives everything we do at Stewart-Haas Racing. Subway operates very similarly.”
SHR has two teams that have already qualified for the 2021 Cup playoffs in Aric Almirola and Harvick, who is now mathematically eligible following last weekend’s event at Michigan International Speedway. Almirola remains the only SHR driver to have a Cup points-paying win in 2021.
About the author
Dalton Hopkins began writing for Frontstretch in April 2021. Currently, he is the lead writer for the weekly Thinkin' Out Loud column and one of our lead reporters. Beforehand, he wrote for IMSA shortly after graduating from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in 2019. Simultaneously, he also serves as a First Lieutenant in the US Army.
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Subway seems to be a competitor of Jimmy John’s. I bet Jimmy John’s is moving on.
Hard to put “Freaky Fast” on a car that’s lost every race this year…
If Dillon comes out of nowhere to contend for the lead again like he did at Michigan, he should get that deal. But it should be a tuna sub, because that was kinda fishy.
SHR switching sponsorship from Jimmy John’s to Subway in the middle of the season is one of the weirder sponsor/team moves I’ve seen in quite a while.
There has to be a story behind this: Did Jimmy John’s stiff SHR on payments for the races they sponsored this season? Landing an expensive co-primary like Subway usually takes months of negotiations – Did SHR approach Subway first, or was it the other way around? Also, Jimmy John’s had a personal services deal with Harvick – What happened to that?
Maybe Subway is trying to recreate their image after their debacle with the kneeling soccer player, Meghan Rapinoe.