NASCAR has always been a great sport for companies to build their brand by sponsoring drivers. Whether it be Dupont, Home Depot, Lowes, Interstate Batteries, Goodwrench, A T & T, ALLTEL; well those last two used to be able to sponsor cars in the Cup Series until Sprint took over.

Since those companies had contracts with cup teams, they were “grandfathered” in to allow them to still be a sponsor but Richard Childress and Roger Penske were forced to find new sponsors. As we have seen in the past couple years, teams are working hardcer than ever to find sponsors, even former Cup Champions Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon have had struggles finding sponsors.

Jamie McMurray didn’t know what he was doing until a month before he won the Daytona 500 and became the feel good story of 2010. There are plenty of companies out who would love to sponsor a car in any series of NASCAR, as it would be great exposure for the company. Companies are being wiser when it comes to how they spend their money, some left NASCAR to help save money as it does require a sizeable investment to sponsor a race team and NASCAR in general. With this economy new companies who are looking into sponsoring a driver probably don’t have money to do so, or they are locked out due to exclusivity contracts that don’t permit rival companies to Sprint and Nationwide into NASCAR.

The sanctioning body doesn’t realize that by signing exclusivity contracts with certain sponsors that locks out other potential sponsors that it is not a good thing and its hurting NASCAR even though Sprint, Nationwide, and Sunoco won’t admit it. A T & T, BP, T-Mobil and ALLTEL could all be sponsoring teams right now but Sprint won’t allow it, if they could it would help teams by offering more choices of sponsors to choose from. Let’s take a more recent example; Verizon Wireless sponsored both Brad Keselowski and Justin Allgaier. Since Justin raced in the Nationwide series, Verizon could have the logos on the car, but Brad couldn’t have Verizon logos on his car because of Sprint being the title sponsor of the Cup Series. Allstate used to sponsor Kasey Kahne, the contract with Nationwide Insurance now restricts Allstate from doing so. Sunoco threw a fit with Harvick’s uniform having the Shell logo on it fearing it promoted Shell Gasoline. Sunoco voiced their displeasure with NASCAR and made sure Harvick and RCR only promoted Shell Pennzoil.

Chief Marketer of NASCAR Steve Phelps says the exclusivity contracts that block out the rival companies of certain sponsors like Sprint & Nationwide has always been the business model. "That's the model we've had for a long time, and it's a successful model," NASCAR chief marketer Steve Phelps said. "That's a sacrifice we understand we need to make, and one that allows us to fund the sport."

I hate to break it to you Steve, but it’s time to end it, or at the very least lift the ban for a couple years until this economy gets better. With the economy the way it is today, teams are struggling to find sponsors, and with the recent changes in the Nationwide Series that permit drivers to only run for one championship, lifting the ban would not only help out teams in the Cup Series, but also help Nationwide teams secure sponsorship.

Whether it be BP, Texaco, T-Mobil, Verizon, A T & T, Allstate, Farm Beau, whoever; it’s time to let them back into the sport for the time being, and hey, a little competition doesn’t hurt every now and then.

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