NFL star Alvin Kamara is carrying his NASCAR fandom into team sponsorship
NFL All-Pro running back Alvin Kamara kept Twitter entertained during the Daytona 500 with his musings on NASCAR and questions about how drivers go to the bathroom during races. The New Orleans Saints standout said he attended his first race at Homestead-Miami Speedway last year after his interest in the sport was piqued by Bubba Wallace’s social activism and NASCAR’s ban of the Confederate flag.
“I realized that there is really more than what meets the eye when it comes to NASCAR,” Kamara said.
After meeting NASCAR president Steve Phelps last year and attending this year’s Daytona 500, Kamara has become a major champion of the sport and now he’s sponsoring an Xfinity Series team for a race. Kamara’s chain of juice bars in Louisiana, The Big Squeezy, will be the primary sponsor for the No. 6 Chevrolet driven by Ryan Vargas at the Daytona road course, Vargas’ JD Motorsports team announced Wednesday.
Vargas and Kamara said the deal came together through a tweet.
“I’m getting ready to get out of Daytona and I see Ryan’s tweets ... and he’s obviously without a sponsor for this week in Daytona,” Kamara said. “ ... I mentioned Ryan and I’m like, ‘Yo how can we make this happen?’”
The two messaged back and forth, and Kamara coordinated with JD Motorsports vice president Tony Priscaro to finalize logistics. Kamara said he “had a price in his head” and felt comfortable with the number, and that ultimately the timing felt right to get involved with NASCAR from a sponsorship side.
“I feel like the possibilities are endless right now,” Kamara said when asked about future sponsorship and team ownership opportunities. “I’m kind of treating this like I’m about to perform or compete.”
Kamara and Vargas began teasing the news on social media Tuesday, with Kamara writing on Twitter, “Got sumthin for y’all later.”
“We had no sponsor on the car on Monday,” Vargas said. “We had nothing planned. The car was just gonna be plain, blank and red.”
Vargas is a 20-year-old Hispanic driver from La Mirada, Calif., and a graduate of NASCAR’s Drive for Diversity program. He raced a part-time schedule for JD Motorsports last season with sponsorship from social media platform TikTok for the company’s first foray into the sport, and is competing full-time for the organization this year. Vargas has made 13 starts in the Xfinity Series since 2019 and said that the NASCAR community has welcomed him with “open arms.”
“To see just where the sport is going in terms of its diversity efforts, I mean, it’s incredible,” Vargas said. “You see a lot of people back drivers like Bubba. You see a lot of people back drivers like Daniel Suárez. You see people starting to back drivers like me.”
Michael Jordan’s entry into NASCAR as a Cup team owner of 23XI Racing was similarly sparked by Wallace’s advocacy for Black Lives Matter and NASCAR’s push for diversity and inclusion. Another celebrity team co-owner, Pitbull, who backs Trackhouse Racing and Hispanic driver Suárez, has said he hopes to create an inclusive community around the sport that has historically been white and male-dominated.
“Just being there, it just gave me a whole new perspective on the sport, on the landscape of what’s going on within the sport and the strides that they’re making to change the sport,” Kamara said.
Kamara is the co-owner of the juice chain that currently has nine locations throughout Louisiana. He said he plans to attend Saturday’s race to watch the team and driver he’s sponsoring.
The Super Start Batteries 188 at Daytona Presented by O’Reilly starts at 5 p.m. Saturday on FS1.
This story was originally published February 17, 2021 at 11:49 AM.
