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Celebrating Her 100th Birthday, Dale Earnhardt Jr’s Longest Running Sponsor Gets the Surprise of a Lifetime

Published 08/31/2023, 3:13 PM EDT

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22 years have passed since the business that was opened as the marketing arm for Dale Earnhardt Jr evolved into its own standalone racing team in the name of JR Motorsports. Over these years, the team has collected 3 Xfinity championships and gained significant prominence on NASCAR tracks. But this achievement cannot be solely attributed to the drivers who were behind the wheel. In the collective effort of creating and running a successful sports enterprise, external sponsors go a great deal in providing essential support. One of the longest-running sponsors’ for Dale Jr’s team is Florida-based BRANDT, a leading professional agronomic services provider and manufacturer.

After his recent victory in Daytona, JR Motorsports driver Justin Allgaier gave back his thanks to Ms Evelyn Brandt Thomas, the cofounder of Brandt the sponsor of Allgaier’s car and team. Speaking on The Dale Jr. Download podcast, Dale Jr and his director of communications, Mike Davis, talked about this sweet gesture that their driver had displayed on the sponsor’s 100th birthday.

Dale Earnhardt Jr’s driver gives sponsor the best gift on her birthday

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Last weekend’s win was Justin’s first ever in a superspeedway and also his first in 26 starts at the Daytona International. It almost seemed like he might have to settle for being the runner-up once again, but he inched ahead of Richard Childress Racing‘s Sheldon Creed in a spectacular fashion, outpacing him by just 0.005 seconds. As Dale Jr and Mike Davis sat down together once again for their podcast, they discussed the big win and what it meant for Allgaier. Coming back from talking about Justin’s commitment to their team, Mike Davis pitched in about the message the driver had for Ms Evelyn in his post-race interview.

Acknowledging Justin’s long-awaited win at the track once again, Mike mentioned that the race was being streamed at Ms Evelyn’s birthday party. He said, ” If you were paying attention to the interview, you heard him shout out to Ms Evelyn. She’s part of the Brandt family and she’s celebrating her 100th birthday. They were watching the race at Evelyn’s 100th birthday party. And it was bonkers. And then when he called her name out in the post-race interview, she was like ‘They’re talking about me!’ And it was just this amazing moment at this birthday party which had like 700 people.”

via Getty

Justin is JR Motorsports’ longest-tenured driver. Associated himself with Dale Jr since 2016, his commitment to an important sponsor would certainly mean a lot to the team. Mike continued, “The Brandt family is obviously important to us. They’ve been a partner and damn near family. So, that was special.”

Watch This Story: Dale Earnhardt Jr Brings His Xfinity Driver Down to Earth: “Pump the Brakes”

The Brandt-Earnhardt partnership that spans 8 long years

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Brandt Professional Agriculture has been associated with JR Motorsports and the No.7 team of Justin Allgaier for 8 years now. The company is currently headed by Rick Brandt, and the 100 year old co-founder Evelyn serves as a consultant to the board of directors. Evelyn’s love for NASCAR is well known in the offices of Brandt and the garage of JRM. Notably, she had kickstarted the 2023 Xfinity series at Daytona with the face words, “Drivers! Start your engines.”

Owing to the family’s strong interest in racing, they renewed their partnership to sponsor Justin Allgaier and JRM last year. Speaking to the media at the time, Justin mentioned how honored he was to be racing for Dale Jr and talked about his relationship with Brandt. He said,“They have become a family to me. The same way that JRM has over the last seven years.”

Back on the podcast, Dale Jr responded to Mike’s words by talking about how the company’s CEO Rick Brandt doesn’t care what the name or number on Justin’s car reads. He said, “He doesn’t care what’s on that car when he wins that race (…) He doesn’t care. He loves Justin, he loves Junior Motorsports, he loves when the car wins races, no matter what’s on the side of it.” With a team-driver-partisan relationship that borders on being called a family, it can only be expected that this partnership continues for the foreseeable future. 

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Written by:

Gowtham Ramalingam

365Articles

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Gowtham Ramalingam is a NASCAR writer at EssentiallySports. His love for motorsports stems from his fascination with Formula 1. Possessing an obsession for anything with an engine, the roads eventually led him to the raw grounds of NASCAR and he has been an avid fan of the sport ever since.
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Edited by:

Nischal Kandpal