Allstate Puts the Brakes on Brickyard Sponsorship

Making The NASCAR race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway will have a new name next year. Or, quite possibly, an old one.

Insurance giant Allstate announced Monday it would not renew its title sponsorship of the race, which ran for the fifth time Sunday as the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard.

Speedway spokesman Ron Green said a replacement won't be aggressively sought, and the race is likely to revert to its original name: the Brickyard 400.

"We weren't actively looking for a title sponsor when we landed Allstate," Green said. "They were looking to do something, and it just made sense at the time. If someone were to come along again, certainly we would listen, but this event does not need a sponsor to be financially successful."

Terms of the IMS-Allstate deal never were made public, but track President Joie Chitwood said at the time it was announced that it was on the "high end" of race sponsorships, which would be about $2 million annually.

Zak Brown, founder and CEO of Indianapolis-based Just Marketing, said that's a sizeable sum for the Speedway to lose. "And entitlements are bottom-line money," he said.

Brown called Allstate's decision simply a sign of the times.

"While it's obviously impactful, no one should be surprised," he said. "Any renewal right now -- and it's not limited to motor sports -- is 50-50 at best. No one's got good numbers given the economic climate we're in."

So even if the Speedway were inclined to try to replace Allstate, the task won't be easy. Just look at the search for a title sponsor for the IndyCar Series that after several years has yet to produce results.

"They're going to be in competition for the few sponsorship dollars that are available," said Eric Wright, vice president of research and product development for Joyce Julius & Associates, which tracks sponsorships based on TV exposure. "I would imagine they're going have to discount a little. It's a tough marketplace."

Attendance at Sunday's race was estimated at 180,000, off about 20 percent from last year, but in a statement Allstate officials said their decision wasn't based on that.

"When we looked at all of our business results, they were just better in other properties," said Pam Hollander, Allstate's director of sponsorships and promotions.

Allstate has an associate sponsorship with Kasey Kahne and the Richard Petty Motorsports team. Its other sports, sponsorship affiliations include college football, soccer and the U.S. Olympic team, and it has its name on the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Ill....