Dale Earnhardt Jr. pleased after JR Motorsports lands multi-year TaxSlayer.com extension

Landing sponsorship in the NASCAR Nationwide Series is hard these days. But signing a sponsor to a multi-year agreement? That’s nearly unheard of in the current economic climate.

In that sense, JR Motorsports has achieved the improbable: On Tuesday, the Nationwide team announced it inked current sponsor TaxSlayer.com to a multi-year extension.

Not only that, but TaxSlayer decided to increase its involvement from 14 races to 17 races per season.

JRM co-owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. told SB Nation via phone on Tuesday the multi-year agreement stands to benefit both the team and the sponsor.

“It’s pretty rare, I think,” he said. “In the (current) environment, it’s not often you get multi-year deals at that level. I think it brings some security to JR Motorsports, but it works out well for the sponsor to be able to know the commitment and sort of build on their marketing over a longer period of time.

“The year-to-year deals make it hard to really get ahead and activate the sponsorship. When they can make the commitment and know what they’re doing and we can use our marketing group to help them over the longevity of that contract, it’s way more effective.”

Earnhardt Jr. will drive a TaxSlayer car in the season-opening Nationwide race at Daytona next season, but the rest of JRM’s driver lineup has yet to be announced. The team is trying to finish signing more sponsors before it names the drivers for its entries.

While Earnhardt Jr. said the TaxSlayer deal gives the team some peace of mind, there are also more benefits: It makes it easier to “put the rest of the pieces of the puzzle in place,” he said.

“That might allow our company to appear more attractive when we’re able to secure commitments like that,” he said. “When you have people who are happy to work with us like TaxSlayer – who are pleased with what we’ve done so well and how we’re working together on the marketing side – I think it makes us a more appealing opportunity for other partners.”

As part of the agreement, TaxSlayer will use Earnhardt Jr. as the face of its marketing campaigns – particularly during the tax season months (January, February and March). Earnhardt Jr. will also appear at the TaxSlayer.com Gator Bowl again.

TaxSlayer.com is a website which helps customers fill out their tax returns and file them electronically.