Company owned by ‘Duck Dynasty’ family to sponsor NASCAR race

The “Duck Dynasty” family is coming to NASCAR in a big way.

Beginning this April, the annual spring Sprint Cup race at Texas Motor Speedway will be known as the Duck Commander 500 named after the brand of duck calls featured on the popular A&E reality television show. The Robertson family, which owns the company, announced Thursday an agreement to be the title sponsor for the next three years.

“We are all big fans of NASCAR and have been all our lives,” said Willie Robertson, the CEO of Duck Commander in a release. “It’s especially exciting to see our brand join to make it an awesome experience for the fan base and we can’t think of a better place than our neighbor at the Texas Motor Speedway.”

The move isn’t without controversy, as the show went on a brief hiatus after Phil Robertson, the patriarch of the Robertson family, criticized homosexuality in comments made to GQ Magazine. A&E in response temporally suspended production.

The Robertson family attended several NASCAR races over the last few years, including the 2013 Daytona 500. In a statement, speedway president Eddie Gossage called the association between the stars of “Duck Dynasty” and NASCAR a “perfect marriage.”

Clint Bowyer, who appeared on “Duck Dynasty” a year ago, also expressed his enthusiasm on Twitter:

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