Questions And Answers About Jeff Gordon's New AARP Foundation Sponsorship

On Wednesday, Hendrick Motorsports announced Jeff Gordon will be sponsored by the AARP Foundation and its "Drive To End Hunger" campaign for 22 races over each of the next three seasons. While DuPont and Pepsi will retain some role, Gordon's shift toward a cause-related primary sponsor is significant – and new for the sport.

Here's a look at some questions and answers about the sponsorship:

Why is the AARP Foundation spending millions of dollars to sponsor a race car when it could just donate that money to hungry people?

This question was asked repeatedly throughout Wednesday's press event and was answered in the same way each time: The AARP Foundation believes it will make the money back, and much more.

According to the group's numbers, there are 51 million people in the United States who go hungry every day, and six million of those are seniors (that's the group targeted by the foundation in its role as the charitable arm of the AARP – the American Association of Retired Persons).

AARP Foundation president Jo Ann Jenkins said several times that the organization expects its sponsorship of the No. 24 car will far exceed its investment (team owner Rick Hendrick said past cause-related sponsorships have generated up to five-to-10 times the money spent on a race program).

But Jenkins also emphasized the foundation was looking for a way to raise awareness of the entire cause – not just money for its foundation. She made a case that many fans will be surprised to learn how many people are going hungry in the richest country in the world and said many seniors must sadly choose between medicine or food.

How will the sponsorship work? Is the AARP Foundation footing the entire bill or is Hendrick donating some space on the car?

Hendrick indicated that it got full price for the AARP Foundation deal – the same as it would get from a Fortune 500 company – and that even if the AARP arrangement didn't work out, Hendrick had an unspecified backup deal in its pocket.

As such, Hendrick said this wasn't a move of desperation or settling for less money in order to secure a sponsor for next season. And no, Hendrick isn't doing this out of charity (although the organization will certainly be very committed to the cause).

But at the same time, the AARP Foundation doesn't anticipate being on the hook for the full amount of the sponsorship (typical 36-race sponsorships for a major team are as much as $20-25 million, so this could potentially range from $12 to $15 million based on that logic).

Jenkins said the foundation will look to partner with corporate sponsors; with a charitable donation for hunger, companies could be featured on Gordon's car, along with ad space in AARP The Magazine and AARP Bulletin (which have the highest circulation of any magazines in the United States thanks to the AARP's 40 million members).

The next step is to package the AARP Foundation's sponsorship with other co-sponsors who want to be part of the cause – as long as they don't conflict with an existing Hendrick sponsor.

Jenkins would not specify what percentage of the sponsorship it was looking to offset with corporate help or how much it was spending overall.

Will the "Drive To End Hunger" have a large presence in the eyes of NASCAR fans?

Absolutely – the possibilities here are endless. Not only will Gordon be a spokesperson for anti-hunger campaigns, but expect to see the tracks and NASCAR get involved.

For example, let's say you run a race track. You could hold a food drive leading up to the race, and everyone who brings in a can of food gets a discounted ticket. That's good exposure for your track, you help a charitable cause and the fans get a cheaper ticket that might encourage them to attend the race.

Or maybe you own a grocery store chain in Kansas. You pledge a certain percentage of sales to the AARP Foundation during race week, and Gordon comes to do an autograph signing at your store. Everyone gets something out of it: The store, the foundation, your customers.

It goes on and on. Marketers who do this for a living undoubtedly are already brimming with ideas and proposals.

Jeff Gordon is being sponsored by a charity instead of a major corporation. Is that a step back for NASCAR?

While it's certainly not Wal-Mart or a major corporation, this could actually end up being a step forward for the sport.

There have been charitable causes on race cars in the past, but none have made a commitment such as this one (both in the amount of races per season and the amount of years involved).

This could potentially open the door for other such causes to enter the sport, especially if the AARP Foundation is successful in getting corporations to help offset its cost by co-sponsoring the car.

And as Hendrick noted, some of these co-sponsors could be companies that have never been involved with NASCAR before. Once they're exposed to it, they may want to remain in the sport by sponsoring a race team themselves. That could help everyone in the sport.

On somewhat of a negative side for fans, this sponsorship continues the trend of partial-season deals. The days of a 30-plus-race sponsor are coming to an end. Only a handful of teams will have the same primary sponsor for most of the season in the future, it seems, so fans will have to adjust to picking out the differing paint schemes of their favorite driver.

Why is the AARP Foundation going the NASCAR route to raise money? Don't they realize many NASCAR fans aren't exactly rolling in cash these days?

Jenkins said the majority of the donations received by the foundation are a modest $10 or $20 – affordable for most people.

A texting campaign is already being promoted on the Drive To End Hunger website, in which fans can text "hunger" to the number 50555 and will be automatically charged $10 on their next cell phone bill.

OK, great. I get the point. But what's the car going to look like?

Hendrick and the AARP Foundation aren't sure yet. In reality, there's a chance it could vary from week-to-week depending on which companies decide to co-sponsor the car.

All of that is in the works now and the paint scheme may not be unveiled for some time as a result.

Why didn't the AARP sponsor Mark Martin instead of Jeff Gordon? Martin is in the AARP's target age range; Gordon isn't even 40 yet.

For one thing, Mark Martin didn't have any openings for sponsorship. In fact, Hendrick said Martin is fully sponsored for next season – along with the team's other three cars. Hendrick noted he won't have to use his own HendrickCars.com sponsorship for any cars next year (as was the case in five races this season on Martin's No. 5) and said sponsorship revenues will increase in 2011.

Hendrick said overall, sponsors are more active right now than in the last two season, which he believes is a sign of an improving economy.

In regard to age, though, Jenkins pointed out that donating to help end hunger has little to do with how old you are.

Enough about Gordon. Did anyone ask Rick Hendrick about Dale Earnhardt Jr.?

Yes. Hendrick said he was very excited to see Earnhardt Jr. run well at Martinsville – and said Earnhardt Jr. was excited, too.

He added the No. 88 team puts forth a tremendous effort each week, but it's tried even harder to give Earnhardt Jr. a good car for Talladega, where the driver has seen much past success. To that end, Hendrick said confidently he wouldn't be surprised to see Earnhardt Jr. win this weekend.

As for those fans calling for changes to the No. 88 team? Hendrick said the organization will wait until the end of the season before evaluating each of its teams.