Sprint Cup sponsorships getting shuffled around

In the past couple of weeks, a number of sponsors in the Sprint Cup Series have announced departures or relocations to different teams for the 2015 season. One of the most talked-about sponsor departures is the National Guard leaving the #88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet of Dale Earnhardt Jr., as well as all other motorsports operations in the country. Earnhardt has taken the Guard as a primary sponsor to two of his three wins this year, at Daytona and the first Pocono race. His other primary sponsor is Mountain Dew. Next year, Nationwide insurance, outgoing sponsor of NASCAR's number two series, will begin sponsoring Earnhardt.  The National Guard joined Hendrick from the Roush car of Greg Biffle in 2007 to sponsor the #25 car of Casey Mears. That car became the #88 driven by Earnhardt in 2008.

Biffle is also involved in a sponsor shake-up. 3M, the sponsor of his #16 Ford since 2007 after the National Guard left, is going to Hendrick to sponsor the #24 of Jeff Gordon. Drive to End Hunger, one of Gordon's current primaries, is coming back in 2015 as well. In addition, the Kimberly-Clark company has renewed their sponsorship with the #47 team of Watkins Glen race winner A.J. Allmendinger and JTG Daugherty Racing. There will likely be more sponsor changes closer to the end of the season, and this will make for a lot of different paint jobs in 2015.