SpongeBob SquarePants to take over Kansas Cup race in May

The upcoming Sprint Cup race at Kansas Speedway in May will be known as the SpongeBob SquarePants 400. The race will be held on Saturday night, May 9. The SpongeBob show has aired since 1999 on Nickelodeon and remains very popular 16 years after its debut. It has been involved in NASCAR before, including sponsoring the #48 of Jimmie Johnson as a partner with Lowe's in a couple of races, and sponsoring a then-Busch Series race at Charlotte in October of 2004 known as Lowe's Presents the SpongeBob SquarePants Movie 300, as a promotion for the show's first feature film. Why spring Kansas as opposed to another sponsorless Cup race is anyone's guess, but SpongeBob as a sponsor in NASCAR's top series is sure to generate a lot of buzz in the two months leading up to the first of Kansas' two annual race weekends.