AJ Foyt Racing has announced that it has picked up a major sponsor for Kyle Kirkwood’s car for the upcoming night race at World Wide Technology Raceway, commonly known as Gateway.
The car will feature prominent sidepod branding of the Bommarito Automotive Group, a well-known car dealership in the St. Louis area and title sponsor of the August 20th race itself.
The welcome announcement comes amid continued sponsorship issues for AJ Foyt, which stopped receiving payments from ROKiT midseason.
The company, which makes budget phones among many other products, left the team with no choice but to downsize to two cars for the remainder of the season, and to remove ROKiT branding from the remaining entries.
Kirkwood has been running a car with Sexton Properties branding for the last few races, and will now have the Bommarito logo for the upcoming short oval race.
“We are honored to be a part of bringing the NTT IndyCar Series to the St. Louis region,” said John Bommarito, President of the Bommarito Automotive Group.
“As an iconic brand here in the St. Louis marketplace and selling vehicles nationwide, the Bommarito Automotive Group could not be more proud to adorn the iconic AJ Foyt Racing No. 14 Chevy, driven by Kyle Kirkwood, for the 6th Annual Bommarito Automotive Group 500 right here in our own hometown.”
The Bommarito sponsorship only applies to the #14 entry, and does not give extra funds for the team to field the shelved #11 entry again.
It appears the car that was shared between Tatiana Calderon and JR Hildebrand for the first part of the season will sit in the shop for the remainder of 2022 due to the ongoing funding issues.
Regardless, the added sponsorship will be seen as a lifeline for a team that has had funding problems this season, and has also accumulated a hefty repair bill over the last few races.
Why do greedy race team owners accept sponsorship from charlatans who have already shat on other race team owners?