INDIANAPOLIS -- Andretti Autosport announced today that Circle K Stores has joined Andretti Autosport's family of official sponsors. As a marketing partner of the team, Circle K will be a major associate sponsor of the No. 28 car and driver Ryan Hunter-Reay.
The new sponsorship program begins with last weekend's IZOD IndyCar Series event at Iowa Speedway.
The Circle K program will run in a collaborative effort with longtime Andretti Autosport sponsor Dr Pepper Snapple Group, which uses the team's racing program to market multiple brands, including Sun Drop Citrus [image-nocss] Soda, Venom Energy Drink, Dr Pepper and Snapple.
The presence of a large, international convenience store within Andretti Autosport's IndyCar program leverages Andretti Autosport's expertise in packaging retail-based sponsorships with major consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies.
"We at Circle K are very excited to have this opportunity to partner with DPSG as well as Andretti Autosport. We feel that our brand fits into the IndyCar racing segment very well, and are looking forward to developing a great partnership and a great racing season," said Jim King, director of national procurement for Circle K Procurement LLC.
"The addition of Circle K to the Andretti Autosport sponsor family is significant and a retail affiliation we are very excited about," added John Lopes, senior vice president and chief marketing officer for Andretti Autosport. "Circle K brings a broad national and international reach to our sponsor base and the potential to reach millions of fans through co-promotions and customer-focused sales initiatives. As a team, we have a wealth of experience in running successful programs around both grocery and convenience store platforms. We believe this can become another shining star of sponsorship programs within our industry."
Circle K is a property of Laval, Quebec-based Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc., one of North America's largest independent convenience store operators. The Couche-Tard network has a total of more than 5,800 stores, which are located across all 10 provinces of Canada and across 42 American states and the District of Columbia. In addition, a network of about 3,700 licensees extends in nine other regions worldwide, including China, Guam, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Macau, United Arab Emirates, Vietnam and Mexico.
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