Racecars and guns may be this spring’s hottest new couple.
The National Rifle Association is set to be the title sponsor of a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race this spring, located not so surprisingly in Texas. The April 13 race in the Cup Series will be called the NRA 500.
While the NRA has been heavily involved in the gun debate following the Sandy Hook shootings, Texas Motor Speedway President Eddie Gossage swears, “It’s not about politics.”
“It’s about sports marketing,” he explained to the Associated Press.
Looks like NRA’s Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre is finally catching a break after a slew of attacks by gun control advocates in the wake of the Newtown shooting.
“The NRA 500 is the latest announcement in the long history of a growing partnership between the NRA, Speedway Motorsports and the NASCAR community,” LaPierre said in a video message on Monday. “NRA members and NASCAR fans love their country and everything that is good and right about America. We salute our flag, volunteer in our churches and communities, cherish our families and we love racing. ”
Gossage also complimented the organization for its “salute [to] America freedoms and American families with this race.”
“I know in Atlanta last year they saluted a lot of the people that make America free,” he told the AP, referencing the NASCAR race the NRA sponsored last September.
Gossage said they had a lot of other sponsorship offers, but they chose the NRA because “they were willing to meet the price” and their target audience is similar. Not to mention the winner of the race always fires a six-shooter on the track once the race is over—and takes home a new rifle as a prize.
Gossage said he has received little backlash from the decision and that the feedback has been “99 percent supportive, some wildly supportive.”
“The public, it doesn’t seem to be they’re going to have any issue with it, and I’m not sure why anybody would think they would,” he said. “So we know what we’re doing.”
