New NASCAR title sponsor???

Who will replace Sprint?

As you know, 2016 marks the final season for Sprint as NASCAR title sponsor. The relationship of course began in 2004 when Nextel replaced longtime series sponsor Winston. A 2005 merger between Sprint and Nextel ultimately resulted in the rebranding of the sponsorship as the NSCAR Sprint Cup Series in 2008.

Fast forward to 2016, and NASCAR is looking for a replacement.

Yesterday NASCAR chairman & CEO Brian France noted "we're ahead of schedule" in looking for a title sponsor to replace Sprint. That could mean many things. However, what we're hearing here at Richmond is that the search is not going as well as expected, and certainly not as well as what NASCAR is saying publicly.

For one, we've been told that interest from outside the sport has been tepid, and that the eventual new title sponsor is likely to "come from within the sport." We were also told that one company from outside the sport who did approach NASCAR was turned off by the "unrealistic numbers" NASCAR was seeking.

France of course said in February "there is no playbook when it comes to a billion-dollar sports deal." That sounded far fetched and arrogant at the time. And with ratings and attendance continuing their gradual decades long decline, and drivers and team owners beginning to take a firmer stance in dealing with the sanction, it sounds like it might be far fetched now.

Brian C. reporting from Richmond International Raceway