Hendrick Motorsports, Chase Elliott Getting New Beverage Sponsor With Pepsi/Mtn Dew Exiting

Hendrick Motorsports and driver Chase Elliott have landed a new beverage category sponsor in Adrenaline Shoc, a Keurig Dr Pepper-aligned healthy energy drink brand that is replacing outgoing partner Pepsi/Mtn Dew.

Pepsi is a longtime partner of HMS and Elliott had been one of its major endorsers in recent years, but he was seen in his 2021 firesuit recently without any Pepsi/Mtn Dew logo on it, and the brand confirmed to SBJ yesterday that it has ended that relationship. Fox Sports previously reported that Pepsi was expected to end the partnership.

Pepsi Head of Sports Marketing Justin Toman wrote in a statement to SBJ: “MTN DEW has proudly supported some of racing’s top drivers for over 30 years. What started with a partnership with Hall of Famer Darrell Waltrip’s title-winning teams in 1981 and 1982, led to long-standing relationships with Dale Earnhardt Jr., Chase Elliott, and others. While our relationship with Chase has come to an end, MTN DEW will continue to support the millions of racing fans this season and beyond.”

While Mountain Dew likely wasn’t one of HMS’s biggest partners in dollars spent, it was the sort of blue-chip brand that marketed the sport to millions of consumers and which industry execs will thus be disappointed to see exiting its team position.

Nonetheless, HMS and Elliott’s management team, Pro Sport Management, has already lined up the replacement in Adrenaline Shoc, which also goes by Ashoc. The drink company was founded in 2019 and signed a deal for Keurig Dr Pepper to invest in, and distribute, the brand.

This is one of Ashoc’s first major plays in sports marketing. Terms are not being revealed beyond that Ashoc gets two primary positions on HMS’ No. 9 Chevrolet driven by Elliott and will be an associate the rest of the year. The two primaries will be at Atlanta in July and Talladega in October; the paint scheme design is not being revealed today.

Ashoc calls itself a performance-driven energy drink, has 10 flavors and is free of preservatives. On top of sponsoring HMS, Ashoc is also expected to sponsor some of Elliott’s non-NASCAR racing pursuits such as a potential entrance into the Snowball Derby grassroots race held in Florida in early December.

With Ashoc’s entrance, Keurig Dr Pepper now has two assets in the sport as it also recently signed a sponsorship deal with Michael Jordan’s 23XI Racing

Beverage industry serial entrepreneur Lance Collins, who founded brands such as NOS Energy and Fuze, is behind Ashoc. Other sponsors on the No. 9 car include Hooters, NAPA Auto Parts and Kelley Blue Book.