{"id":574084,"date":"2026-04-01T01:12:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T01:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/574084\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T01:12:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T01:12:10","slug":"23xi-president-weighs-in-on-mcdonalds-potential-return-to-nascar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/574084\/","title":{"rendered":"23XI President weighs in on McDonald’s potential return to NASCAR"},"content":{"rendered":"

When McDonald\u2019s re-emerged on the NASCAR<\/a> scene with a five-year deal with 23XI in 2021, the potential for a truly remarkable primary sponsorship was clearly recognized by all. The sponsor took up space on Bubba Wallace\u2018s car, and he promptly won the 2021 fall race at Talladega.<\/p>\n

But the sponsorship deal expired after 2025 and McDonald\u2019s opted not to renew. Could the fast food giant return to the sport in the future? Don\u2019t rule it out.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy McDonald\u2019s moved on is a question for them other than I know they had some business challenges and you got to figure out what to do with the money that you have,\u201d said Steve Lauletta, the president of 23XI racing, to Adam Stern of Sports Business Journal<\/a>. \u201cThey love the sport \u2014 it wouldn\u2019t surprise me if they came back into the sport at some point.\u201d<\/p>\n

McDonald\u2019s has had some serious involvement with NASCAR over the years. It was a founding partner of the Chicago Street Race weekend.<\/p>\n

It has been on the car of Bubba Wallace and Kurt Busch for 23XI. It has also gone back further than that, including the likes of Jimmy Spencer and Kyle Larson.<\/p>\n

23XI has done its best to move on with new primary sponsors for Wallace. Meanwhile, Tyler Reddick is having a heck of a season for his sponsors.<\/p>\n

Lauletta spoke to the success the team has had in replacing McDonald\u2019s with another fast food chain. It\u2019s been a fairly seamless transition.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m super proud of the fact that we replaced them with Hardee\u2019s in a category that is really important from a promotional standpoint,\u201d Lauletta said. \u201cThey have been spectacular early on in what they plan to do, the content they\u2019ve shot, the paint scheme, the plans that are coming for Nashville and other race markets that are important to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, there are undoubtedly plenty of race fans out there wondering when the Golden Arches might return to the sport. McDonald\u2019s has an iconic place in NASCAR\u2026 it might just need the right re-entry point, and Lauletta says the franchise could very well return.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When McDonald\u2019s re-emerged on the NASCAR scene with a five-year deal with 23XI in 2021, the potential for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":570701,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-574084","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nascar","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nascar","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=574084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574084\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/570701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=574084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=574084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=574084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}