KNOXVILLE, Iowa – Axalta will serve as the primary sponsor of David Gravel and the Jason Johnson Racing No. 41 sprint car during the NOS Energy Drink Knoxville Nationals.
Representatives from the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series team made the official announcement on JJR’s Twitter page late Monday morning.
The news was first revealed by Adam Stern of the Sports Business Journal.
Per Stern, Axalta joins the JJR organization on the advice of retired four-time Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion Jeff Gordon, who was backed by Axalta throughout his NASCAR career and raced sprint cars before moving to stock cars in the early 1990s.
Gravel moved over to JJR this season from CJB Motorsports, and the pairing has produced impressive results through the first half of the season.
Driving the No. 41, Gravel has earned four wins, 23 top-five and 32 top-10 finishes in 41 feature starts through July 22. His most recent victory came on July 12 at Hartford (Mich.) Speedway.
Jason Johnson Racing won the Knoxville Nationals in 2016, with late team owner and namesake Jason Johnson holding off modern-era Outlaw kingpin Donny Schatz for the win.
Meanwhile, Gravel put up a perfect score of 500 points during his Knoxville preliminary night in 2017, but an engine failure during the championship feature left him unable to claim the $150,000 top prize.