Panini America, the world’s largest licensed sports and entertainment collectibles company and the manufacturer of officially licensed NASCAR trading cards, is riding shotgun with Gray Gaulding for two upcoming races that will be a pivotal part of the sport’s highly anticipated restart. Gaulding will be making his season NASCAR Cup Series debut in primetime during the May 20 race at Darlington Raceway. Four days later, he will drive in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. In both races, he will be driving in the No. 27 Panini Ford Mustang.
Racing fans likely will remember that Gaulding enjoyed his best finish of the season (second) last year in a NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Talladega Superspeedway while driving the bold-red Panini scheme. Gaulding will officially announce his 2020 plans later today during a unique Zoom conference call with racing fans, racing collectors and motorsports media.
Gaulding and Panini enjoyed a productive partnership during the 2019 season that was highlighted by the second-place finish at Talladega as well as the Food City 300 race at Bristol. For that race, Gaulding’s car featured a larger-than-life image of Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes II on the hood to promote Panini’s 2019 Donruss Football product. Mahomes would go on to win Super Bowl MVP just six months later.
“Panini proved in so many ways last year that they’re much more than a sponsor,” Gaulding said. “They were a true partner, like a member of the family, that helped me and our team realize so many accomplishments and I’m beyond ecstatic to be with them again this year. It would be enough if I just appeared on their NASCAR trading cards. But this relationship is so much deeper than that. I’m proud to have Panini riding shotgun with me.”
“Gray and his team were instrumental last season in helping us establish a strong presence at NASCAR tracks across the country and to educate diehard NASCAR fans about the many positive aspects of our NASCAR trading cards,” said Jason Howarth, Panini America Vice President of Marketing. “As NASCAR brings about the return to sports during this Covid-19 pandemic, we felt like this was a great opportunity to celebrate sports that fans everywhere are clamoring for and promote our Panini trading card products that help deepen that connection and are available at Walmart, Target, hobby stores nationwide and online at www.paniniamerica.net.”