Featherlight extends NASCAR deal through 2012

Featherlite Trailers, Featherlite Coaches, Inc. and NASCAR today announced an agreement has been reached extending Featherlite’s sponsorship of NASCAR. As part of the NASCAR sponsorship agreement, Featherlite Trailers will continue its designation as “Official Trailer” of NASCAR. Featherlite Coaches of Sanford, Fla., will continue as the “Official Coach” of NASCAR. The contract, which runs through the 2012 racing season, also extends Featherlite Trailers’ “NASCAR Featherlite Most Improved Driver Award.”

Featherlite Trailers, headquartered in Cresco, Iowa, is a leading designer and manufacturer of aluminum trailers, including specialized 53-foot race car transporters as well as car, recreation, utility, horse, livestock and other specialty trailers.

Featherlite Coaches, headquartered in Sanford, Fla., manufactures the Featherlite Vantare’ H3-45 and XLII Prevost conversions. They are among the most exclusive luxury coaches in the world, known for their technological innovation and spectacular living quarters.

Currently in its fourth year, Featherlite Trailers Most Improved Driver Award honors drivers each week who demonstrate the best improvement in finishing position from the previous race. The award is presented to drivers in the NASCAR Busch Series, NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, the NASCAR Grand National Division Busch East Series and West Series, the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour, and the NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour. In addition, one driver in each series is presented the NASCAR Featherlite Most Improved Driver Year-End Award at the conclusion of the season.

“Through Featherlite Trailers’ sponsorship of the Most Improved Driver Award, drivers, team and crew members who have shown a great dedication to making best progress from one race week to the next can be recognized for their skill and hard work,” said Eric Clement, Featherlite Trailers vice president of sales and general manager.

“NASCAR has grown to rely on the dependability, quality and customization of Featherlite Trailers and Featherlite Coaches,” said NASCAR President Mike Helton. “Featherlite Coaches and Featherlite Trailers are important partners in supporting the logistics required to bring NASCAR racing to all corners of the country.”

Featherlite Coaches CEO Conrad Clement said, “We are very pleased to continue this long-standing affiliation with NASCAR. Motorsports in general and NASCAR in particular have been important to our marketing platform. There is no relationship we value more highly.”

“Featherlite Trailers is delighted to extend our long partnership with NASCAR,” Eric Clement said. “With a relationship that dates back to the early ’90s, it has been exciting to see how racing has grown dramatically over the last 15 years. As a NASCAR sponsor, we are deeply committed to this great sport and its fans, as well as to providing unequaled support and service to NASCAR race teams and officials.”

Featherlite built its first race car transporter in 1992 for owner Richard Childress and the late Dale Earnhardt. Today, Featherlite manufactures race car transporters, in addition to vending and hospitality trailers, for a large segment of the NASCAR community, including transporters that haul race cars of NASCAR Nextel Cup, Busch and Craftsman Truck teams. Featherlite also builds trailers for NASCAR that serve as office and meeting space for race officials and other personnel, among other functions.

NASCAR officials, team owners, drivers and sponsors rely on Featherlite Coaches to provide them with the amenities of a five-star hotel wherever they go during the season’s demanding schedule. The Featherlite Vantar is one of the world’s most extraordinary luxury vehicles and owned by people who demand the best.

Both Featherlite Trailers and Featherlite Coaches provide at-track support at NASCAR races.

Featherlite Trailers is part of Universal Trailer Corporation of Cincinnati, Ohio, the largest trailer manufacturer in the United States.

Featherlite Coaches is owned by Conrad and Tracy Clement.