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FONTANA, Calif. — The most important part of Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup race was not what happened on the track but what took place in the garage, the suites and elsewhere.

Some teams had prospective sponsors at Auto Club Speedway as they look to find additional funding.

Teams looking for sponsors range from Roush Fenway Racing to Richard Petty Motorsports to Earnhardt Ganassi Racing and others.

Richard Petty Motorsports is trying to find sponsorship for AJ Allmendinger beyond the nine races it has for him this season. De Cordell, chief sales and marketing officer, says the team also is looking for a primary sponsor for about six races on Reed Sorenson's car and a major associate sponsor for Kasey Kahne's car.

Cordell said the team had two potential sponsors at Sunday's race, including one that came about after RPM's Daytona 500 performance where it placed three of its four cars in the top 10.

"The guys are doing their job on the track, it's our responsibility to find some sponsorship for AJ," Cordell said.

Cordell said the team also has gained interest since being renamed Richard Petty Motorsports after the merger between Gillett Evernham Motorsports and Petty Enterprises.

Earnhardt Ganassi Racing continues to search for sponsorship for Aric Almirola and Martin Truex Jr. Steve Lauletta, team president, says Almirola has sponsorship for about 10 races and the team is looking to find funding for more races. Lauletta says the team also is looking to add a sponsor for about six races for Truex.

Lauletta said the team received two calls about prospective sponsors this week after the Daytona 500 where Truex won the pole, and had a couple of potential sponsors at the race. The team also is planning to announce a sponsorship agreement next week between its NASCAR teams and car owner Chip Ganassi's IndyCar program. Lauletta estimates the team worked on that deal for 14 months.

As the economy struggles, finding sponsors become more challenging and it can take longer to close a deal.

Roush Fenway Racing also is looking for future sponsorship and benefited from Matt Kenseth's Daytona 500 victory. While the organization has primary sponsors for all five cars, each of those sponsors are open to partnering with other companies on the cars, says Robin Johnson, executive vice president, business development for Roush Fenway Racing.

While Roush did not have any potential sponsors at Sunday's race, Johnson said Kenseth's victory last week has boosted sales efforts.

"We do a lot of cold-calling, cold e-mailing," Johnson says of contacting potential sponsors, "and there's no doubt that people listen."

Contact Dustin Long at 373-7062 or dustin.long@news-record.com