Axalta Coatings Systems is continuing its long-standing partnership with Hendrick Motorsports with a contract extension that will expand its NASCAR presence through 2018. Beginning next year, Axalta will become a primary sponsor of Dale Earnhardt Junior’s Number-88 Sprint Cup Series Chevrolet for thirteen races. The company, based in Philadelphia, also will be featured as a major associate sponsor in other events. The agreement announced Tuesday extends a multi-faceted partnership that began in November 1992 when the company first sponsored Jeff Gordon and the Number-24 team. Gordon, who is in his final full-time Sprint Cup season, will continue to work with Axalta as a spokesman and global business advisor. Earlier this month, the two companies broke ground on Axalta’s forty-five thousand-square-foot Customer Experience Center that will be located on the Hendrick Motorsports campus.