NAPA Auto Parts

• 1. Introduction

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  NAPA Auto Parts began in Atlanta in 1925, at a moment when the automobile was still a novelty for most American families. The country's roads were rough, mechanics were scarce, and finding the right replacement part for a broken-down vehicle could take days. Into that gap stepped the National Automotive Parts Association, a retailers' cooperative built not around a single owner but around a network of independent business people sharing a common supply chain. Nearly a century later, the NAPA name appears on more than 6,000 stores across the United States, with thousands more repair facilities and a reach stretching from Hawaii to Australia. How does a cooperative that started in one Southern city become a continental distribution machine? And what role do race cars, arena football, and a mid-Atlantic parts distributor play in that story?

• 2. A Cooperative Built on Independence

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  Genuine Parts Company, headquartered in Atlanta, is the parent organization behind the NAPA brand, and it has always held a dual role. GPC owns and operates some NAPA stores directly, but the majority of locations across the country are independently owned and operated. That independence is not incidental. It is the founding architecture of a retailers' cooperative, where local owners benefit from shared branding and distribution without surrendering their businesses to a single corporate landlord. Approximately 1,500 of the more than 6,000 U.S. stores belong directly to GPC. The rest answer to their own proprietors while flying the same blue and yellow sign. The cooperative model also governs the repair side of the network. Some 15,000 NAPA AutoCare facilities operate across the country, providing vehicle maintenance and repair services under that shared umbrella without requiring corporate ownership.

• 3. Acquisitions and Consolidation

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  In September 2008, NAPA moved into the Pacific by acquiring two Hawaii-based distributors, taking control of eight stores and warehouses in the islands. Four years later, in 2012, GPC made a more consequential purchase: Quaker City Motor Parts Company, a distributor serving 271 NAPA stores across the mid-Atlantic region. That acquisition made GPC the sole remaining member of the National Automotive Parts Association itself, a structural shift that concentrated ownership of the association's membership in a single company. The consolidation continued into the next decade. In 2024, GPC acquired Motor Parts and Equipment Corporation, described as the largest independent owner of NAPA stores in the United States. That deal handed GPC control of 181 stores spread across Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, adding six Midwestern states to its directly held portfolio.

• 4. Going Global

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  Canada has long been part of the NAPA footprint, served through GPC's UAP (United Auto Parts) division along with NAPA Autopro repair facilities. The brand also extends into Mexico and locations throughout the Caribbean and Latin America. Australia came later. NAPA launched its first Australian store in 2017, and by 2020 the brand counted 12 locations operating there. The Australian expansion went beyond simply opening new storefronts. Seven other businesses owned by Genuine Parts Company in that market, including Ashdown-Ingram and Covs, were rebranded under the NAPA name, folding existing regional operations into the cooperative's international identity.

• 5. Racing Partnerships

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  NAPA's involvement in motorsports spans NASCAR, drag racing, and IndyCar. The company began sponsoring Michael Waltrip in 2001, initially through Dale Earnhardt, Inc. and later through Bill Davis Racing, before following Waltrip into Michael Waltrip Racing in 2007. A separate NAPA deal supported Ryan Truex in the K&N Pro Series East in 2010. The partnership with MWR ultimately ended after a single season of sponsoring Martin Truex Jr.'s No. 56 Toyota Camry in the NASCAR Cup Series; a team orders scandal during the 2013 Federated Auto Parts 400 cut short what had been billed as a three-year agreement. In drag racing, NAPA became an associate sponsor of Ron Capps and Don Schumacher Racing in 2007, then upgraded to primary sponsor the following year. That relationship produced 43 shared wins along with championships in 2016 and 2021. When Capps became a team owner himself in late 2021, NAPA moved with him to Ron Capps Motorsports. On the IndyCar side, NAPA began sponsoring Alexander Rossi and cars for Andretti Autosport in 2016. NAPA also became involved with Chase Elliott and Hendrick Motorsports starting in 2014, and by 2016 was the majority sponsor of Elliott's No. 24 Chevrolet in the Cup Series. That agreement was later extended through the 2022 season.

• 6. Beyond the Track

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  NAPA's sports sponsorships are not limited to motor racing. The company sponsors the Atlanta Braves and Atlanta United FC, two teams that share their home city with NAPA's parent company. Soccer partnerships extended further: NAPA previously sponsored Major League Soccer through Soccer United Marketing and backed the Mexico national football team beginning in 2007. In 2010, NAPA served as the title sponsor of ArenaBowl XXIII, the championship game of arena football, a sponsorship that placed the parts brand at the center of an indoor gridiron spectacle. That same year, NAPA also sponsored Kelly Moore and Moore Racing, though that relationship traced back to the early 2000s. The breadth of these partnerships, from baseball diamonds to indoor football arenas to drag strips, reflects a deliberate strategy of attaching the brand to competition and speed wherever those things draw audiences.