NASCAR executives came to St. Louis last week to meet with approximately 200 regional business and civic leaders to share details of major broadcasting agreements, multi-million-dollar media production facilities, commitment to fan innovation year-over-year, and everything they do to engage fans of America’s favorite motorsports series.
The event, titled NASCAR: Inside the Garage, brought together a powerhouse of racing and marketing thought leadership, including: Steve Phelps, NASCAR President; Pete Jung, NASCAR Chief Marketing Officer; Brandon Thompson, NASCAR Vice President of Diversity and Inclusion; Mike Pricer, Marketing Manager of Toyota Racing; Craig Greene, Brand Activation Maximizer (BAM); Tad Geschickter, Founder of Brand Activation Maximizer (BAM) and owner JTG-Daugherty Racing (2023 DAYTONA 500 winning team); Cari Wilber, WWT Area Vice President Marketing; Curtis Francois, Owner and CEO of World Wide Technology Raceway. The event was emceed by Tom Ackerman, KMOX Sports Director, who delivered insights from across the sport.
Highlights included Phelps praising World Wide Technology Raceway’s role in the NASCAR Cup Series. “I’m always reminded when I come to St. Louis that this is one of the best sports towns in the country. I believe that to be true, and I give a huge shout-out to Curtis and his team because what they’re building across the river is something special. And we will be partners with Curtis and his team for decades to come. We love St. Louis.”
For fans who love to connect with the sport’s drivers, lots of new content is on the way. Jung detailed a new state-of-the-art production and content headquarters for NASCAR in Charlotte, N.C. to exponentially grow the content and storytelling that is distributed on various platforms.
“We deliberately are making it closer to drivers and the teams to make it more approachable and easier to get more content for storytelling. It’s commensurate with our new TV partner media broadcast deal that starts next year and will include a driver ambassador program. We’re going to work closer with drivers to engage them in partnerships, integrations, and content that is outside of our world.”
Bringing it together, World Wide Technology confirmed at the event that the company extended its naming rights for another five years. Wilber and Francois sat down for a conversation in front of the crowd to discuss some of the return on investment WWT enjoys through its relationship with the track.
She explained WWT’s mission and brand pillars, which is to make a new world happen by improving our communities, inspiring our employees, driving customer outcomes, and building innovative solutions. “Our relationship with World Wide Technology Raceway is a perfect match, a perfect fit within that specific paradigm. We know that racing connects with our particular decision-making audience. It also hits on many of the things that we care about from a brand perspective. It delivers innovation, inspiration, boldness, diversity, equity, and inclusion – all of which tie tightly into our mission and enable us to make a new world happen.”
We couldn’t have said it better ourselves!
The track thanks NASCAR and World Wide Technology for presenting such a powerful event for St. Louis business and civil leaders.
Get your tickets HERE and join us May 31-June 2 when NASCAR comes to WWTRaceway!
