Axalta Coating Systems plans to have its injector entrance at Daytona Int'l Speedway ready by January’s IMSA Rolex 24 Hours event, and the company is going with the theme of “The Color of Speed” for the space. The company exclusively shared with SBD/SBJ renderings for the 32,000-square-foot space along four vertical concourse levels that serve as an entrance to the track. DIS pitched four smaller injectors at 10- to -15-year contracts at $2-2.5M annually, sources said, but the asking price for the center injector, which Axalta ultimately landed, was unclear. Axalta Coating Systems North American Motorsports Dir William Sturgill said, “We are a color company; that is primarily what we sell -- color, brilliance and durability. So really it was, ‘How do we connect those dots with the people that are going to be coming to the races at Daytona?’ With racing, it’s all about speed. So when you watch a movie -- and I get this from ‘Fast and the Furious’ -- when they hit the nitro button and they take off and the colors just kind of blur, that’s what you think of when you say the color of speed. What does it look like going by a building really fast and having all of these colors really intertwined? That’s going to connect what we are and what we do to the people that are going to be there.”
: Axalta touts its fast-drying products, and the company feels that having the word “speed” in the theme will help connect those dots. Axalta, which is designing the space both with DIS’ internal team and with K.C.-based brand designer Dimensional Innovations, will focus on using the space to grow brand awareness given that “the knowledge of who Axalta is is still kind of in its infancy,” Sturgill said. Dimensional Innovations will also oversee the timeline and construction of the project. The company knows it will have showcars at the space from its longstanding program with Hendrick Motorsports, where it sponsors the No. 88 Chevy, but is still finalizing what the rest of the space will look like.
