Pre-race tours of pit road have long been a mainstay of the NASCAR hospitality scene.getty images
With COVID-19 restrictions likely to continue into early 2021, some NASCAR teams are getting creative with hospitality options for sponsors and in some cases backloading their plans later into the season when they hope conditions will improve and allow them to do more.
Ever since NASCAR restarted the sport in May, only essential personnel have been allowed in the infield of racetracks, namely drivers, crew members, officials, broadcast crew workers and a small number of executives.
In normal times, the infield is a key pillar of the race-day hospitality experience for virtually every business-side stakeholder in the sport and the guests they host. While sponsors and teams often have a suite in the grandstands, making the day more memorable for guests also may involve a tour of the garage, hanging out in the pits during parts of the race, or going to Victory Lane with the race winner.
Until sponsors can get back into the infield, some of the ideas for creating new types of hospitality for them include holding events at team shops on race day. This could give guests an inside look at the operations teams pull off from their headquarters during races. Sources said NASCAR has been meeting recently with teams to plan out what at-track access will look like in 2021 and possibly create different types of hospitality experiences that don’t involve going into the infield.
One such team that is evaluating options is Richard Childress Racing, which is looking at everything from holding an event at a race market but away from the track to holding an event either at the Childress Winery near Charlotte, its museum or something at its race shop.
Jason Golden, RCR’s senior vice president of revenue and strategy, said virtual Zoom hospitality events were useful this year and will remain so in 2021 to an extent, but that many options are being considered for providing value to sponsors.
“With developing additional experiences, either at track if applicable or in the marketplace or even remote locations, nothing is off the table related to trying to deliver the experiences and access that have been such a cornerstone of NASCAR team partnerships for years,” Golden said.
Sponsors also are evaluating what type of experiential activation they could provide for fans in the early part of the season. The races typically provide a strong opportunity for such things as product sampling, collecting data on consumers and developing sales leads.
Nick Kelly, vice president of partnerships, beer category and community for Anheuser-Busch InBev, said that the beermaker is still determining whether and how it would activate at the Daytona 500, which is the season-opening, and biggest, event on the Cup Series schedule.
February’s race comes just one week after the Super Bowl, which will also be in Florida that month in Tampa, so decisions from companies such as A-B that are invested in both the NFL and NASCAR may end up being similar. A-B has already said it will scale back its Super Bowl activation plans.
