Charlotte Motor Speedway is seeing a return in corporate spending for its Speedweeks, which began Saturday with the Sprint All-Star Race and conclude this Sunday with the Coca-Cola 600. Corporate display revenue for onsite activation is up 21% and ad and signage sales are up 28% from last year. The speedway unveiled a series of six pit road VIP suites this year that are sold out and also developed a new infield hospitality area where companies set up hospitality tents to entertain guests. CMS President Marcus Smith said, “NASCAR is a tremendous marketing vehicle for a lot of companies out there, and things are coming back a bit. Charlotte is an important speedway: it’s the hometown track for teams and there’s so much for sponsors and teams alike to do. It benefits from that” (Tripp Mickle, SportsBusiness Journal). In Charlotte, Ron Green Jr. wrote the new elevated open-air suites just behind and above pit road at CMS are "an ingenious way to merge the suite experience with the noise, smoke and the people with its new pit suites." The suites provide a "great view of the whole track plus an up-close view of jackmen climbing over the pit wall," while also providing "a great view of the giant television on the back stretch." There are "only six pit suites," which cost $45,000 annually with "room for 15 guests." The suites include headphones and wireless access "if you're hauling your laptop around and even gluten-free snack mix." Being in the pit suites also "gives guests access to a lounge located beside Victory Circle." If guests want to "go seriously upscale, there's the new Champions Lounge in the infield." With the Red Neck Hill campground at the far end of the infield and the Champions League at the other, CMS "may indeed have something for everyone" (CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, 5/20).
SCREEN TIME: In Charlotte, Tom Sorensen noted the 200-foot-wide, 80-foot tall HD screen at CMS has "changed the way fans watch races." Thousands of fans "now sit in the infield with their back to the track so they can watch the festivities on the screen" where the cars "are bigger and the view is better." Sorensen: "It's an odd dynamic, buying a ticket and driving to the track to look at the screen. But it works" (CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, 5/20).
