NASCAR has reached an agreement with Fox Deportes to broadcast 15 Sprint Cup races starting next season, "including the Daytona 500, which will be broadcast in Spanish for the first time," according to Tanzina Vega of the N.Y. TIMES. The agreement "includes the broadcast of six live races" in total, including the Daytona Shootout the week before the Daytona 500. Other points races scheduled to appear on the Spanish-language cable net are at Auto Club Speedway, Bristol Motor Speedway, Charlotte Motor Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway. While Latinos make up just 10% of NASCAR viewers, the organization "recently hired Ogilvy & Mather to help create a marketing plan to attract Latinos to the sport, and it has put a number of people on its communications and marketing teams to focus on young viewers and Hispanic outreach." To help introduce Latinos to the sport, Fox Deportes "will produce four 30-minute educational programs before the races that will explain the sport’s history, rules, drivers and culture." The net also will "produce weekly and daily news segments to be run leading up to and during the races." Getting Latinos to watch NASCAR on TV "would also be the first step toward getting them to buy tickets to live events" (N.Y. TIMES, 8/20).
