Texas Motor Speedway VP/Media Relations MIKE ZIZZO spent last weekend at Minute Maid Park watching his Astros make their way to their first World Series title in franchise history. But this weekend it's back to business for the NASCAR veteran, as his track gets set to host a full slate of races Friday-Sunday. Zizzo spoke to THE DAILY about getting down to brass tacks, inducting DALE EARNHARDT JR. into the track's HOF and more ahead of Sunday's AAA Texas 500.
PLAN YOUR WORK: Traditionally for a three-day major race weekend I’ll build out a 90-day plan to start working on, everything from media credentials to storyline ideas. It’s critical in the event management and PR business to plan out far ahead. Your team has to work to one common goal and make sure everyone leaves with a great experience. This week I’ve been finalizing all our media events with not only our local market but also with our regional/national side as well. We try to get as much coverage as we can from print, radio and digital. You get a lot of last-minute requests that you want to accommodate folks with, whether it’s credentials, late media requests. We had AUSTIN DILLON come in for a paint scheme unveil earlier this week at the Univ. of North Texas, and we've also had radio interviews with several drivers, while also sending out infographics and releases each day. Other sports have a whole season, whereas for us it’s much more condensed. It’s our Super Bowl week in a way.
AMONG FRIENDS: It’s stressful between making sure all the media events go well and also making sure that everyone enjoys themselves. But I’m lucky enough to have been around the sport for so many years now. When the circus comes to town I know plenty of drivers and also the crew chiefs, PR reps and obviously plenty of the media. It’s great to get together and catch up on life with those folks and talk about things outside of the workplace.
HELP YOURSELF: What we try to do here in Texas is to keep it light and fun by delivering on the food side of things. We try and give everyone a great experience when it comes to Texas-style foods. We do themed BBQ, tacos and then the biggest thing is our world famous nacho bar. That thing has taken on a life of its own. It started out as something we just kind of had some fun with initially on Cup and IndyCar race nights and the people just took to it. The media really enjoys it. Sometimes I think when I’m long gone that might be all I’m known for. The Nacho Bar…
CLOCK MANAGEMENT: We’ll put in about 100 hours plus this weekend. Thursday we'll focus on the on-track activities, make sure everything is in place, that's great run through day for us. Friday we start early and are on track all day between the trucks from Xfinity and Cup. That’s our busiest day and it just flies by. Saturday we have a night race (Xfinity Series O’Reilly Auto Parts 300), which is not as traditional as we’ve had in the past. So we get to sleep in a little but then we have our HOF induction for Dale Jr. at 12:30pm CT. Then we roll right onto on-track activities and do it all over again. Sunday the race will wrap about 5:00 or 6:00pm but we’ll be here till about midnight or so to wrap up.
TEE IT UP: Golf and sleep are my relaxations after this weekend’s all said and done, normally not in that order. It’s funny because with all the hours you put in, your adrenaline is just going and going and going. But then when it ends you take a look at our department and it’s just like everyone had the air taken out of them. That's when it's time to go be with the family and get a few rounds of golf in.
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