Microsoft adds NASCAR, Hendrick deals

Microsoft says the Hendrick deal will offer the chance to demonstrate its new technology. Photo by: HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS

Microsoft this week will announce separate, three-year deals with NASCAR and Hendrick Motorsports that will focus heavily on business-to-business applications and tout its forthcoming Windows 10 operating system and Azure cloud-computing platform.

The deals, which sources valued as being in the low to mid-seven figures annually with significant value-in-kind, see Microsoft named as an official technology partner of NASCAR and a major technical partner of Hendrick. It marks Microsoft’s most significant sports

The Hendrick deal includes two primary paint schemes on Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s car.

sponsorship since its deal with the NFL signed in 2013.

Microsoft, which already had a relationship with NASCAR dating to last year that involved the car-inspection process, will now provide its Windows 10 operating software and its cloud-based system to all Hendrick employees and NASCAR officials. Both NASCAR and Hendrick had been using Microsoft products in the past, but neither had been using the Azure system. Unlike its NFL deal, which saw the inclusion of tablets on NFL sidelines, for now this deal provides more software and storage.

The company, which handled the deal in-house, does not receive exclusivity in its NASCAR deal.

The agreement culminates roughly 18 months of negotiations and comes at an opportune time for Microsoft since Windows 10 launches next month.

“The reason [Microsoft struck this partnership] is pretty simple,” said Steve Phelps, executive vice president and chief marketing officer of NASCAR. “We believe that we’re a good marketing platform — business platform — for them, and they’ve got fantastic technology that can help improve our product on the racetrack, safety on the racetrack, and then ultimately find ways to bring fans closer to the sport. What exactly those are going to look like are still being determined.”

There will be some consumer-facing aspects, and the partnership eventually could morph into one that’s more focused on reaching fans than on its business-to-business prospects.

Part of the Hendrick agreement includes two primary paint schemes on Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s No. 88 Chevrolet this season, starting with this week’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway. Microsoft also will be an associate sponsor across Hendrick’s four Sprint Cup Series teams starting in 2016 and continuing in 2017.

Earnhardt also will act as a spokesman for the company, and Microsoft is eyeing more deals in the sport, including with racetracks, to offer on-site experiential marketing. “We’re working with NASCAR and some of the track owners to make sure we can get the product in front of customers, let them see it and feel it,” said Jeremy Korst, Microsoft’s general manager of Windows product marketing.

The prospect of reaching both stakeholders in the sport as well as fans was particularly alluring for Microsoft, Korst said.

“One of the great parts of this multipronged approach is that it’s truly a combination,” he said. “It’s about delivering true business value by optimizing business processes; bringing new technology to increase efficiency, operation, etc. — so all the traditional B2B things we work on with global companies worldwide. But then as well, exposing the technology to this behemoth, super fan base.”

Korst pointed to the Hendrick deal in particular as being a sort of public proving ground for business decision-makers.

“Just the challenges they have, not only the operations at headquarters but the very limited amount of time and how every millisecond counts, and demonstrating that Microsoft technology can be of great use in that sort of environment,” he said. “You can imagine how other business customers might look at that and say, ‘Wow, if Hendrick Motorsports is using that to be able to win races, how could I use that at my business?’”

For Hendrick, which has won 11 Sprint Cup championships and more than 200 races, it gives the team a more streamlined approach.

“When we get to the track, we only have a finite amount of time many times to take information and make decisions,” said Doug Duchardt, Hendrick executive vice president and general manager. “And so anything we can do to help with that is what we’re going to work towards. … We look at our company as a technology company in the entertainment business that is always looking at how to improve, whether it’s in business operations, IT or on the competition side.”

Early consumer messaging from Microsoft will center around the company’s offer to customers to upgrade their Windows 7 or 8 to Windows 10 for free — the first offer of its kind in company history. On the B2B front, Microsoft will be the presenting sponsor of this Thursday’s NASCAR Fuel for Business Council meeting taking place in San Francisco.

“A key part of this one for me is how much the technology is being integrated across the officiating body and across Hendrick,” Korst said.