October 8, 2025 • 46 mins
On this episode of Throttle Therapy, Katherine Legge is joined by Ben Kennedy, the Executive Vice President and Chief of Venue & Racing Innovations Officer at NASCAR. They discuss Ben's extensive background, being the great-grandson of NASCAR's founder, and his journey through various roles in the racing industry—from being a race car driver to a team owner and now an executive. They also discuss his involvement in innovative developments like in NASCAR’s schedule and the integration of new audiences and venues.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Throttle Therapy with Catherine Legg is an iHeart women's sports
production in partnership with Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment. You
can find us on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you get your podcasts. Hello, and welcome to this
(00:21):
week's episode of Throttle Therapy with Me Catherine Legg, and
this week I am honored to be joined by somebody who,
and I only just found this out, was named the
Sports Business journal forty under forty or one of the
forty under forty, which is really impressive in my mind.
He's also the Executive VP, Chief Venue and Racing and
(00:44):
Innovation Officer. I hope I said that right. Welcome to
this show, Ben Kennedy.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Thank you for having me on, Catherine.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
Did I get that right? Did I say that you did?
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Yeah? Yep, EVP, Chief Venue and Racing Innovation Officer.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
We will get into that because it sounds really fancy,
and you can tell us exactly what that entails later on,
but before we do, For anybody who's involved in racing,
especially NASCAR racing, everybody knows who you are. I think
maybe broader racing people know who you are, but to
the general public, I wanted to point out that you
are actually the great grandson of the founder of NASCAR,
(01:22):
Bill France Senior, and you have had a amazing career
in like you've had like six different lives. I feel like,
so I wanted to start off there. I wanted to
start off with Lil Ben. When you were a kid,
like growing up in the France family, did you want
to be a race car driver? Did you love racing?
Did you feel any pressure, like what was that like?
Speaker 2 (01:43):
To your point, I grew up around racing my entire life,
in particular NASCAR. And you know, NASCAR's headquartered here in
Jasona Beach, Florida. I would say a majority as you
think about the industry operations exists up in the Charlotte area.
We have all of our teams love her Dry Versus
were based out of there. We have a pretty big presence.
But the home the NASCAR is really day The used
(02:05):
to race on the beaches here in Daytona in the
nineteen thirties and forties, eventually founded NASCAR the late forties,
and then you know, it's gone through to your point
a few different generations. So I'm a fourth generation member
of the family, and like I would say, I would
love to sit here and say that I had like
so many crazy stories growing up, it felt normal to me.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
You don't have many crazy stories. I thought you'd have
like prohibition stories and stories of like how.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
He had to do this, that and the other to
stunt Nascar.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
You know, I think for the most part, growing up
it felt pretty normal to me. You know, grew up
in Daytona Beach, Florida. I went to the local elementary
and middle school here, played basketball, which I was absolutely
horrendous at for about six years. And I would say, like,
you know, as I don't know, it was just a
normal kid growing up. I felt like any other normal kid,
(02:57):
And I would say, where it began to change a
little bit as I started to learn more about the business,
learn more about the racing side of it, and then,
you know, ultimately starting my path in a career of
being a race car driver. I was about thirteen or
fourteen years old, and we had a family friend of
ours who had signed me up. Actually, he took me
(03:19):
out over a weekend and we went to this local
go kart track and he saw my eyes light up
when I got behind the wheel of a car and
the next thing, you know, about a month later, he
signed me up for a little quarter midget, which is
kind of a small four horse power go kart class
locally here at New Summerta Speedway. Did that had a blast?
(03:40):
Next thing, you know, we bought one. I think we
found it on Craigslist or something for like two hundred dollars.
It was red and white. It was beat up, and
it was so much fun because every Tuesday after school,
I remember, we got to a track that was practice night,
Friday night was race night, and we just had friends
and family that come out for us. It was a
(04:01):
bit of a hobby, you know. It's more of a
kind of something fun we could do on the weekend together,
and it is a great way for us to spend
time together away, you know, away from the track, away
from the office, and something that we could all enjoy doing.
To that for a couple of years, and then once
I made the pivot when I was sixteen years old
to full body stock cars, that's when it started to
(04:22):
becoming reality to me. And you know, there's another probably
nine years that I competed through you know, late models,
pro late models, eventually the Ark series, the Craftsman Truck
Series and then the NASCAR Coxmunity Series, which was my
final year in twenty seventeen, before I made the pivot
from the racing world to the business world, which I'm
sure we'll talk a little bit about. But it's been
(04:43):
a fun journey to get here, for sure.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
So was your goal for those six eight years whatever
it was to be Cup driver and win championships and
you were going to be a race card driver or
was it still like in the back of your mind
you had the business and you were doing this as
kind of like experiential to figure the business out.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
It was all in on racing. And you know, I
think for me anything, I anytime I do something, I
tried to do it at a one hundred and ten
percent every day, and for me, successfully looked like being
a winner. And then once I got some wins, I
want to be a champion and then get a couple
of championships. As you go through your career, you want
(05:26):
to do that at the next level, and then eventually
you want to take it to the Cup Series and
be successful. So I'd never really thought of anything outside
of the realm of racing till maybe the last year
or two of my racing career, where I had been
involved obviously at the periphery of a lot of the
business conversations that were going on. I you know, I'd
(05:49):
always heard it as dinner table conversations with my mom
and my family growing up, but I had never really
had a perspective around how I wanted to participate in
the business, how I envisioned NASCAR going forward. And I
would say in twenty sixteen twenty seventeen, I started to
get more involved in that side of it, at least
(06:10):
of just having a perspective of the future of NASCAR,
and I eventually got to a point where, you know,
I would say in late twenty seventeen, and you know,
every driver would go through this, right and you've probably
been through it as well. You kind of get to
the off season and questions always come up of where
am I going to land next year? Am I a ride?
Am I not I have sponsors on board? What is
(06:30):
that going to look like? And it led to anxiety
every single year. I'm just the unknowns of like I
think I'm going to land somewhere, I don't know who
it's gonna be with, what team, if I'm going to
be competitive what that's going to look.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
Like, right, I'm there now exactly.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
And every driver has this at some point in their career.
And you know, I eventually got to a point and
I'm like, man, I could continue to go through this
or I could be on the other side of it
and actually coming up with, you know, potential solutions. And
you know, I think I just had so much energy
around taking this sport and the business to the next level.
(07:06):
And you know, I felt like, if there is a
purpose that I can have in life, I'm sure I
could have one behind the wheel of being a racecar driver,
but I feel like I can have an even better
purpose being behind a desk on a nine to five
job working at NASCAR and being a part of the
business side of it. So I made a leap of faith.
I made a phone call in January of twenty eighteen,
(07:30):
and I think I called Steevo Donald. I told him, Hey,
I'm doing this, and I'm the person that if I
say something, I do it. And as soon as I
said it, I didn't look back ever since. And it's
been a fun ride since then.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
Going back to when you were racing, though, did you
go to university at the same time as you were
doing like full time Truck Series or something I did,
and you won a bunch of truck races as well,
didn't you say you were actually really good?
Speaker 2 (07:54):
I won a truck race, we won some Cana and
Easter Archy East races, and we had some success on
the nigs Fan and East Side. But went to University
of Florida Go Gators for four years, studied sports management
and minored in business there.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
So you're used to juggling a whole bunch of things
because not only did you do that at the same
time as race, but now obviously you have a race
team as well as doing all the fancy stuff at NASCAR.
What is your race team currently racing in.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Yeah, so we have a race team that's called Nexus Racing.
It's based here in Daytona Beach, Florida. It's so, if
you back up in my racing career, so Mark Martin
started a race team for a Sun Matt Martin when
he was competing as a driver, and let's say probably
six o seven. Over time, they had different drivers, Jeremy Colangelo,
(08:48):
a lot of drivers in Central Florida that competed with him,
and then over time, you know, eventually Matt stopped racing.
I was kind of the next person in line that
filled the seat Matt was competing in, and you know,
ran with that team for a few years. Eventually we
started to become more serious about racing. You know, we're
(09:09):
in super Late Models. We talked about going down this
Arc East path and you know, we had a couple
of conversations with him or like Matt Mark, you've built
such an incredible shop here, amazing team, incredible infrastructure that
you've created. We would love to partner with you and
talking about taking this next level. So we transitioned over.
(09:29):
It's called Bank Kennedy Racing for over a decade. I
competed in it for a few years and then we've
had a number of drivers that have come through it,
so Kaz Grala, Daniel Dye, Kenzie Hemric have all competed
with us. Spencer Davis is our current driver right now
and our main focus is the Pro and Super Late
Model series, so we compete. If anyone's familiar with grassroots racing,
(09:54):
you know, races like the Snowball Derby, the Governor's Company, Simurna,
some of your bigger marquiche short track events and I
think the goal and the purpose for us is really
to identify, Hey, who are the future drivers of NASCAR
going to be, and then give them opportunities and resources
to be able to be successful both on the track
(10:15):
and off of the track. So it's been a really
fun journey being a driver for my own team. I've
learned so much about tire bills and you know how
much parts and components of racecars costs. But it's it's
scratched itch a bit being outside of a racecar from
a competition standpoint, to still be involved as a competitor,
(10:37):
even though I'm not behind the wheel every day, So
it is it's a fun facet. We've got, you know,
incredible people. Jimmy Kitchens who used to spot for me
back in the past. He's actually spot for Ryan Newman
for a number of years. He's been leading our team
for several years and has done a tremendous job with it.
So I've really enjoyed being a team owner. Thankfully, I'm
(10:58):
a little more hands off today and let the folks
that are closest to operate it every day. But I
think if anything, it does give you a bit of
empathy and understanding when you sit down with team owners
and drivers, and you know, they're talking about the day
to day issues and challenges and obstacles that they're facing,
and in ways we're seeing some of the same at
the same time.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Yeah, what's fascinating to me is I think you're literally
the only person who has got like the trifector. So
you've done the driver, you've done the team owner, and
now you're working with the series. So if there's anybody
who has like a holistic view of that and who knows, like, okay,
high level vision, we want to do this, but actually
it's not realistic because of this for the teams or
(11:39):
that for the drivers. Like it in some way, even
though it wasn't by design, it really helps you in
your role with NASCAR.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Yeah, and it to your point, it wasn't by design.
And it was never my intention that I'm going to
be a race car driver and now I'm going to
own a team because I'm going to be here when
I'm twenty five years old. It was just it was
my passion at the end of the day, and driving
was my passion. And we worked on this partnership with
(12:08):
Mark Martin. As we talked about the shift over to
the new race team, and kind of one thing led
to another and eventually it's led me to hear at NASCAR.
And what I would tell you to Catherine is that
I started my job at NASCAR. My first position was
over the Craftsman Truck Series as a general manager of it.
I came to that job. The first day, I'm like,
(12:29):
there is nothing that I learned being behind the wheel
of a racecar driver or that is going to apply here.
And ever since then, there are so many just small
life lessons that I've picked up from, you know, whether
it was a random Tuesday at a race shop or
leaving college on a Thursday and going to racetrack. There
(12:50):
are a lot of life lessons that I learned going
through that period of time. And what I would also
say is it was incredible the amount of experience that
I got going through that. As you know, probably better
than anyone else in this industry. Relationships are incredibly important,
and I think it's amazing to see so many of
the people that I had the chance to work with
(13:10):
ten or twelve years ago that are now sitting on
the top of a Cup Series pipbox calling race winning
calls and championship winning calls A hundred Motor Sports or
Joe Gibbs Racing or Penske Racing. So it's been really
fun to see the journey of everyone that I had
to work with and be successful.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
So you kill my vibe a little bit then, because
you said I went into the track series and I
thought nothing would translate, and I'm like, great, what am
I going to do after racing because nothing's going to translate?
And then you bought it back ground and now I
feel good about myself again.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
So there is life after racing.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
What I am doing now is meaningful, which is important.
Did you feel any pressure though going into any of it,
into racing, into ownership, or into NASCAR because of your name?
Did you feel like there was not a target on
your back, but like everybody was looking at you to
see how you would do.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
Potentially? Yes, I mean I felt more pressure on myself
than anything else. I don't think I've ever felt external
pressure from people. I'm sure there's always an expectation to perform,
whether it's you know, me being behind the wheel of
a race car driver, me sitting here, as you know
(14:24):
someone that is working for an ASCAR. I think you
always I mean, people should hold you to a certain standard.
There is never an expectation for me to be a
race car driver for me to come over to the
business side. You know, I think, and I really appreciate
this about my family is is they always wanted me
to do whatever I was passionate about, and whether that
(14:45):
was in the industry, outside the industry, or something tangential
to it, Ultimately, this was my passion and it led
me to this position. So I'd say it's probably not
a ton of pressure to make that leap from being
a race car driver to being on the NASCAR side,
but for sure expectations to succeed and perform. And I've
(15:09):
always told them, like I, if I'm going to be
successful in this company, I don't want it to be
because of my last name or MI credentials. I want
it to be because I've added value to the company,
into the sport, and that's what I strive to do
every day.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
I think if it would be looking at it, it would
almost be harder to be you to earn their respect
because everybody's kind of like looking at you with a
spotlight on you like they are.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
Me a little bit.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
And the fact that everybody has so much respect for
you within NASCAR should be a huge accolade because I
think people are thinking that, Okay, let's see how he
gets on, But now you are just one of them.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
And so I think you've done an incredible.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
Job talking about passions before I carry that out there.
You also are passionate about endurance sports. How did your
foray into like doing triathlons and all the cool stuff.
That's We'll tell us all the cool stuff you do
and then tell us how that came about.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
Yeah, so I think it's actually we first started talking
about this. We're in Chicago at a charity event and
I think I was wearing my smart center and you
had asked about it, and we just started talking about
working out and training and all of this fun stuff.
So yeah, I mean, I would say a lot of
my training it naturally started as I was a race
(16:29):
car driver. I remember there was a race at New
Smer Speedway. It was a short, fifty lap race which
any driver should be able to do and get out
and be fine. And I got out of that race.
It was fifteen minute race, maybe not super long, and
just completely drained, I mean, exaucid, dehydrated, and I quickly
(16:50):
realized and there were a couple of mentors that I
had how out of shape that it was. I thought
I was relatively in shape as a kid. I was
completely out of shape with.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
Bus people as well. You would think that that would
have done something.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
You would think, so yeah, and it helped me a
ton apparently behind the wheel as a driver. So I
you know, I founded some trainers and then started focusing
on my cardio and aerobic eventually started building up strength training.
As you well know, if you're pulling, you know, two
to three g's for several seconds every single lap, and
(17:26):
you have little note downtime that works out your neck muscles,
your back, muscles, your arms, your legs, and then very
importantly aerobically, you've got to be physically fit to be
able to have the endurance to be behind the wheel
of a car for three and a half hours at
one hundred and thirty or forty degrees, which is challenging.
So you know, I started as started running quite a bit,
(17:49):
eventually got into cycling over time, started to do more triathlons,
and then I would say my biggest achievement off the
track as a competitor is doing a full iron Man
So I did that four years ago. I believe it
was in Cosmo, Mexico. I'm going to give you the
entire story. It was during COVID. They ran out of
water on the course and I, yeah, I went for
(18:13):
about probably twenty miles without any water at all, got
severely dehydrated, and I remember there was a local person
that came up. They dropped a twenty four pack of
water on one of the last water stations and I
turned around on the course of my backwards to get
this water because I had never been so thirsty in
my life, but finish it in about ten and a
(18:35):
half hours, absolutely incredible experience. I would say that I
would only do it again if I had someone else
to do it with. I trained, and I did this
entirely by myself, which I wanted to do just because
it was It was such a big goal of mine
that I wanted to accomplish, and I wanted to accomplish
(18:55):
it in a certain time and I achieved that. So
I would love to go back and do it again
at an amazing location with some friends and family. I've known. Truth,
I'm s.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
So you are the individual responsible for where we go
race and when we go race there, and people have
said that this year's calendar has been schedule whatever you
want to call it has been the most innovative and
the coolest one that we've ever done.
Speaker 3 (19:37):
So pat on the back for that. But how tricky?
Speaker 1 (19:42):
I feel like this is logistics and it's like a
chess game where you have to be really smart putting
all the bits into bits and pieces into place. And
by the way, I am super excited about San Diego.
Speaker 3 (19:55):
That's going to be super cool.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
But how tricky is it to all of that fit
together inside of what your vision is Finascar?
Speaker 2 (20:04):
It's tricky and it's It's funny, Catherine, because we keep
calling it the three D chess board because of how
complex it is. I've upgraded to the four D chessboard
because that's the experience. Now you're actually feeling the heat
and the pressure. It is. It's incredibly It is complex,
(20:24):
but it's an incredible process that we've been able to
create and locill be honest, at the end of the day,
nothing's going to be perfect. We're not going to be
able to put out the perfect schedule for thirty six
plus two races every year for our Cup series or
Xmitte series or Acraftsman Truck Series. But we try to
do our best. And you know, this all began in
(20:45):
the summer of twenty nineteen when Steve O'Donnell reached out
to me and said that, hey, you know, we put
together the twenty twenty schedule together. I would like for
you to lead the development of the twenty twenty one schedule,
and I would ask that you assemble a team together
to begin developing that and to think about the schedule
(21:07):
differently and challenge ourselves to think about taking it to
new markets and locations. So we assembled a team which
over time has gone through different iterations, but for the
most part, represents I would say, the same kind of
departments and folks. So we have folks that are on
there that speak to our broadcast partners on a regular basis,
that are asking them questions about the schedule, so we'll
(21:30):
have perspective from them. We'll have perspective from people that
are communicating with our track properties, people that are talking
with our fans. Will have separate meetings with our teams,
with our OEMs, and then together we try to take
as much of this information as we can. So you
have all the quantitative data, which is hard figures and
(21:50):
numbers that we get from wherever it might come from.
And then the qualitative data that comes from a lot
of conversations and discussions that we'll have throughout the year
and on our weekly basis, the team will we'll get
together and we're literally looking at excel sheet building out
that next year's schedule. So we have drafts now from
twenty twenty seven that run out through twenty thirty one,
(22:12):
which is the term of our media rights agreements, and
every time we get together, we're looking at twenty seven,
but we're also thinking about how that impacts twenty eight,
twenty nine, thirty and thirty one as well. So you know,
part of the discussions revolve around, you know, literally which
track is going to be on each week each year
(22:32):
we're off weeks located, when do we start our season,
when do we end our season? And then importantly is
talking about some of these new projects or concepts that
we want to go after. So you mentioned San Diego
is a really good one. We had Broach's subject about
two years ago. We were able to finally announce it
in July this year, and that goes all the way
(22:53):
from you know, what are those new markets or new
venues that we would like to go after and prioritize,
and ultimately, as we shift to a new market, what
are the locations that it will be coming from. So
you know, there's a lot of other analysis and teams
that we'll bring in to help develop those proposals that
will eventually go in front of this scheduling team. But
(23:13):
you know, it's it's been an amazing process and I
tell our team every single year that they have a
lot to be proud of because if you think about
the iterations of our schedule and you know, going to
new tracks, developing a temporary track instead of one hundred
year old stadium in downtown Los Angeles, first Street race
in downtown Chicago, going to San Diego next year, you know,
(23:34):
we tell our team every year, this is the best
schedule that NASCAR has ever seen, and we hope to
continue to iterate on it and take it to the
next level for twenty seven and beyond.
Speaker 3 (23:44):
So that's how that's born.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
So like the let's call them unusual tracks, non traditional
tracks like Chicago and San Diego, you identify the market
and then once you've done that, you go looking for Okay,
where could we do it that would make sense and
can we do it? And then you have to get
in touch with the authorities and make sure you have
permission to do it and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
All of that stuff. Yeah, and it's end to end
from the concept to the actual execution of the event.
And I'll use San Diego as an example. You know,
we knew for a while that we weren't going to
be running in Auto club, you know, as we we
looked to redevelop the fability. Yeah, in Southern California being
(24:28):
such an important market for us, we felt like it
was important for us to find another home in the
Southern California market. So we had a separate team that
we had assembled outside of the scheduling team that was
only honed in on Southern California. And we took a
couple of trips where we all loaded up in a
van and we just drove around Los Angeles and San
(24:51):
Diego and we spent two or three days going to
downtown Los Angeles, going to Inland Empire, going south of
Los Angeles. We eventually made our way to San Diego.
We looked at probably three or four different sites in
San Diego, and by far and away of the dozen
different locations that we looked at, the location of being
(25:13):
in a great market like San Diego, the proximity to
both Tijuana and Los Angeles was really important to us.
I would say the third part of that is just
the novelty of doing something entirely different on a military base.
Chicago had nodes of that. Downtown Chicago, we had never
done a street course in our sports seventy five year history.
(25:36):
LA Coliseum nodes of that as well. As we thought
about building this temporary course, this is the next thing
that we wanted to check off of the list, and
that was having a race on a proper active military base.
We looked at a handful as the best location, the
best proximity, and then as we sat down with the
folks at Naval based Coronado and the captain there, we
(25:58):
knew it was going to be a tremendously fruitful partnership
and that was kind of the last bridge that we
needed to cross, is it will identify the geographic location.
Once we identify a geographic location, will identify the actual
location for the track within that market. But then I
would say the third part of this which is just
as important to us as it is our partner. But
(26:19):
we want them to be successful. We want them to
be successful, We want our sport to be successful. And
from the first conversations we had with the Captain and
the exo on the base, we knew it was going
to be a tremendous partnership and that eventually led to
agreements and assembling this team that we now have in
San Diego that are focused on selling tickets, promoting the events,
(26:41):
bringing in corporate partners. And then one of the biggest
parts of this is how do you actually build a
temporary short track with walls and fences, grand sand suites,
hospitality areas. And that is another team that comes in
and helps do that too. So a lot of different
folks that come in along the way.
Speaker 1 (26:57):
Yeah, can you transition the people and it seems very
transient and probably like upheaval, but like the people who
were doing Chicago, can you move them to San Diego?
And can you use like all the barriers and everything
that you did in Chicago and just put them south
or is it completely different?
Speaker 2 (27:15):
Yeah, we would love to load up the barriers on
a bunch of semi trucks in some of the southern California.
It would be close to six hundred semis that we
would have to send. Oh my goodness, you can only
get four blocks on a fifty three footer. So we're
going to keep the barriers in Chicago, and as we've
said in the past, would love to be back in
(27:36):
Chicago in the future and keep the door open there.
There are a lot of other components and elements, whether
it's infrastructure or you know, frankly, just expertise that we
learned in developing a street course for the first time
in Chicago that we'll be able to take and apply
in San Diego. So, you know, we have a lot
of folks. For example, we have a design development team
(27:59):
that is respond spool for actually constructing the course and
working with outside vendor to do so. They're based here
in Daytona, Vie, Tolorida. We have people that were fully
dedicated to Chicago. They're not going to be fully dedicated
to San Diego. So we have a lot of folks.
And you know, Julie Geezy, who was the president Amazing
NASCAR Chicago, She's going to be kind of a consultant
(28:21):
for the San Diego project as well. So we'll take
a lot of the things that we learned in Chicago
and the great news is applied in San Diego.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
She was so impressive to me. I yeah, I was like,
when I grew up, I want to be like you, Julie.
So for the first time in what I can remember,
we are doing a double headed with IndyCar in Phoenix,
and so that made me think, Imsea, which is a
NASCAR owned property, do Long Beach with IndyCar? And now
(28:53):
we're doing IndyCar and Phoenix. Is there a possibility of
more cross pollination in the future, Like could we see
in NASCAR on the streets of Long Beach Or is
it like let's see how Phoenix goes and play it
by air? Is there like a massive rivalry or like
are you working together?
Speaker 3 (29:10):
How does that work?
Speaker 2 (29:11):
Yeah, we like to work together with them as much
as we can. And to your point, so we're gonna
have a double header in Phoenix next year where we'll
have our NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series which will come
after IndyCar on Saturday, and then we'll have our Cup
Series on Sunday. And I think the good news is
we already have such a good relationship with Doug Bulls
(29:34):
and Butt Dinker and everyone over at IndyCar that it's
not entirely turnkey, but it makes getting into the vehicle
a whole lot easier for us. And you know, I
think there's gonna be some nuances that we're gonna learn
along the way of how we bring IndyCar into a
NASCAR Cup Series weekend, But it's it's been relatively simple
(29:54):
so far because we've got such a good relationship. So
you know, we're more than open to the idea of
partnering up with different series, like IndyCar as an example.
We've had a lot of conversations with MSA as well,
especially if you think about some of these new markets
that we go to where you have a lot of
newer casual fans that may be able to identify what
(30:17):
I know, Pilot Challenge Series car might look like as
it's more equivalent to a lot of the cars that
they would see on the road versus maybe NASCAR Acuity
Series vehicle. So you know, we're also kind of cognizant
of the locations that we're going to in the series
that we bring in as a part of that, So
you know, would love to have all of our series
(30:39):
and INSA and IndyCar all on the same weekend. Naturally
you can only fit two or three based on garage
based and weekend schedule, but more than open to continue
and collaborate with them.
Speaker 3 (30:50):
Have NASCAR I've erased a most point.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
Yes, yep. We had a Craftsman Truck series at Mosport
for quite a few years. I raised there for I
want to say, three years. Amazing track, really incredible, but
I would love to get up north of the border
at some point again too.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
I was just thinking about and cross races that we
could do, obviously selfishly because I think I'm one of
very few drivers who's crossed all three of the different series.
So like, I really want to do the double header
at Phoenix next year, for example. I don't know whether
that will happen or not, but I think that would
be super cool.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
Well, might have to create a special trophy if you
win both of the races.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
If I won both of guys, I wouldn't need a trophy.
Speaker 3 (31:44):
I'd be made. I'd be sad.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
Yeah, it's interesting for me to see. Okay, NASCAR has
more eyebels, right, Like even Exfinity has more eyeballs than IndyCar,
but Indy has the five hundred or do you have
the six hundred and the five hundred. How do you
even go about having those conversations? Like IndyCar again to
benefit massively from going to Phoenix, which is one of
(32:09):
your track, and probably pick up some NASCAR fans. So
then what do they do in return to kind of
like help boy the NASCAR series? Is that like getting
some IndyCar fans over? I feel like hopefully I've done
that a little bit too. But it's like a really
interesting dynamic when you're sat there having those discussions. Is
(32:31):
it just like you want whatsever best for the sport
in general and you try not to look at it
from one lens.
Speaker 2 (32:40):
Yeah, I would say in general, we're just we're cheering
for motorsports. If other series are successful in motorsports, the
rising tide is going to lift all boats for us. So,
you know, I think for the IndyCar, you know, Cup
Series Phoenix double Header as an example is if you
look at the data, there is a good amount of
(33:03):
crossover between IndyCar fans relative to NASCAR fans. I would
say my biggest crossover is probably the NFL because they
have more fans than any other sports leagues in the
United States, but there's strong correlation between the two. That said,
there is also people that follow IndyCar that don't come
to a NASCAR Cup Series race, and vice versas are
(33:24):
people that follow the Cup Series race that are going
to tune into IndyCar that weekend as well. So I
think there are a lot of opportunities, certainly on the
fans side, to kind of cross follen ad a little
bit and have people that might come to an IndyCar
race stay an extra day and go to the Cup
Series race on Sunday, and vice versa. People are going
(33:45):
to come to the Cup Series race and they're going
to bring their family, and we're going to have thousands
of campers there for the weekend that are going to
watch the IndyCar race and they may start to follow
IndyCar along with us, and that's a win on both
sides for us. You think about kind of like the
strategic rationale behind a lot of these it's, hey, how
can we cross bollinate our fans, bring them together as one,
(34:07):
celebrate motorsports and racing in general, and bring new partners
into the sport and continue to grow motorsports and totality.
Speaker 3 (34:15):
Well you do that as well with music.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
So all the concerts and things that you do on
race weekend too, I feel like brings in new fans
because they may have been coming just to see what's
his face saying, but now he or she is staying
because they're fascinated by the cars and they're racing too,
So that's kind of cool.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
Yeah, And Chicago is a good example of that, right.
We had concerts on Friday and Saturday leading into the
race weekend. We had the Chainsmokers a year ago. There
were a lot of you know, twenty and thirty year
olds that bought tickets to come out with their friends
and watch the Change Smokers on Saturday night. And then
(34:55):
what happened is the either came earlier for the Excanity
race of the day and or they came for the
Cup race on Sunday. And I think the beauty of
it is there are still people that went to those
Chainsmokers concert that ended up going to the race on
Sunday that are now coming to the other events or
tuning in on TV as well. So, you know, I
think about the NY five hundred in the snake bit
(35:17):
is a really good example of it where we had
a lot of college kids that would go to the
Snake Bit and now they're married, they have kids in
a family, and they're bringing their family to the Indy
five hundred, and it's something that we try to think
about as well for some of these newer events.
Speaker 1 (35:32):
Well, I think by bringing racing to the people in
these downtown events as well, like you open up people's
minds of what they may have thought racing was about,
or they may never have even considered racing as anything
they'd being interested in because they.
Speaker 3 (35:44):
Weren't exposed to it.
Speaker 1 (35:46):
But then you know, the casual fan might decide that
they have a favorite Livery or a favorite you know,
they drive a Chevy, or they support Baba or me
or whoever it is that looks like that. And so
I think that by bringing the racing to the people,
I think it makes a big impact. Speaking of bringing
(36:08):
racing to people, we saw the impact that Drive to
Survive has had for Formula One in this country, Like
nobody gave the monkeys about it before that came out,
and then that happened and it's exploded. We are as
a series, we're doing a similar thing now in NASCAR
and trying to spotlight drivers and make them into personalities
(36:29):
because I guess from my experience fans support the driver,
the manufacturer, or the team, right, so you have to
give them exposure to that. Did you all sit down
and watch Drive to Survive and think, Okay, how are
we going to use this to our advantage? Because it's
obviously they stumbled upon something here that works.
Speaker 2 (36:49):
Yeah, it was lightning in the bottle for sure, and
you know, it's worked tremendously well for them and for us.
I think we've we've tried to find our own ways
of doing it. And if you think about you know,
this could apply to any sport. But someone that wants
to tune into a football game or a basketball game,
(37:12):
or you know, a NASCAR Cup Series race, there are
a few passive entry. I would say, if I already
guess one of the least likely pass is, hey, I'm
just I'm a fan of the league or the sanction.
You end up either becoming educated about the sport and
you understand what it's like to shoot and make baskets,
(37:33):
and you have a respect for the amount of talent
that it takes to become successful being a basketball player,
or you might follow the personalities and you know, respect
either the athleticism of the competitors that are on the court,
or maybe there's something that you have affinity towards of
what they do outside of the court. Or you follow
(37:55):
the race team or the sports team in league as
well and you represent it as a part of your
hometime pride, or they have similar values that you identify with,
and those are really the pathways that we think about
as we try to bring new fans into the fold.
So you know, we've done that through kind of our
own channels. I think one example of that is similar
(38:17):
to Drives to Survive is having our own Netflix docu
series where we follow, you know, some of the biggest
drivers in NASCAR Cup Series as they take their journey
through the playoffs in the final ten weeks of our season.
That has given the drivers a platform to be able
to get in front of millions of people and people
(38:39):
and the majority of those people that tune into Netflix
they haven't watched NASCAR before. The great part about is
we're getting in front of new consumers and then associating
them with a team or a driver and then hopefully
bringing them into either tune in on TV or watch, so,
you know, that's been a big initiative and of Tim
Clark and our brand team. I'd say the Drive Ambassador
(39:00):
program has been another great initiative for us, where you know,
we've essentially set aside a pool of funding that will
go towards the drivers each year, and throughout the year,
we'll have a number of requests that will come through,
right so that might be anything from you know, we'd
love for you to be on a Saturday night show,
(39:23):
to do a radio hit, to promote a local race,
to social or digital posts. There's a long list of
kind of requests that come in from the industry and
then it will go into a portal where drivers will
have the ability to apply and submit their interest in it.
If they're approved, they'll do the radio interview or the
(39:43):
TV spot, and then they'll get credits towards it, and
then throughout the year there will be payouts that will
go to them as they go through it. So that
has been a Yeah, it's been another great way of
bringing drivers kind of into the full and really getting
a lot of engagement activations from them. And now we're
(40:04):
starting to see a lot of follow or growth that
many of those drivers are having because they are spending
a lot more time engaging and interactioning, whether that is
on social media or through doing media hits, and hopefully
continue to grow their brands.
Speaker 1 (40:20):
So is it possible in the future as well to
have like crossover sports like we each run an NFL
livery or something on our cars, and then we get
their fans to cheer for us on the weekend. Say
I've got I don't know, Cleveland Browns on my car
or something, then I get a whole other genre of
fan interaction.
Speaker 2 (40:40):
Potentially. Sure, Yeah, I believe there are a couple of
teams and drivers that have done it in the past
where they've worked with an NFL team or in a
lot of colleges on cars before. And the cool part
about it is if they have a college, I'll just
use like Clemson as an example, has been on I've
seen on a couple of cars in the past. Then
(41:01):
all the students will come out to a local racetrack
and they already know who it's a cheer for as
soon as they walk through the gates. So I think
collaborations like that are home run for sure.
Speaker 1 (41:13):
I think by taking racing to the fans as well.
We get the next generation like the gen Z people.
And what's amazing to me, having spoken to people like
Tim Klark, is that the next generation they don't even
they're not interested in driving, right, like it really doesn't
float their boat. But yet they are coming in drives
to NASCAR, which is really cool. So I think it's
(41:35):
not necessarily the same kind of fan. You see more
and more women fans too, which is really neat and
more family. So where's it used to be one particular
kind of fan for IndyCar one for Nascar? Now it
seems like it's a real family spot across the board,
which is really neat.
Speaker 2 (41:54):
Yeah, it is, for sure, and it's I think the
beauty of it to your point is you have fans
that come in because they went to their two races
and their local hometown community with their parents or their
aunts or their uncles. You have some that are introduced
to sport through stem and education, which is a completely
(42:16):
different part of this that we have we haven't touched on.
You have engineers and mechanics that have become fans of
NASCAR because they understand what's actually happening with the car.
And then you have others that like for me, I
end up becoming a fan and understanding who is competing
every week when I was a kid playing video games
(42:37):
and having Matchbox cars, and then over time that educated
myself about the sport and then I could actually understand
what was happening on Sunday. So for us, it's it's
about creating as many of these pathways the fandom is possible,
at least cracking the door open that the look around
the corner and peek in, and then as soon as
(42:57):
they peak in, this is the next important part making
sure that they continue to want to be fans of us,
because as you know, we can get people out to race,
they'll have a tremendous time. It can be challenging sometimes
to get people to tune in thirty eight weekends a year,
right on fun Day at the same time. So that
sticky next factor to us, which a lot of it
(43:19):
we spoke about, is driver affinity and team and team
affinity and following the sport is the next really important
part of that.
Speaker 1 (43:26):
Yeah, you've been in NASCA now for the most like
change and innovation, I think that it's ever seen really
if you think about the next gen car and all
the new tracks and everything. I mean, it must have
been really cool for you to see. Is the future
just more of the same, Like you just keep wanting
to move with the times, which I guess is doing
(43:47):
for probably the first time.
Speaker 2 (43:50):
Yeah, it's the amount of change has been remarkable. I mean,
if even think about the past five years, We've gone
through a pandemic, introduced a new vehicle with the next
gen car, We've gone through six iterations of different schedules,
and then you know that doesn't even touch everything we're
doing in esports and sports betting and marketing and promotion
(44:14):
all the other initiatives. So it's incredible to think about
the journey that the sport has been on over the
past six to seven years. But I'm more of a futurist.
I'm always thinking about the next three to five to
ten years of our sport. It's something that you, as
(44:34):
as a business person and a leader, you have to
spend time thinking about. And you know, you can very
easily get caught up, like any business, in the day
to day operations and the nutia of what's going on,
which there are times that you need to put fires out.
There are also times where you need to empower people
and you know, as a leader, start to think about
the vision for the future of your department and your team,
(44:56):
you know, and for our department in particular. That's what
we're really focused on. We want to make sure that
we have incredibly successful twenty twenty six. We put out
the best twenty twenty six schedule we can, We sell
as many tickets as we can to our venues. I'm
also thinking about twenty seven through thirty one, and then
importantly what twenty thirty two and beyond as we go
(45:17):
into our next media right cycle as well. So always
trying to think strategically about the future and where we
want to take the sport to the next generations.
Speaker 1 (45:27):
So that's really cool, and I'm sure it's given our
listeners a lot of food for thought. So Ben, thank
you so much for taking the time to chat with
us today. It was a real pleasure to find out
what it's like from that side of things.
Speaker 2 (45:39):
Yeah, great to be on. Thank you so much for
having me.
Speaker 1 (45:45):
Thanks for listening to Throttle Therapy. We'll be back next
week with more updates and more overtakes.
Speaker 3 (45:51):
We want to hear from you.
Speaker 1 (45:52):
Leave us a review in Apple Podcasts and tell us
what you want to talk about. It might just be
the topic for our next showt They hosted by Katherine Legg,
Our executive producer is Jesse Katz, and our supervising producer
is Grace Fus. Listen to Throttle Therapy on America's number
one podcast network, iHeart, open your free iHeart app and
(46:13):
search throttle Therapy with Katherine Legg and start listening.
Throttle Therapy with Catherine Legg is an iHeart women's sports
production in partnership with Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment. You
can find us on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you get your podcasts. Hello, and welcome to this
(00:21):
week's episode of Throttle Therapy with Me Catherine Legg, and
this week I am honored to be joined by somebody who,
and I only just found this out, was named the
Sports Business journal forty under forty or one of the
forty under forty, which is really impressive in my mind.
He's also the Executive VP, Chief Venue and Racing and
(00:44):
Innovation Officer. I hope I said that right. Welcome to
this show, Ben Kennedy.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Thank you for having me on, Catherine.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
Did I get that right? Did I say that you did?
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Yeah? Yep, EVP, Chief Venue and Racing Innovation Officer.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
We will get into that because it sounds really fancy,
and you can tell us exactly what that entails later on,
but before we do, For anybody who's involved in racing,
especially NASCAR racing, everybody knows who you are. I think
maybe broader racing people know who you are, but to
the general public, I wanted to point out that you
are actually the great grandson of the founder of NASCAR,
(01:22):
Bill France Senior, and you have had a amazing career
in like you've had like six different lives. I feel like,
so I wanted to start off there. I wanted to
start off with Lil Ben. When you were a kid,
like growing up in the France family, did you want
to be a race car driver? Did you love racing?
Did you feel any pressure, like what was that like?
Speaker 2 (01:43):
To your point, I grew up around racing my entire life,
in particular NASCAR. And you know, NASCAR's headquartered here in
Jasona Beach, Florida. I would say a majority as you
think about the industry operations exists up in the Charlotte area.
We have all of our teams love her Dry Versus
were based out of there. We have a pretty big presence.
But the home the NASCAR is really day The used
(02:05):
to race on the beaches here in Daytona in the
nineteen thirties and forties, eventually founded NASCAR the late forties,
and then you know, it's gone through to your point
a few different generations. So I'm a fourth generation member
of the family, and like I would say, I would
love to sit here and say that I had like
so many crazy stories growing up, it felt normal to me.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
You don't have many crazy stories. I thought you'd have
like prohibition stories and stories of like how.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
He had to do this, that and the other to
stunt Nascar.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
You know, I think for the most part, growing up
it felt pretty normal to me. You know, grew up
in Daytona Beach, Florida. I went to the local elementary
and middle school here, played basketball, which I was absolutely
horrendous at for about six years. And I would say, like,
you know, as I don't know, it was just a
normal kid growing up. I felt like any other normal kid,
(02:57):
And I would say, where it began to change a
little bit as I started to learn more about the business,
learn more about the racing side of it, and then,
you know, ultimately starting my path in a career of
being a race car driver. I was about thirteen or
fourteen years old, and we had a family friend of
ours who had signed me up. Actually, he took me
(03:19):
out over a weekend and we went to this local
go kart track and he saw my eyes light up
when I got behind the wheel of a car and
the next thing, you know, about a month later, he
signed me up for a little quarter midget, which is
kind of a small four horse power go kart class
locally here at New Summerta Speedway. Did that had a blast?
(03:40):
Next thing, you know, we bought one. I think we
found it on Craigslist or something for like two hundred dollars.
It was red and white. It was beat up, and
it was so much fun because every Tuesday after school,
I remember, we got to a track that was practice night,
Friday night was race night, and we just had friends
and family that come out for us. It was a
(04:01):
bit of a hobby, you know. It's more of a
kind of something fun we could do on the weekend together,
and it is a great way for us to spend
time together away, you know, away from the track, away
from the office, and something that we could all enjoy doing.
To that for a couple of years, and then once
I made the pivot when I was sixteen years old
to full body stock cars, that's when it started to
(04:22):
becoming reality to me. And you know, there's another probably
nine years that I competed through you know, late models,
pro late models, eventually the Ark series, the Craftsman Truck
Series and then the NASCAR Coxmunity Series, which was my
final year in twenty seventeen, before I made the pivot
from the racing world to the business world, which I'm
sure we'll talk a little bit about. But it's been
(04:43):
a fun journey to get here, for sure.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
So was your goal for those six eight years whatever
it was to be Cup driver and win championships and
you were going to be a race card driver or
was it still like in the back of your mind
you had the business and you were doing this as
kind of like experiential to figure the business out.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
It was all in on racing. And you know, I
think for me anything, I anytime I do something, I
tried to do it at a one hundred and ten
percent every day, and for me, successfully looked like being
a winner. And then once I got some wins, I
want to be a champion and then get a couple
of championships. As you go through your career, you want
(05:26):
to do that at the next level, and then eventually
you want to take it to the Cup Series and
be successful. So I'd never really thought of anything outside
of the realm of racing till maybe the last year
or two of my racing career, where I had been
involved obviously at the periphery of a lot of the
business conversations that were going on. I you know, I'd
(05:49):
always heard it as dinner table conversations with my mom
and my family growing up, but I had never really
had a perspective around how I wanted to participate in
the business, how I envisioned NASCAR going forward. And I
would say in twenty sixteen twenty seventeen, I started to
get more involved in that side of it, at least
(06:10):
of just having a perspective of the future of NASCAR,
and I eventually got to a point where, you know,
I would say in late twenty seventeen, and you know,
every driver would go through this, right and you've probably
been through it as well. You kind of get to
the off season and questions always come up of where
am I going to land next year? Am I a ride?
Am I not I have sponsors on board? What is
(06:30):
that going to look like? And it led to anxiety
every single year. I'm just the unknowns of like I
think I'm going to land somewhere, I don't know who
it's gonna be with, what team, if I'm going to
be competitive what that's going to look.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
Like, right, I'm there now exactly.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
And every driver has this at some point in their career.
And you know, I eventually got to a point and
I'm like, man, I could continue to go through this
or I could be on the other side of it
and actually coming up with, you know, potential solutions. And
you know, I think I just had so much energy
around taking this sport and the business to the next level.
(07:06):
And you know, I felt like, if there is a
purpose that I can have in life, I'm sure I
could have one behind the wheel of being a racecar driver,
but I feel like I can have an even better
purpose being behind a desk on a nine to five
job working at NASCAR and being a part of the
business side of it. So I made a leap of faith.
I made a phone call in January of twenty eighteen,
(07:30):
and I think I called Steevo Donald. I told him, Hey,
I'm doing this, and I'm the person that if I
say something, I do it. And as soon as I
said it, I didn't look back ever since. And it's
been a fun ride since then.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
Going back to when you were racing, though, did you
go to university at the same time as you were
doing like full time Truck Series or something I did,
and you won a bunch of truck races as well,
didn't you say you were actually really good?
Speaker 2 (07:54):
I won a truck race, we won some Cana and
Easter Archy East races, and we had some success on
the nigs Fan and East Side. But went to University
of Florida Go Gators for four years, studied sports management
and minored in business there.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
So you're used to juggling a whole bunch of things
because not only did you do that at the same
time as race, but now obviously you have a race
team as well as doing all the fancy stuff at NASCAR.
What is your race team currently racing in.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Yeah, so we have a race team that's called Nexus Racing.
It's based here in Daytona Beach, Florida. It's so, if
you back up in my racing career, so Mark Martin
started a race team for a Sun Matt Martin when
he was competing as a driver, and let's say probably
six o seven. Over time, they had different drivers, Jeremy Colangelo,
(08:48):
a lot of drivers in Central Florida that competed with him,
and then over time, you know, eventually Matt stopped racing.
I was kind of the next person in line that
filled the seat Matt was competing in, and you know,
ran with that team for a few years. Eventually we
started to become more serious about racing. You know, we're
(09:09):
in super Late Models. We talked about going down this
Arc East path and you know, we had a couple
of conversations with him or like Matt Mark, you've built
such an incredible shop here, amazing team, incredible infrastructure that
you've created. We would love to partner with you and
talking about taking this next level. So we transitioned over.
(09:29):
It's called Bank Kennedy Racing for over a decade. I
competed in it for a few years and then we've
had a number of drivers that have come through it,
so Kaz Grala, Daniel Dye, Kenzie Hemric have all competed
with us. Spencer Davis is our current driver right now
and our main focus is the Pro and Super Late
Model series, so we compete. If anyone's familiar with grassroots racing,
(09:54):
you know, races like the Snowball Derby, the Governor's Company, Simurna,
some of your bigger marquiche short track events and I
think the goal and the purpose for us is really
to identify, Hey, who are the future drivers of NASCAR
going to be, and then give them opportunities and resources
to be able to be successful both on the track
(10:15):
and off of the track. So it's been a really
fun journey being a driver for my own team. I've
learned so much about tire bills and you know how
much parts and components of racecars costs. But it's it's
scratched itch a bit being outside of a racecar from
a competition standpoint, to still be involved as a competitor,
(10:37):
even though I'm not behind the wheel every day, So
it is it's a fun facet. We've got, you know,
incredible people. Jimmy Kitchens who used to spot for me
back in the past. He's actually spot for Ryan Newman
for a number of years. He's been leading our team
for several years and has done a tremendous job with it.
So I've really enjoyed being a team owner. Thankfully, I'm
(10:58):
a little more hands off today and let the folks
that are closest to operate it every day. But I
think if anything, it does give you a bit of
empathy and understanding when you sit down with team owners
and drivers, and you know, they're talking about the day
to day issues and challenges and obstacles that they're facing,
and in ways we're seeing some of the same at
the same time.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Yeah, what's fascinating to me is I think you're literally
the only person who has got like the trifector. So
you've done the driver, you've done the team owner, and
now you're working with the series. So if there's anybody
who has like a holistic view of that and who knows, like, okay,
high level vision, we want to do this, but actually
it's not realistic because of this for the teams or
(11:39):
that for the drivers. Like it in some way, even
though it wasn't by design, it really helps you in
your role with NASCAR.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Yeah, and it to your point, it wasn't by design.
And it was never my intention that I'm going to
be a race car driver and now I'm going to
own a team because I'm going to be here when
I'm twenty five years old. It was just it was
my passion at the end of the day, and driving
was my passion. And we worked on this partnership with
(12:08):
Mark Martin. As we talked about the shift over to
the new race team, and kind of one thing led
to another and eventually it's led me to hear at NASCAR.
And what I would tell you to Catherine is that
I started my job at NASCAR. My first position was
over the Craftsman Truck Series as a general manager of it.
I came to that job. The first day, I'm like,
(12:29):
there is nothing that I learned being behind the wheel
of a racecar driver or that is going to apply here.
And ever since then, there are so many just small
life lessons that I've picked up from, you know, whether
it was a random Tuesday at a race shop or
leaving college on a Thursday and going to racetrack. There
(12:50):
are a lot of life lessons that I learned going
through that period of time. And what I would also
say is it was incredible the amount of experience that
I got going through that. As you know, probably better
than anyone else in this industry. Relationships are incredibly important,
and I think it's amazing to see so many of
the people that I had the chance to work with
(13:10):
ten or twelve years ago that are now sitting on
the top of a Cup Series pipbox calling race winning
calls and championship winning calls A hundred Motor Sports or
Joe Gibbs Racing or Penske Racing. So it's been really
fun to see the journey of everyone that I had
to work with and be successful.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
So you kill my vibe a little bit then, because
you said I went into the track series and I
thought nothing would translate, and I'm like, great, what am
I going to do after racing because nothing's going to translate?
And then you bought it back ground and now I
feel good about myself again.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
So there is life after racing.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
What I am doing now is meaningful, which is important.
Did you feel any pressure though going into any of it,
into racing, into ownership, or into NASCAR because of your name?
Did you feel like there was not a target on
your back, but like everybody was looking at you to
see how you would do.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
Potentially? Yes, I mean I felt more pressure on myself
than anything else. I don't think I've ever felt external
pressure from people. I'm sure there's always an expectation to perform,
whether it's you know, me being behind the wheel of
a race car driver, me sitting here, as you know
(14:24):
someone that is working for an ASCAR. I think you
always I mean, people should hold you to a certain standard.
There is never an expectation for me to be a
race car driver for me to come over to the
business side. You know, I think, and I really appreciate
this about my family is is they always wanted me
to do whatever I was passionate about, and whether that
(14:45):
was in the industry, outside the industry, or something tangential
to it, Ultimately, this was my passion and it led
me to this position. So I'd say it's probably not
a ton of pressure to make that leap from being
a race car driver to being on the NASCAR side,
but for sure expectations to succeed and perform. And I've
(15:09):
always told them, like I, if I'm going to be
successful in this company, I don't want it to be
because of my last name or MI credentials. I want
it to be because I've added value to the company,
into the sport, and that's what I strive to do
every day.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
I think if it would be looking at it, it would
almost be harder to be you to earn their respect
because everybody's kind of like looking at you with a
spotlight on you like they are.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
Me a little bit.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
And the fact that everybody has so much respect for
you within NASCAR should be a huge accolade because I
think people are thinking that, Okay, let's see how he
gets on, But now you are just one of them.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
And so I think you've done an incredible.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
Job talking about passions before I carry that out there.
You also are passionate about endurance sports. How did your
foray into like doing triathlons and all the cool stuff.
That's We'll tell us all the cool stuff you do
and then tell us how that came about.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
Yeah, so I think it's actually we first started talking
about this. We're in Chicago at a charity event and
I think I was wearing my smart center and you
had asked about it, and we just started talking about
working out and training and all of this fun stuff.
So yeah, I mean, I would say a lot of
my training it naturally started as I was a race
(16:29):
car driver. I remember there was a race at New
Smer Speedway. It was a short, fifty lap race which
any driver should be able to do and get out
and be fine. And I got out of that race.
It was fifteen minute race, maybe not super long, and
just completely drained, I mean, exaucid, dehydrated, and I quickly
(16:50):
realized and there were a couple of mentors that I
had how out of shape that it was. I thought
I was relatively in shape as a kid. I was
completely out of shape with.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
Bus people as well. You would think that that would
have done something.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
You would think, so yeah, and it helped me a
ton apparently behind the wheel as a driver. So I
you know, I founded some trainers and then started focusing
on my cardio and aerobic eventually started building up strength training.
As you well know, if you're pulling, you know, two
to three g's for several seconds every single lap, and
(17:26):
you have little note downtime that works out your neck muscles,
your back, muscles, your arms, your legs, and then very
importantly aerobically, you've got to be physically fit to be
able to have the endurance to be behind the wheel
of a car for three and a half hours at
one hundred and thirty or forty degrees, which is challenging.
So you know, I started as started running quite a bit,
(17:49):
eventually got into cycling over time, started to do more triathlons,
and then I would say my biggest achievement off the
track as a competitor is doing a full iron Man
So I did that four years ago. I believe it
was in Cosmo, Mexico. I'm going to give you the
entire story. It was during COVID. They ran out of
water on the course and I, yeah, I went for
(18:13):
about probably twenty miles without any water at all, got
severely dehydrated, and I remember there was a local person
that came up. They dropped a twenty four pack of
water on one of the last water stations and I
turned around on the course of my backwards to get
this water because I had never been so thirsty in
my life, but finish it in about ten and a
(18:35):
half hours, absolutely incredible experience. I would say that I
would only do it again if I had someone else
to do it with. I trained, and I did this
entirely by myself, which I wanted to do just because
it was It was such a big goal of mine
that I wanted to accomplish, and I wanted to accomplish
(18:55):
it in a certain time and I achieved that. So
I would love to go back and do it again
at an amazing location with some friends and family. I've known. Truth,
I'm s.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
So you are the individual responsible for where we go
race and when we go race there, and people have
said that this year's calendar has been schedule whatever you
want to call it has been the most innovative and
the coolest one that we've ever done.
Speaker 3 (19:37):
So pat on the back for that. But how tricky?
Speaker 1 (19:42):
I feel like this is logistics and it's like a
chess game where you have to be really smart putting
all the bits into bits and pieces into place. And
by the way, I am super excited about San Diego.
Speaker 3 (19:55):
That's going to be super cool.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
But how tricky is it to all of that fit
together inside of what your vision is Finascar?
Speaker 2 (20:04):
It's tricky and it's It's funny, Catherine, because we keep
calling it the three D chess board because of how
complex it is. I've upgraded to the four D chessboard
because that's the experience. Now you're actually feeling the heat
and the pressure. It is. It's incredibly It is complex,
(20:24):
but it's an incredible process that we've been able to
create and locill be honest, at the end of the day,
nothing's going to be perfect. We're not going to be
able to put out the perfect schedule for thirty six
plus two races every year for our Cup series or
Xmitte series or Acraftsman Truck Series. But we try to
do our best. And you know, this all began in
(20:45):
the summer of twenty nineteen when Steve O'Donnell reached out
to me and said that, hey, you know, we put
together the twenty twenty schedule together. I would like for
you to lead the development of the twenty twenty one schedule,
and I would ask that you assemble a team together
to begin developing that and to think about the schedule
(21:07):
differently and challenge ourselves to think about taking it to
new markets and locations. So we assembled a team which
over time has gone through different iterations, but for the
most part, represents I would say, the same kind of
departments and folks. So we have folks that are on
there that speak to our broadcast partners on a regular basis,
that are asking them questions about the schedule, so we'll
(21:30):
have perspective from them. We'll have perspective from people that
are communicating with our track properties, people that are talking
with our fans. Will have separate meetings with our teams,
with our OEMs, and then together we try to take
as much of this information as we can. So you
have all the quantitative data, which is hard figures and
(21:50):
numbers that we get from wherever it might come from.
And then the qualitative data that comes from a lot
of conversations and discussions that we'll have throughout the year
and on our weekly basis, the team will we'll get
together and we're literally looking at excel sheet building out
that next year's schedule. So we have drafts now from
twenty twenty seven that run out through twenty thirty one,
(22:12):
which is the term of our media rights agreements, and
every time we get together, we're looking at twenty seven,
but we're also thinking about how that impacts twenty eight,
twenty nine, thirty and thirty one as well. So you know,
part of the discussions revolve around, you know, literally which
track is going to be on each week each year
(22:32):
we're off weeks located, when do we start our season,
when do we end our season? And then importantly is
talking about some of these new projects or concepts that
we want to go after. So you mentioned San Diego
is a really good one. We had Broach's subject about
two years ago. We were able to finally announce it
in July this year, and that goes all the way
(22:53):
from you know, what are those new markets or new
venues that we would like to go after and prioritize,
and ultimately, as we shift to a new market, what
are the locations that it will be coming from. So
you know, there's a lot of other analysis and teams
that we'll bring in to help develop those proposals that
will eventually go in front of this scheduling team. But
(23:13):
you know, it's it's been an amazing process and I
tell our team every single year that they have a
lot to be proud of because if you think about
the iterations of our schedule and you know, going to
new tracks, developing a temporary track instead of one hundred
year old stadium in downtown Los Angeles, first Street race
in downtown Chicago, going to San Diego next year, you know,
(23:34):
we tell our team every year, this is the best
schedule that NASCAR has ever seen, and we hope to
continue to iterate on it and take it to the
next level for twenty seven and beyond.
Speaker 3 (23:44):
So that's how that's born.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
So like the let's call them unusual tracks, non traditional
tracks like Chicago and San Diego, you identify the market
and then once you've done that, you go looking for Okay,
where could we do it that would make sense and
can we do it? And then you have to get
in touch with the authorities and make sure you have
permission to do it and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
All of that stuff. Yeah, and it's end to end
from the concept to the actual execution of the event.
And I'll use San Diego as an example. You know,
we knew for a while that we weren't going to
be running in Auto club, you know, as we we
looked to redevelop the fability. Yeah, in Southern California being
(24:28):
such an important market for us, we felt like it
was important for us to find another home in the
Southern California market. So we had a separate team that
we had assembled outside of the scheduling team that was
only honed in on Southern California. And we took a
couple of trips where we all loaded up in a
van and we just drove around Los Angeles and San
(24:51):
Diego and we spent two or three days going to
downtown Los Angeles, going to Inland Empire, going south of
Los Angeles. We eventually made our way to San Diego.
We looked at probably three or four different sites in
San Diego, and by far and away of the dozen
different locations that we looked at, the location of being
(25:13):
in a great market like San Diego, the proximity to
both Tijuana and Los Angeles was really important to us.
I would say the third part of that is just
the novelty of doing something entirely different on a military base.
Chicago had nodes of that. Downtown Chicago, we had never
done a street course in our sports seventy five year history.
(25:36):
LA Coliseum nodes of that as well. As we thought
about building this temporary course, this is the next thing
that we wanted to check off of the list, and
that was having a race on a proper active military base.
We looked at a handful as the best location, the
best proximity, and then as we sat down with the
folks at Naval based Coronado and the captain there, we
(25:58):
knew it was going to be a tremendously fruitful partnership
and that was kind of the last bridge that we
needed to cross, is it will identify the geographic location.
Once we identify a geographic location, will identify the actual
location for the track within that market. But then I
would say the third part of this which is just
as important to us as it is our partner. But
(26:19):
we want them to be successful. We want them to
be successful, We want our sport to be successful. And
from the first conversations we had with the Captain and
the exo on the base, we knew it was going
to be a tremendous partnership and that eventually led to
agreements and assembling this team that we now have in
San Diego that are focused on selling tickets, promoting the events,
(26:41):
bringing in corporate partners. And then one of the biggest
parts of this is how do you actually build a
temporary short track with walls and fences, grand sand suites,
hospitality areas. And that is another team that comes in
and helps do that too. So a lot of different
folks that come in along the way.
Speaker 1 (26:57):
Yeah, can you transition the people and it seems very
transient and probably like upheaval, but like the people who
were doing Chicago, can you move them to San Diego?
And can you use like all the barriers and everything
that you did in Chicago and just put them south
or is it completely different?
Speaker 2 (27:15):
Yeah, we would love to load up the barriers on
a bunch of semi trucks in some of the southern California.
It would be close to six hundred semis that we
would have to send. Oh my goodness, you can only
get four blocks on a fifty three footer. So we're
going to keep the barriers in Chicago, and as we've
said in the past, would love to be back in
(27:36):
Chicago in the future and keep the door open there.
There are a lot of other components and elements, whether
it's infrastructure or you know, frankly, just expertise that we
learned in developing a street course for the first time
in Chicago that we'll be able to take and apply
in San Diego. So, you know, we have a lot
of folks. For example, we have a design development team
(27:59):
that is respond spool for actually constructing the course and
working with outside vendor to do so. They're based here
in Daytona, Vie, Tolorida. We have people that were fully
dedicated to Chicago. They're not going to be fully dedicated
to San Diego. So we have a lot of folks.
And you know, Julie Geezy, who was the president Amazing
NASCAR Chicago, She's going to be kind of a consultant
(28:21):
for the San Diego project as well. So we'll take
a lot of the things that we learned in Chicago
and the great news is applied in San Diego.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
She was so impressive to me. I yeah, I was like,
when I grew up, I want to be like you, Julie.
So for the first time in what I can remember,
we are doing a double headed with IndyCar in Phoenix,
and so that made me think, Imsea, which is a
NASCAR owned property, do Long Beach with IndyCar? And now
(28:53):
we're doing IndyCar and Phoenix. Is there a possibility of
more cross pollination in the future, Like could we see
in NASCAR on the streets of Long Beach Or is
it like let's see how Phoenix goes and play it
by air? Is there like a massive rivalry or like
are you working together?
Speaker 3 (29:10):
How does that work?
Speaker 2 (29:11):
Yeah, we like to work together with them as much
as we can. And to your point, so we're gonna
have a double header in Phoenix next year where we'll
have our NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series which will come
after IndyCar on Saturday, and then we'll have our Cup
Series on Sunday. And I think the good news is
we already have such a good relationship with Doug Bulls
(29:34):
and Butt Dinker and everyone over at IndyCar that it's
not entirely turnkey, but it makes getting into the vehicle
a whole lot easier for us. And you know, I
think there's gonna be some nuances that we're gonna learn
along the way of how we bring IndyCar into a
NASCAR Cup Series weekend, But it's it's been relatively simple
(29:54):
so far because we've got such a good relationship. So
you know, we're more than open to the idea of
partnering up with different series, like IndyCar as an example.
We've had a lot of conversations with MSA as well,
especially if you think about some of these new markets
that we go to where you have a lot of
newer casual fans that may be able to identify what
(30:17):
I know, Pilot Challenge Series car might look like as
it's more equivalent to a lot of the cars that
they would see on the road versus maybe NASCAR Acuity
Series vehicle. So you know, we're also kind of cognizant
of the locations that we're going to in the series
that we bring in as a part of that, So
you know, would love to have all of our series
(30:39):
and INSA and IndyCar all on the same weekend. Naturally
you can only fit two or three based on garage
based and weekend schedule, but more than open to continue
and collaborate with them.
Speaker 3 (30:50):
Have NASCAR I've erased a most point.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
Yes, yep. We had a Craftsman Truck series at Mosport
for quite a few years. I raised there for I
want to say, three years. Amazing track, really incredible, but
I would love to get up north of the border
at some point again too.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
I was just thinking about and cross races that we
could do, obviously selfishly because I think I'm one of
very few drivers who's crossed all three of the different series.
So like, I really want to do the double header
at Phoenix next year, for example. I don't know whether
that will happen or not, but I think that would
be super cool.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
Well, might have to create a special trophy if you
win both of the races.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
If I won both of guys, I wouldn't need a trophy.
Speaker 3 (31:44):
I'd be made. I'd be sad.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
Yeah, it's interesting for me to see. Okay, NASCAR has
more eyebels, right, Like even Exfinity has more eyeballs than IndyCar,
but Indy has the five hundred or do you have
the six hundred and the five hundred. How do you
even go about having those conversations? Like IndyCar again to
benefit massively from going to Phoenix, which is one of
(32:09):
your track, and probably pick up some NASCAR fans. So
then what do they do in return to kind of
like help boy the NASCAR series? Is that like getting
some IndyCar fans over? I feel like hopefully I've done
that a little bit too. But it's like a really
interesting dynamic when you're sat there having those discussions. Is
(32:31):
it just like you want whatsever best for the sport
in general and you try not to look at it
from one lens.
Speaker 2 (32:40):
Yeah, I would say in general, we're just we're cheering
for motorsports. If other series are successful in motorsports, the
rising tide is going to lift all boats for us. So,
you know, I think for the IndyCar, you know, Cup
Series Phoenix double Header as an example is if you
look at the data, there is a good amount of
(33:03):
crossover between IndyCar fans relative to NASCAR fans. I would
say my biggest crossover is probably the NFL because they
have more fans than any other sports leagues in the
United States, but there's strong correlation between the two. That said,
there is also people that follow IndyCar that don't come
to a NASCAR Cup Series race, and vice versas are
(33:24):
people that follow the Cup Series race that are going
to tune into IndyCar that weekend as well. So I
think there are a lot of opportunities, certainly on the
fans side, to kind of cross follen ad a little
bit and have people that might come to an IndyCar
race stay an extra day and go to the Cup
Series race on Sunday, and vice versa. People are going
(33:45):
to come to the Cup Series race and they're going
to bring their family, and we're going to have thousands
of campers there for the weekend that are going to
watch the IndyCar race and they may start to follow
IndyCar along with us, and that's a win on both
sides for us. You think about kind of like the
strategic rationale behind a lot of these it's, hey, how
can we cross bollinate our fans, bring them together as one,
(34:07):
celebrate motorsports and racing in general, and bring new partners
into the sport and continue to grow motorsports and totality.
Speaker 3 (34:15):
Well you do that as well with music.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
So all the concerts and things that you do on
race weekend too, I feel like brings in new fans
because they may have been coming just to see what's
his face saying, but now he or she is staying
because they're fascinated by the cars and they're racing too,
So that's kind of cool.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
Yeah, And Chicago is a good example of that, right.
We had concerts on Friday and Saturday leading into the
race weekend. We had the Chainsmokers a year ago. There
were a lot of you know, twenty and thirty year
olds that bought tickets to come out with their friends
and watch the Change Smokers on Saturday night. And then
(34:55):
what happened is the either came earlier for the Excanity
race of the day and or they came for the
Cup race on Sunday. And I think the beauty of
it is there are still people that went to those
Chainsmokers concert that ended up going to the race on
Sunday that are now coming to the other events or
tuning in on TV as well. So, you know, I
think about the NY five hundred in the snake bit
(35:17):
is a really good example of it where we had
a lot of college kids that would go to the
Snake Bit and now they're married, they have kids in
a family, and they're bringing their family to the Indy
five hundred, and it's something that we try to think
about as well for some of these newer events.
Speaker 1 (35:32):
Well, I think by bringing racing to the people in
these downtown events as well, like you open up people's
minds of what they may have thought racing was about,
or they may never have even considered racing as anything
they'd being interested in because they.
Speaker 3 (35:44):
Weren't exposed to it.
Speaker 1 (35:46):
But then you know, the casual fan might decide that
they have a favorite Livery or a favorite you know,
they drive a Chevy, or they support Baba or me
or whoever it is that looks like that. And so
I think that by bringing the racing to the people,
I think it makes a big impact. Speaking of bringing
(36:08):
racing to people, we saw the impact that Drive to
Survive has had for Formula One in this country, Like
nobody gave the monkeys about it before that came out,
and then that happened and it's exploded. We are as
a series, we're doing a similar thing now in NASCAR
and trying to spotlight drivers and make them into personalities
(36:29):
because I guess from my experience fans support the driver,
the manufacturer, or the team, right, so you have to
give them exposure to that. Did you all sit down
and watch Drive to Survive and think, Okay, how are
we going to use this to our advantage? Because it's
obviously they stumbled upon something here that works.
Speaker 2 (36:49):
Yeah, it was lightning in the bottle for sure, and
you know, it's worked tremendously well for them and for us.
I think we've we've tried to find our own ways
of doing it. And if you think about you know,
this could apply to any sport. But someone that wants
to tune into a football game or a basketball game,
(37:12):
or you know, a NASCAR Cup Series race, there are
a few passive entry. I would say, if I already
guess one of the least likely pass is, hey, I'm
just I'm a fan of the league or the sanction.
You end up either becoming educated about the sport and
you understand what it's like to shoot and make baskets,
(37:33):
and you have a respect for the amount of talent
that it takes to become successful being a basketball player,
or you might follow the personalities and you know, respect
either the athleticism of the competitors that are on the court,
or maybe there's something that you have affinity towards of
what they do outside of the court. Or you follow
(37:55):
the race team or the sports team in league as
well and you represent it as a part of your
hometime pride, or they have similar values that you identify with,
and those are really the pathways that we think about
as we try to bring new fans into the fold.
So you know, we've done that through kind of our
own channels. I think one example of that is similar
(38:17):
to Drives to Survive is having our own Netflix docu
series where we follow, you know, some of the biggest
drivers in NASCAR Cup Series as they take their journey
through the playoffs in the final ten weeks of our season.
That has given the drivers a platform to be able
to get in front of millions of people and people
(38:39):
and the majority of those people that tune into Netflix
they haven't watched NASCAR before. The great part about is
we're getting in front of new consumers and then associating
them with a team or a driver and then hopefully
bringing them into either tune in on TV or watch, so,
you know, that's been a big initiative and of Tim
Clark and our brand team. I'd say the Drive Ambassador
(39:00):
program has been another great initiative for us, where you know,
we've essentially set aside a pool of funding that will
go towards the drivers each year, and throughout the year,
we'll have a number of requests that will come through,
right so that might be anything from you know, we'd
love for you to be on a Saturday night show,
(39:23):
to do a radio hit, to promote a local race,
to social or digital posts. There's a long list of
kind of requests that come in from the industry and
then it will go into a portal where drivers will
have the ability to apply and submit their interest in it.
If they're approved, they'll do the radio interview or the
(39:43):
TV spot, and then they'll get credits towards it, and
then throughout the year there will be payouts that will
go to them as they go through it. So that
has been a Yeah, it's been another great way of
bringing drivers kind of into the full and really getting
a lot of engagement activations from them. And now we're
(40:04):
starting to see a lot of follow or growth that
many of those drivers are having because they are spending
a lot more time engaging and interactioning, whether that is
on social media or through doing media hits, and hopefully
continue to grow their brands.
Speaker 1 (40:20):
So is it possible in the future as well to
have like crossover sports like we each run an NFL
livery or something on our cars, and then we get
their fans to cheer for us on the weekend. Say
I've got I don't know, Cleveland Browns on my car
or something, then I get a whole other genre of
fan interaction.
Speaker 2 (40:40):
Potentially. Sure, Yeah, I believe there are a couple of
teams and drivers that have done it in the past
where they've worked with an NFL team or in a
lot of colleges on cars before. And the cool part
about it is if they have a college, I'll just
use like Clemson as an example, has been on I've
seen on a couple of cars in the past. Then
(41:01):
all the students will come out to a local racetrack
and they already know who it's a cheer for as
soon as they walk through the gates. So I think
collaborations like that are home run for sure.
Speaker 1 (41:13):
I think by taking racing to the fans as well.
We get the next generation like the gen Z people.
And what's amazing to me, having spoken to people like
Tim Klark, is that the next generation they don't even
they're not interested in driving, right, like it really doesn't
float their boat. But yet they are coming in drives
to NASCAR, which is really cool. So I think it's
(41:35):
not necessarily the same kind of fan. You see more
and more women fans too, which is really neat and
more family. So where's it used to be one particular
kind of fan for IndyCar one for Nascar? Now it
seems like it's a real family spot across the board,
which is really neat.
Speaker 2 (41:54):
Yeah, it is, for sure, and it's I think the
beauty of it to your point is you have fans
that come in because they went to their two races
and their local hometown community with their parents or their
aunts or their uncles. You have some that are introduced
to sport through stem and education, which is a completely
(42:16):
different part of this that we have we haven't touched on.
You have engineers and mechanics that have become fans of
NASCAR because they understand what's actually happening with the car.
And then you have others that like for me, I
end up becoming a fan and understanding who is competing
every week when I was a kid playing video games
(42:37):
and having Matchbox cars, and then over time that educated
myself about the sport and then I could actually understand
what was happening on Sunday. So for us, it's it's
about creating as many of these pathways the fandom is possible,
at least cracking the door open that the look around
the corner and peek in, and then as soon as
(42:57):
they peak in, this is the next important part making
sure that they continue to want to be fans of us,
because as you know, we can get people out to race,
they'll have a tremendous time. It can be challenging sometimes
to get people to tune in thirty eight weekends a year,
right on fun Day at the same time. So that
sticky next factor to us, which a lot of it
(43:19):
we spoke about, is driver affinity and team and team
affinity and following the sport is the next really important
part of that.
Speaker 1 (43:26):
Yeah, you've been in NASCA now for the most like
change and innovation, I think that it's ever seen really
if you think about the next gen car and all
the new tracks and everything. I mean, it must have
been really cool for you to see. Is the future
just more of the same, Like you just keep wanting
to move with the times, which I guess is doing
(43:47):
for probably the first time.
Speaker 2 (43:50):
Yeah, it's the amount of change has been remarkable. I mean,
if even think about the past five years, We've gone
through a pandemic, introduced a new vehicle with the next
gen car, We've gone through six iterations of different schedules,
and then you know that doesn't even touch everything we're
doing in esports and sports betting and marketing and promotion
(44:14):
all the other initiatives. So it's incredible to think about
the journey that the sport has been on over the
past six to seven years. But I'm more of a futurist.
I'm always thinking about the next three to five to
ten years of our sport. It's something that you, as
(44:34):
as a business person and a leader, you have to
spend time thinking about. And you know, you can very
easily get caught up, like any business, in the day
to day operations and the nutia of what's going on,
which there are times that you need to put fires out.
There are also times where you need to empower people
and you know, as a leader, start to think about
the vision for the future of your department and your team,
(44:56):
you know, and for our department in particular. That's what
we're really focused on. We want to make sure that
we have incredibly successful twenty twenty six. We put out
the best twenty twenty six schedule we can, We sell
as many tickets as we can to our venues. I'm
also thinking about twenty seven through thirty one, and then
importantly what twenty thirty two and beyond as we go
(45:17):
into our next media right cycle as well. So always
trying to think strategically about the future and where we
want to take the sport to the next generations.
Speaker 1 (45:27):
So that's really cool, and I'm sure it's given our
listeners a lot of food for thought. So Ben, thank
you so much for taking the time to chat with
us today. It was a real pleasure to find out
what it's like from that side of things.
Speaker 2 (45:39):
Yeah, great to be on. Thank you so much for
having me.
Speaker 1 (45:45):
Thanks for listening to Throttle Therapy. We'll be back next
week with more updates and more overtakes.
Speaker 3 (45:51):
We want to hear from you.
Speaker 1 (45:52):
Leave us a review in Apple Podcasts and tell us
what you want to talk about. It might just be
the topic for our next showt They hosted by Katherine Legg,
Our executive producer is Jesse Katz, and our supervising producer
is Grace Fus. Listen to Throttle Therapy on America's number
one podcast network, iHeart, open your free iHeart app and
(46:13):
search throttle Therapy with Katherine Legg and start listening.
Host
Katherine Legge
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