Behind The Scenes Of A Successful NASCAR Race Entitlement Sponsorship

Jan 7

By Bruce Martin at Forbes
This previously appeared at Forbes Sports Money on December 20, 2024.

There is a lot more involved in a successful NASCAR race entitlement sponsorship than writing a check to put a company’s name and logo on the race.

It’s far more than having the sponsor’s identity mentioned in connection to the race, the telecast or the radio broadcast.

There are multi-faceted layers of business ranging from the business-to-business model to the business-to-consumer relationship. These levels are just as important and created to benefit both the venue, the race and the sponsorship.

A successful race sponsorship helps promote the race and drive interest in the NASCAR weekend. The track promoter uses it to sell more tickets to create a bigger crowd. The sponsor uses it as a platform for activation, which can include personal appearances away from the track by that sponsor’s driver.

There is also the entertainment aspect, as the race sponsor brings in key customers and other business associates into the suites to foster goodwill and help create more business opportunities for the sponsor.

Let’s take a behind-the-scenes look at how a successful race sponsorship works by diving into the Quaker State 400 available at Walmart at Atlanta Motor Speedway on September 8, 2024.

Long Standing Relationship Between Sponsor and NASCAR

The Quaker State 400 is one of the longest running race sponsorships in NASCAR. Only the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway and the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway have been a Speedway Motorsports, Inc. race sponsor longer than Quaker State, which is part of Shell USA, Inc.

“The uniqueness about the Quaker State 400 is the length that we've been a partner with Speedway Motorsports,” Josh Day, account management director for Sport Dimensions told me. “Outside of the Coca Cola 600 and maybe one other sponsorship with the longest running entitlement sponsor in the series.

“Now granted, we've moved from Kentucky Speedway to Atlanta Motor Speedway, but that has not changed it. It's the Quaker State 400. I think there's a quite a uniqueness to that and it's something that we're proud of that we've been able to execute now for 13 years that we've had the race entitlement.

“It's pretty special to be able to say that you got one of the longest running entitlements in NASCAR.”

Day is in his 17th year at Sport Dimensions, an agency that represents numerous clients in motorsports including Shell, Pennzoil and Quaker State. He has been involved in race entitlement sponsorships for his entire career.

The Deal

It all begins with “the deal” between the venue and the sponsor. A typical race entitlement sponsorship for a NASCAR Cup Series race can start at $1 million and be as much as $4 million to $5 million. As part of the sponsorship, the sponsor gets use of certain assets, which includes several VIP suites and activation space around the venue.

“There are a lot of things thrown into a sponsorship package,” Sam Brown, Director of Communications of Sport Dimensions told me. “Just like the Penske deal with the race team, we get a lot of the business stuff. We’re not just paying for a sticker on the car, we’re getting the business stuff, display space and exclusive business things that are extras.”

According to Day, the investment and relationship with Atlanta Motor Speedway includes a myriad of assets.

From the hospitality aspect, it ranges from the suite level, all the way down to grandstand seating, with execution at both levels.

In addition, the sponsor gets track branding, including digital assets that the track helps promote, a certain amount of TV reads coming back from commercial with the name of the sponsor of the race mentioned a defined number of times, depending on the sponsorship agreement.

The sponsor also gets display space which varies from track to track.

“We will get different activation areas that we can utilize,” Day continued. “We also, as part of our agreement, get use of those spaces in our non-entitlement races. We get those activation spaces, we get hospitality space throughout the year, and then if there are areas that we want to utilize different times of the year that are not race specific, we get those, too.

“If we need a large-scale activation area, we can certainly utilize those tracks to host other events outside of the NASCAR races that are there.”

Key Partner With SMI

Marcus Smith is the President and CEO of Speedway Motorsports, Inc (SMI).

SMI owns and operates Atlanta Motor Speedway, Charlotte Motor Speedway, Bristol Motor Speedway, Dover Motor Speedway, Kentucky Speedway, Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Nashville Superspeedway, New Hampshire Motor Speedway, North Wilkesboro Speedway, Sonoma Raceway and Texas Motor Speedway.

SMI was founded by Smith’s father, Bruton Smith, who passed away at the age of 95 in 2022.

Race entitlement sponsorships are a key part of operating a major racing facility, especially in NASCAR.

The sponsor plays a key role and is basically a partner of the event.

“If you are an event sponsor you become the home team of that event,” Smith told me. “We typically will host over a thousand people with an event sponsor whether it is a suite, and grandstand tickets, and interactive elements. There are also elements that incorporate not just the consumer, but a lot of vendor partners, and so many layers that the business that build on a successful marketing program for any sponsor.

“I think Quaker State is doing a phenomenal job at bringing all those things together to deliver for their business and their customers.”

Quaker State is also a historic and iconic brand name in the field of automotive lubricants.

“It's really a wonderful thing to have a great sponsor on a race like Quaker State to have a brand that everybody knows that's active in so many different retail establishments around the world,” Smith continued. “Quaker State and motor racing, Quaker State and Daniel Suarez, Quaker State and so many automotive enthusiasts out there have a genuine connection and that is what makes it so great.

“We have a great partnership together and we want to continue to build that.”

That partnership also helps create even more business opportunities for SMI, the sponsor and its vendors and suppliers and key customers.

“It's really two-fold,” Smith explained. “It's business to business but it's also business to consumer. I think that's the great thing about Quaker State is that it's certainly a consumer brand, but we as consumers, when you buy Quaker State oil on the shelf, we don't have to think about all the business relationships that are built that make those things happen.

“I think that's what's great about an event sponsorship that we're able to help to facilitate bringing people together, building relationships and making great consumer commerce happen as well.”

Lengthy Planning Process

The planning for these events begins six to eight months in advance.

Myra Harper is Director of Hospitality for Sport Dimensions, a role she has held since 2002.

She is the face that many of the guests will see at the event because she arranges the hotel rooms, sponsor dinners, buses to the race that include police escorts, suite passes and grandstand tickets.

“Myra is just more engaged and more of a touch point with the Shell customer than obviously, anybody in our agency,” Brown said. “In a lot of cases, more than anybody at Shell, taking care of their needs, and they have an issue.

“Myra is handling that for each individual guest, and she runs an interface with all these key customers where I don't really deal with the customer. She deals with the bread and butter, their customer.”

In the days before the guest arrived for the race, Brown engaged in off-site activation by taking Suarez for appearances at area Walmart locations, as well as Truist Field, home of the Atlanta Braves, where Suarez threw out the first pitch before the Friday night game.

Prior to that, Suarez also appeared at The Weather Channel, where he made several on-air appearances on the network’s English and Hispanic channels.

Choosing the Hotel

The guests that were invited by Quaker State to the September 8 weekend stayed at the Trilith Guesthouse, a spectacular venue located in Fayetteville, Georgia that is near Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Trilith Guesthouse and the adjoining businesses and studio was a project created by Chick-Fil-A Chairman Don Cathy.

Trilith Studios is where three of the highest grossing films of all-time were produced including “Avengers: End Game,” “Avengers: Infinity War” and “Spider-Man: No Way Home.”

A generous film tax credit passed in 2008 made Trilith possible, Cathy said.

The Trilith Guesthouse is a boutique hotel owned by Marriott.

Harper toured the hotel after it opened in February 2024 and immediately realized this was the perfect choice for the VIP’s and guest of the Quaker State 400.

“I have already started getting the hotel booked for next year's race in June,” Harper told me. “I started that process about two weeks ago (in October). If the race is in June, eight months in advance. It’s six-to-eight-months in advance.

“I'm concurrently working on the Pennzoil 400 in Las Vegas and March as well in terms of getting the hotel booked. That's the biggest thing. You can get buses as we get closer. We know that restaurants or whatever, we'll figure that out. But the biggest thing is getting the hotel booked because, you know, we need so many rooms, and we want to be in the best location.

“So, when we found this new location in Fayetteville, Georgia that was so close to the track and brand new and nice and everyone loved it, we wanted to lock that in for next year. That's why I started working on it just a little bit sooner than I normally would.

“Five, six months out, is when we would book things. But, you know, if there are special circumstances like, for example, a huge city-wide convention in Las Vegas during the time we're going to be there then you might have to start a little bit earlier or you know we wanted to lock this hotel in before all the NASCAR community found out about this hidden gem.”

According to Harper, Quaker State had 140 rooms for 230 people at the Trilith Guesthouse. The suites are part of the actual sponsorship buy, and the hotel rooms come out of each sales channel’s budget.

Within the lubricants division, there are different “channels” of sales. For example, the “Do-it-for-me” channel includes car dealerships, where customers bring their cars in for service. The “Do-it-yourself” channel that would include Advance Auto Parts, NAPA Auto Parts or NAPA, where the consumer buys the product, takes it home and “does it themselves.”

There is also another area known as “indirect” that are not selling products directly to the consumers but selling it to distributors.

Getting On The VIP List

Of the invited guests, some are sweepstakes winners that entered Quaker State contests at various points of sale and the prizes including a free trip to the Quaker State 400.

Each sales channel within lubricants pays for the hotel rooms for their attendees.

“Each business unit or sales channel has an allocation of tickets,” Harper told me. “We divvied them up based on their needs, their requests, and then if they request more than we have, then we do an asset draft where we have to take some from one group and give them to the other and just sort of work with it work with the focal points for each sales channel to divvy them up based on their needs. We try to do it fairly.

“If we've got you know, 230 tickets and six different channels, one may only need 10, but another might need 80. We have to work with them on their request.

“Once we get their request, we play the game a little bit, go back to each other and we have a big conference call and we ask them, okay, do you really need 80 or could you give up five because this guy over here he's five short? We do a draft, if you will.”

A key part of the invited guests including a large contingent from Quaker State, Mexico. Quaker State sponsors Trackhouse Racing driver Daniel Suarez of Monterrey, Mexico, who drove a special Quaker State paint scheme in the race on his No. 99 Trackhouse Chevrolet.

Entertaining 230 guests requires two double suites at Atlanta Motor Speedway as well as grandstand tickets for others. For the sweepstakes winners, travel may be included, but for the other guests, their meals, hotel rooms, bus transportation to and from the race and suite passes and tickets are included.

Getting to Atlanta, however, is up to each guest – more than a fair tradeoff for the overall value of entertainment for the weekend.

Time to Check In And The Sponsor Dinner

The activities began the day before the Quaker State 400 as guests began to arrive to the Trilith Guesthouse. Once checked in, Harper gives them a schedule that begins with the annual sponsor dinner, a catered event held in one of the ballrooms of the hotel.

“We'll start planning that probably three months in advance and we'll work with the decor company on the furniture and the flowers and the linens and lighting and all the different decor elements that you saw,” Harper explained. “That's where Sam Brown gets involved, because he's integral in writing and creating the program and the run of show.

“And then we'll work with the hotel's AV company on staging and microphones and all that kind of AV type stuff that would come from the hotel after we figure out what the program looks like. Sam would work with the different leadership to write the speaking points and go through the run of show.

“We start that probably three months out.”

Special Quaker State hats and this year, a Quaker State water bottle, were given to each guest that attended the sponsor dinner.

Special guests at this year’s sponsor dinner included famed CART and INDYCAR and former NASCAR driver Adrian Fernandez of Mexico and former crew chief and FOX Sports personality Larry McReynolds.

Bree Sandlin, Vice President of Marketing, Lubricants, Quaker State North America presented a short program that included Suarez in a Q&A.

Meet The Driver — Daniel Suarez

“It’s interesting how life works sometimes,” Suarez said. “Life goes full circle. I remember being a little kid and didn’t grow up in a racing family. I grew up in a car family. My dad had a car shop and worked on classic cars doing mechanical work, doing metal work. Since I was very little, I was working on cars.

“I learned how to change oil and how to check engines, transmissions, metal work, welding, all those things I learned at an early age.

“Quaker State was the oil in every single mechanic shop or car shop in our area. I’m not just saying that because I’m sponsored by Quaker State, but it’s great memories and great that this sponsorship has come full circle for me.”

After the program, it was time for the guests to enjoy dinner and drinks at the hotel before the big day on Sunday – Race Day.

Race Day Arrives And It’s Time To Get On The Buses

Harper distributed the suite passes and tickets in a lobby in the hours before five buses were loaded and departed for Atlanta Motor Speedway. The buses leave on schedule, so if any of the guests are not there in time, the buses will leave without them.

As the five buses are loaded, a police escort leads through the George countryside before arriving at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

After the guests are taken to their assigned suites, they have a chance to relax before the next big event of the weekend, Suarez’s “meet-and-greet” in the suite.

“In some cases, they saw Daniel, he kind of mingled with some of the guests at the dinner and he spoke and then he came to see the same people at the suite,” Brown said. “But as you also saw the suite is more of a more of an intimate meet with the driver than like if they bumped into him at the dinner, it's just not like when you can have that quiet one on one and get the photo and all that.”

Harper believes the pre-race “meet-and-greet” is one of the key elements of the race weekend activation.

Suarez spoke to the fans, introduced the artist that helped design his race car, and posed for photos with each guest.

In The Pits

The next step was a select group of VIP’s were led on a Pit Tour by Day, who gave them an up-close examination of Suarez’s pit area and explained what goes on during the race, including strategy and how a team makes it all work.

For many of these fans and dignitaries, it may be their first up close experience with NASCAR.

“It's very valuable because it’s an authentic engagement,” Day explained. “They’ve bought into your product, they're using your product, and now you're being able to bring them out to an experience that only you can offer.

“There are assets that we receive as the entitlement sponsor that folks can't offer, other brands cannot offer that, that's the value that's driven from these relationships. You have a consumer that is trusting in your product and utilizes your product and you're able to offer them something that's experiential that they don't ever get to receive from some other brand.”

Afterwards, Quaker State officials attended the Driver’s Meeting for another up-close-and-personal experience with each driver in the race.

Afterwards, it was back to the suite and time for the race.

The Home Team Nearly Wins

Suarez did his part by driving the Quaker State Chevrolet to the lead from the 30th starting position. He led nine laps and appeared primed for the victory before a late race caution for debris sent the race into overtime.

Suarez was the leader on the white flag lap but was passed by Team Penske’s Joey Logano on the last lap. Logano went on to win the race, with Suarez second.

It was still a win for the folks at Quaker State because Logano is the fulltime driver of the No. 22 Shell Ford Mustang at Team Penske.

The group of VIP’s that were invited for the Pit Tour and Driver’s Meeting were taken to Victory Lane in the closing laps where they posed with race-winner Logano, afterwards.

Back on the bus, a police escort led the Quaker State buses out of Atlanta Motor Speedway and arrived at the Trilith Guesthouse long before many of the race fans had made it to their cars in the parking lot.

By Monday morning, the guests had checked out and began their return home, with the memories of a great weekend that many of them may never experience again.

Successful Metrics

From a business standpoint, the weekend generated $4.4 million in ad equivalency and over 301 million impressions from the race and supporting activations from data reported by SMI.

A detailed recap book provided to Quaker State by SMI is delivered in the weeks after the race that breaks down all the key economic and marketing details.

“It's a multifaceted event that we pull in for a successful event,” Day concluded. “It's basically the stage or the platform. And then we bring in all the other brand assets to help amplify what's going on with the racetrack and what we're doing that weekend.

“But it's something that lives more than just one weekend of the year. It's a four- or five-month, probably six-month process of promoting it before we ever get on site.”

There is much more than goes into a race entitlement sponsorship of a NASCAR than most fans realize, but it remains a key component of financial success for both the sponsor and the promoter.