Texas Motor Speedway president Eddie Gossage is an expert at starting a conversation, and he did so again Friday by hanging a large banner outside the media center.
The banner displays the caricatures of seven young drivers: Daniel Suarez, Bubba Wallace, Ryan Blaney, Chase Elliott, Erik Jones, William Byron and Alex Bowman.
The title? “New Kids On The Track,” which is written in the logo style of the 90s boy band New Kids On The Block.
Of course, the hangup here is all those drivers have a combined one career victory. And aside from 27-year-old Austin Dillon’s win at the Daytona 500, the race winners this season have been 42-year-old Kevin Harvick, 37-year-old Martin Truex Jr. and 38-year-old Clint Bowyer.
That’s noted in a much smaller banner off to the side, which contains an enlarged version of a recent Kevin Harvick tweet:
In case anyone was wondering average age of the winners in the first six races 38.5. #oldguysrule
So what do the drivers think of the NKOTT banner? As you might expect, the reactions varied.
“If you like good marketing, it is good,” Harvick said. “If you like winners, you go for the old guys.”
Harvick quickly added he wasn’t taking a personal dig at the young drivers, but enjoys the debate over the generational divide. The veteran is having fun with it, he said, “and I told (the young drivers) they should have fun with it, too.”
“The dad and kid sitting in the grandstands from two different generations and mom and daughter sitting in the grandstands — (the parents) root for the old guys and you root for the young guys,” he said. “That is great for our sport, it really is. It makes it fun to be able to have that banter back and forth.”
The banter hasn’t been all fun this year, though. Kyle Busch said NASCAR’s young guns push was “stupid” and “bothersome.” And Brad Keselowski told NBC’s Nate Ryan the veteran drivers are jealous of the young drivers’ marketing push — but it was warranted because they never received that support from NASCAR.
Suarez said that’s just drivers competitive off the track instead of on it.
“All of the veteran drivers are very strong; they have a very strong fan base and they have a lot of support,” he said. “They pretty much have the path already made. I feel like for young drivers, sometimes we need that extra push to start making that path and to start building that fan base.”
Ryan Blaney said he found the sign funny, and didn’t get why people try to divide the younger drivers from the veterans in the first place.
“It’s not a rivalry,” he said. “It’s not a competition. I don’t care if you’re 18 years old or 50 years old, we’re just competitors.
“I think it was a pretty neat thing that Gossage did. I laughed at it. I like how it has me throwing up the peace sign, too. I’ve never done that in my life.”
Blaney at least knew who the New Kids On The Block were. Suarez and Erik Jones said they had never heard of them (which was what Harvick predicted would be the case for every driver on the banner).
As Jones noted, he was born in 1996 — well past the prime of the New Kids. But he certainly was in favor of NASCAR helping give the new drivers a publicity push.
“I think we’re just more willing to take some of these opportunities that (the veterans are) not willing to,” he said. “A lot of them have families and want to spend as much time at home as they can, and for us to take a trip to wherever or spend some extra time somewhere isn’t as big of a deal.”
This is the latest in a weekly feature called “How I Got Here,” where I ask people in NASCAR about the journeys to their current jobs. Each interview is recorded as a podcast but is also transcribed on JeffGluck.com. Up next: Lauren Edwards, founder and CEO of Reine Digital.
Can you explain what you do and what Reine Digital does?
So Reine Digital, I founded it at the beginning of 2017, and it is a social and digital consulting agency. I work with a lot of athletes, and especially drivers in our sport and media personalities in our sport. And then I have a couple other small clients on that are more business- and brand-focused, but we really focus on kind of the athletes and personalities.
So Jimmie Johnson is among your clients?
Yes. Jimmie was my first client. I originally worked with Jimmie for five years, helping him with his social and digital and then kind of stepped out on my own and he signed on as a client. Steve Letarte is another client, which has been so much fun. It’s a very different side of things, kind of getting into the broadcast side of things as opposed to a driver.
And then I have a couple other people I’m kind of just starting to work with this year, which is really exciting and new and I’m very thrilled. I’ve actually randomly gotten into wineries and distilleries, kind of the alcohol side of things, which is very different and the laws are crazy — it’s nothing like sports — but it’s been really fun.
Let’s talk about how you got to this point. So you went to William & Mary. Was racing ever on the radar for you?
No. So I went to William & Mary because I wanted to do international economic development.
That’s different than this.
You probably couldn’t get more different of a career path. So I went there to study international relations and economics as a double major. I took both those majors and I was feeling great.
I grew up right outside of Philadelphia. So (former Pocono track president) Brandon Igdalsky’s mom, Looie, lived not far from where we lived and my parents were friends with her. I’ve been really close with that whole (Mattioli) family for years. And so when I was in college, I went up to do a marketing internship with them (at Pocono), just because I felt like it would look better on a resume than being a lifeguard or a waitress or something like that that all my friends were doing.
I was like, “OK, I’m gonna go do this and at least just check the boxes, get some marketing experience.” And I fell in love with it. I was like, “This is amazing. I love it. It’s fun, it’s exciting, I’m good at it.” And so my junior year, I went back to William & Mary and added a marketing degree so I could get into sports.
Some people go to an internship based on the path they want to follow. You did the internship thinking it might help your resume, but then being inspired by that led you down a completely different road?
One hundred percent. My entire high school career and the beginning of my college career was 100 percent focused on government, international politics, economics, that route. And I’m still passionate about that and I love it — and my friends will tease me because I read these really nerdy books about world politics and economies. But for me, just working in it, just being there in the summer and kind of experiencing what the sport was like, I just knew, “OK, now I have a passion for this and I want to do it.”
So what happened next? What was your next step?
When I graduated college, started applying for jobs and there was a position at Octagon (sports marketing agency) that was available. It was actually on the DLP account, back in the day when DLP was on the 96 car. So I took that position.
Hall of Fame Racing!
Yes, Hall of Fame Racing, absolutely. Yeah, that was a really fun account and it was crazy to come into the sport and kind of be with a team, with a car, kind of be with a sponsor, and so I did that for six months. And then that team went away and stopped racing, and so I moved over to the Sprint account.
When I was first on the Sprint account, I was doing more customer relations or customer experience kind of things with Sprint and Sprint customers at the track. And then they literally sent out an email, pretty much company-wide to everyone at Octagon, and they were like, “Does anyone have experience in social media? Miss Sprint Cup needs to be on social media.”
What year was this?
That would have been the end of 2008, beginning of 2009.
So it was pretty early on in the Twitter days.
Very, very early on. And that’s kind of why they sent the email. There were a lot of very smart, amazing people at Octagon — just not a lot of people knew a lot about social media. I mean, Facebook really only started in 2003, 2004, like kind of gaining traction. So I basically was like, “I’ve been stalking people on Facebook for years, I got this.” I kind of fell into it that way and started a lot of the social side of things with Miss Sprint Cup, and just loved it and enjoyed it. It was just kind of my niche that I fell into.
It’s not like you had a bunch of Twitter experience — because nobody did. So you were sort of learning on the go?
One hundred percent learning on the go. It was a lot of on-the-job training. As new platforms would come…it was “Oh my God, is this gonna be the next big app? Is this gonna be the next big social media platform?” So there was a lot of research in the beginning days of what made sense and how things should be.
I remember the very first time Miss Sprint Cup ever tagged someone in a tweet using the @ symbol and it was this big to-do with our clients and we had to have this big meeting about it. And now I mean, it’s just commonplace, that’s what you do. But I distinctly remember the first time we did it, we tagged Juan Pablo Montoya. He had done something, said something in the media and we tagged it, just kind of like a cute little, “Oh hey,” and it turned into this huge thing of, “Can we do this? Is that allowed?”
Lauren Edwards, right, poses with Monica Palumbo during her days working with the Miss Sprint Cup account. (Courtesy Lauren Edwards)
We all look back now and say, “Well Facebook’s big, Twitter’s big, Instagram’s big,” but you didn’t know back then. I remember when Google Plus came along and things like that, people were like, “This is gonna be huge,” and it was a total flop. So is it all trial and error that you sort of taught yourself all these methods with all these various platforms?
So I think one of the things that kinds of helps me is I do love learning, so I’m constantly reading and kind of researching and listening to what people are talking about. For me, I mostly look at the data. So we did dabble in Google Plus when I worked for Jimmie, we had done some things for Google Plus. And while it was a really great platform, it really was awesome, we didn’t see the same numbers that we saw everywhere else even though worldwide.
I’m just a big numbers person. So John Lewensten works with Jimmie, kind of manages everything day-to-day Johnson-related, and when I first started working with Jimmie, John told me, “Yeah, we can just get off Facebook. Facebook is dead, we don’t need it. We can just get rid of it.” And I was like, “No, that’s a terrible idea. Facebook is not dead.”
It’s funny, because you just don’t know. It seems like the trends are going a certain way and we’re used to like MySpace dying and things like that, and against all odds, some of these have stuck around.
Totally. For me, I look at each platform differently, so I look at Facebook and I see Facebook is such a strong click-through platform. So regardless of where your followers fall across, almost all my clients’ click-throughs tends to be higher on Facebook than anywhere else. A lot of that has to do with more people use Facebook on desktop than Twitter or Instagram. So you’re more likely to click-through on a desktop than you are a mobile phone.
It’s changed a little bit since Apple has created the ability to go back to the app that you were on. When they didn’t have that ability, we saw significantly less click-through from any mobile-based thing. I’m getting nerdy on you, but I’m a big numbers person; I’m constantly looking at the data to see what’s working and where our strategy needs to go.
That’s fascinating. So when you were with Miss Sprint Cup, when you’re working on that stuff, why did you feel like trying to work for Jimmie was the next step for you?
Jimmie got a lot of pressure to get on social media and realized very quickly that it was gonna need a full effort between that and building his own website and things like that. And while I loved Octagon and I loved the Miss Sprint Cup program, I just felt like I needed the next step, to do something different, to take something more on. And I liked the idea of working directly with an athlete. With Miss Sprint Cup, she was more of a spokesperson for Sprint and it was more kind of brand-related. I liked the idea of building someone’s personal brand and still working with partners through them.
So that’s really what a lot of my job with Jimmie was, was kind of working with him on the personal brand side of things and opening up these platforms to him and coming up with cool ways to utilize them. And on the flip side, working with all of our partners and everyone that related to the car, his personal sponsors, those kinds of things, and making sure that everyone is super happy and sees the return on the investment that they’re getting from him.
How much of the lessons you learned doing the Miss Sprint Cup stuff applied to the Jimmie stuff? Were you having to re-teach yourself different methods or different ways of conveying social messages, or did a lot of it transfer over?
The big thing, and where I’ve really kind of found my niche in the NASCAR world with Reine Digital, is it’s very different when you’re not the one posting. So a lot of people are running team accounts or brand accounts or things like that within our sport, and they are the voice of the brand; they’re just sending the message that they want.
For me, I’m not the one sending the messages — it’s someone else. And I’m trying to help guide them and say, “I noticed you’re not posting a lot of this; we need to see more of this on your channels,” and things like that. It’s just a different kind of conversation you’re having as opposed to just picking up your phone and being like, “OK, I know I need to send this today.”
At some point, you get to the point where you want to start your own thing. That had to be a big leap — having started my own thing myself, I know that’s very scary. What was the process like to go out on your own? Was there a lot of thought, or was it a clear vision to you that you wanted to do it? How did that evolve?
It was a lot of conversation. Jimmie was the one that encouraged me to do it. He called me from a gondola in Aspen one day and he was like, “I’m on the gondola, and I really think this is the direction you need to go in life.” And we had talked about it with Jimmie a little bit before. Jimmie definitely saw the value and what I could bring to working with individuals, and he had me work with some of his friends, just kind of helping them with their social media throughout the years that I had been with him. And then we just kind of came to this point where we were like, “OK, this can work. This can really be something.”
I was completely terrified. I am very much a behind-the-scenes person. I kind of love my job because I am not out there, and so the hardest thing for me was kind of realizing that in order to be very successful in this business, I have to do a little bit of promotion and kind of put myself out there because I am my business. So that’s been the hardest part of it I think, which is crazy, but for me, that was definitely the hardest part.
But yeah, I think having Jimmie’s support, there’s no way I could even explain how much that means knowing that he has the faith in me that I can do it. I’m like, “OK, well then yes. Of course I can.”
Lauren Edwards poses with Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus after Johnson’s seventh championship.
It’s not like you were breaking it to him and you’re going to leave. Where if he wants to keep the business with you, he’s gonna have to do this. It’s more like him saying, “You’re doing a great job, I have faith in you, I believe you can deliver for other people aside from just me, go do this.” That’s quite a phone call to receive.
At the time I was 29, and I was kind of at that point where it’s like, OK, I need more. I want more. I’m just craving more involvement in other things. I think everyone hits those points a couple times in their career where they’re just like, “Where am I going, what’s my trajectory? What do I have that I feel like I rock and I own?” So that’s kind of how the conversation started. It wasn’t totally out of the blue where Jimmie didn’t just call me up.
I never wanted to leave him, but I was also like, “I know I need more for my own self-fulfillment,” and that was kind of the path that we went down. So it was a really quick process. He called me in January, and by the middle of February, I had the business up and running. So it was fast.
Being on your own now and not only doing all the social stuff you’re doing but being a business owner and having to worry about that, has that all been self-taught?
One hundred percent. I’m sure you can commiserate when it comes to things like accounting that I’ve never had to do before. Like, I don’t know this. So luckily, there have been some really amazing people that have kind of given me some advice and some guidance and kind of helped along the way, and so that’s been awesome. But yeah, it’s completely self-taught.
Luckily, I’m so passionate about what I do and I’m so passionate about the clients that I have and the work that I’m doing with them that it kind of keeps me going. But yeah, as far as running a business, it definitely was never something I had seen in my future — it’s not something I studied, it’s not something I knew a lot about, so I was just learning as I go.
It’s not like you have to go to school and get the degree to learn how to run a small business or something like that. It sounds like if you have the passion and you have the drive to do it, that stuff can sort of make up for it.
One hundred percent. I think finding good people who can give you some advice and can help you along the way, I think that’s really important. I think if I didn’t have the support system that I have with my husband, Jon Edwards, who works with Jeff (Gordon), and John Lewensten, and kind of those people who really give me some support and advice, I would have been lost.
And then a little trial by error, I mean, there are decisions I make and I look back and I’m like, “I don’t know that I should have made that decision,” but at the time, I made the decision based on the facts that I have.
For me, the most important thing is that all of my clients are really happy — and they are — so that matters the most to me. And it’s something that I’m like, “OK, well, the other stuff, we’ll figure it out.” I’m not the only person that started a small business, but I want to be the best in my space in this small business because that’s the only way I’m gonna grow.
Let’s say somebody’s reading this and they’re like, “Wow, that’s a really cool job, I’m good at social media, I feel like I could help people with social media.” Where would they start? What path would you recommend they go down?
It’s crazy because the social media world has changed so much in the past five to eight years. There weren’t jobs for social media really 10 years ago, and now there’s tons. I’m still really involved in the William & Mary alumni system and still work with students there, and I tell people that are looking to get into sports: Working for agencies is great. There’s so many agencies in our sport, and the great thing with agencies is that you get to experience a lot, so typically when you’re working on an account, you’ll have your specific role, but you can always help out other people on the account. So I think that’s really beneficial and you learn so much.
I also think with the way teams are growing and the way teams are managing social media, those are positions that are opening up more frequently than we’ve ever seen before. I think there’s a lot of opportunity there.
I would say the best thing to do is personally, even beyond like where to start, is to become really well-rounded. I think I excel in the strategy side of things and kind of how you best take the content that you have and distribute it, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t not be good at capturing content. So taking photos, taking videos, editing videos, doing graphics, things like that. Yes, that’s not my strong point, but it’s something I really worked to teach myself so that I’m well-rounded for whatever need a client may have.
A couple times on these “How I Got Here” podcasts, people have mentioned agencies. For people who don’t know, can you explain what agencies are and what they do for somebody that has no idea about marketing or anything like that?
Absolutely. So agencies are a fantastic way to get into the sport because basically what they do is they work with a lot of the brands that are in our sport and do a lot of the brand activation. So there are some major brands that want to get involved in NASCAR, that want to be a part of it, but there’s really not anyone on their business team and their marketing team that knows intimate details about our sport. So it’s easier for them to go hire an agency that has a ton of that knowledge and can really help them get the most out of their sponsorship dollars.
There’s small agencies, there’s large agencies, it kind of runs the gamut, but they’re really valuable because it’s a lot of people that are super knowledgable about the sport and can help the brands who want to be involved but may not know anything about it.
Now your agency right now is social media specific, so somebody could hire you looking, “We have a weakness here, we need to pick this up,” and you would help them with that strategy or help guide them in that way, right?
Absolutely. So a lot of the bigger agencies do tend to have every part of the business in NASCAR that you can imagine, so they do everything from displays to signage to activation to hosting and all of that. For me, my agency is much more focused on kind of the social and digital side of things, so anything related to your online presence is kind of where I would fall. And then there are some other agencies that are more focused on just display units and agencies that are focused on hosting and things like that.
So it all kind of depends on where your personal interests lie, but I always recommend people kind of start out at an agency. I also think it’s really important in our sport for people to understand the brand side of things and the sponsor side of things before maybe going to a team or working for NASCAR, doing some other role in the sport, because as we all know, our sport is so heavily sponsor-driven and it’s such an important part of our sport that I think intimately understanding that is important before taking on other roles.
Where do you go from here? You’ve already accomplished a lot and come very far and made a name for yourself in the sport. Where do you see it going?
That kind of changes a little bit day by day as my business continues to grow. For me, I would like to really grow into a smaller agency that really focuses heavily on the social and digital side of things. I don’t foresee this growing into kind of a one-stop shop agency side of things.
I look at a lot of the athletes in our sport and I do a lot of research on athletes in other sports and media personalities, celebrities and I think we do an awesome job in so many ways, and then there are other things we fall short on. And that’s true of any sport, but for me, that’s what I’m passionate about, is saying, “OK, let’s get a lot of our drivers up to speed and let’s help them be the best that they can be,” because these guys are cool and they’re fun and they’re awesome, and we don’t always see that on social. That’s really a passion for me, so continuing to kind of sign drivers, work with sponsors in our sport, work with a lot of industry members and continue to grow into a well-respected small agency.
Each week, I’ll be ranking the remaining castaways from Survivor: Ghost Island by their best overall chance to win the game. Here’s how things look heading into Week 6 (the seventh episode of the season).
Sigh. The Original Naviti tribe members are still completely running the show, as they voted off another Original Malolo last week. Right now there are nine Original Naviti left and only five Original Malolo, so it figures another Malolo will likely go home this week.
To help you keep track, I’ve added a (O-Nav) or (O-Mal) by the names below. These are ranked by best chance of winning the whole game.
Note: If you are confused on which player is which, click on their name to see a photo of them.
Survivor Power Rankings: Week 6
1. Wendell(Last week: 1) — (O-Nav) He’s so chill. Just look at how he bonded with Sebastian (saving the shell necklace) and buried the hatchet with Chris after they were reunited. I really like how he plays the game, and it seems like he’s gathering the power in Original Naviti.
2. Domenick (Last week: 2) — (O-Nav) It seems like Domenick has an itchy trigger finger to make a move, and will surely target Chris the first chance he gets. But for now — maybe until the merge — he has nothing to worry about.
3. Kellyn (Last week: 3) — (O-Nav) Kellyn is the top woman remaining in the game. That said, she’s going to need to somehow start eliminating some of the stronger male threats before they go after her. That won’t be for another few weeks, I’m guessing.
4. Sebastian (Last week: 4) — (O-Nav) He connected with Wendell last week, so now he has an alliance with both Chris and Wendell. That might protect him through the merge. But I can’t see him winning it all.
5. Chelsea (Last week: 5) — (O-Nav) She’s sort of up here by default, honestly. Chelsea hasn’t shown much of a game, but others are playing worse.
6. Bradley (Last week: 14) — (O-Nav) “I thought I was fantastic. I feel like I’m playing an A-plus game,” Bradley said last week. Ugh. There’s no player I’m looking forward to seeing get the boot more than this guy, but with Original Naviti’s numbers, it doesn’t seem like it will happen for awhile.
7. Chris (Last week: 15) — (O-Nav) I hate putting Chris up this high, but he’s on the right side of the numbers and seems destined to make the merge. He’s sure is annoying, though. “For some crazy reason, people think I’m self-absorbed,” he said last week. Ya think?
8. Desiree (Last week: 6) — (O-Nav) She’s a fun player to watch, but is so weak at puzzles. That’s twice she’s blown challenges when it came down to the puzzle. Not a good sign.
9. Angela (Last week: 7) — (O-Nav) Clearly at the bottom of Original Naviti and likely the first to go when they start turning on each other — whenever that may be. I wish she would have flipped on them last week, but I get why she didn’t.
10. Laurel(Last week: 8) — (O-Mal) She’s wise enough to listen to Chris’ ramblings about himself. But I don’t know if that’s enough to salvage her game when she doesn’t have the numbers. It’s too bad, because she’s a good player.
11. Libby (Last week: 9) — (O-Mal) She’s been a standout despite being down in the numbers, but others are catching onto her game. Domenick said Libby is “out for blood” and is “Parvati 2.0.” Bradley seemed to agree, which could make her a target this week.
12. Donathan (Last week: 11) — (O-Mal) Not a threat, which might keep him around longer than others. But he’s still going up against an alliance that is basically unbreakable at this point.
13. Michael(Last week: 12) — (O-Mal) A prime candidate to be the next person to go. He’s clearly made connections despite being Original Malolo (his name wasn’t even considered over James), but he just doesn’t have enough votes.
14. Jenna (Last week: 13) — (O-Mal) She’s basically at the bottom of an alliance with no numbers. Not a good spot for her.
ELIMINATED:
Week 1: Gonzalez (ranked No. 8 of 20 castaways) and Jacob (ranked No. 4 of 20).
What happened: NASCAR dropped the 2019 Cup Series schedule out of the blue on Tuesday. It has no changes from this year’s schedule — all tracks are the same, and in the exact same order. Last year, the 2018 schedule was announced May 23, so this is even earlier.
What it means: There was no fanfare for this announcement (in the past, it was even unveiled on a TV show) because there’s nothing notable about next year’s schedule other than it remains the same. The 2018 version had some significant changes (moving Indianapolis to the cutoff race, putting Richmond in the playoffs, giving Las Vegas a second race instead of New Hampshire), and it’s clear NASCAR believes its current order is a good one. Officials have also been putting a priority on getting the schedule out earlier as part of the five-year sanctioning agreements with tracks to help fans plan their future trips. Of course, the downside is there’s no freshness or exciting new venues, like another short track.
News value (scale of 1-10): Two. As reflected in the way NASCAR made its announcement, there’s nothing really special about the news because there are no changes. It’s the same as this year.
Three questions: Will this exact order of the schedule also remain for future years? Is there any chance of NASCAR adding new venues (MORE SHORT TRACKS) once the five-year agreements with tracks end, or are we kidding ourselves? What’s the holdup behind not trying a midweek race during the summer?
The series of 12 Questions interviews continues with Noah Gragson, who drives for Kyle Busch Motorsports in the Camping World Truck Series. Gragson is currently fifth in the series standings after the first four races. This interview is recorded as a podcast, but is transcribed below for those who prefer to read.
1. How often do you have dreams about racing?
Probably six out of seven nights.
Really? That’s a lot.
A lot. I’m always dreaming about racing. Like daydreaming, too — I always am daydreaming. Like that’s 24/7. I’m thinking about racing all the time.
2. If you get into someone during a race — intentional or not — does it matter if you apologize?
Yeah, I think so. I mean if it’s intentional, then you just throw them the bird out the window and keep on digging. And if it’s not, then I’m the first to come up and say that I made a mistake and just own up for my actions and my mistakes. So yeah, I definitely think owning up for what you did wrong is definitely crucial.
3. What is the biggest compliment someone could give you?
That they thought I did a good job. That’s probably a good one.
That’s not that much of a compliment.
It is to me, because I try my best and I want to do my best. So if somebody’s saying that I do a good job, then it’s coming off good. So that’s key.
4. NASCAR comes to you and says, “Hey, we are bringing a celebrity to the race and we’re wondering if you have time to say hi.” Who is a celebrity you’d be really excited to host?
Travis Pastrana.
Really?
I’m a huge fan of his.
You never met him when he was doing NASCAR?
Well I wasn’t in NASCAR, I was racing Bandoleros.
Didn’t he make a Truck start last year?
Yeah, I met him last year and I got to ride in the van with him to the autograph session. I was fan-boying the whole time, so that was really cool. And then probably if I could meet him again, I want to, just to hang out. I’m a huge fan of Travis Pastrana.
Could you not get the words out last year or something?
Nah, I was just trying to not say a whole lot — just listen to him — because I was just in awe. I just look up to him and try to role-model myself after him.
5. In an effort to show they are health-conscious, NASCAR offers the No. 1 pit stall selection for an upcoming race to the first driver willing to go vegan for a month. Would you do it?
Hell no. I’ll take pit stall No. 2 all day. No vegan for me. I love my junk food and everything.
6. It’s time for the Random Race Challenge. I have picked a random race from your career and you have to guess where you finished. This is the 2016 K&N West race at Orange Show Speedway in San Bernardino. Where did you finish?
Third.
The answer is third.
Hell yeah. I started second.
You started second. You led two laps. Chris Eggleston won. Your buddy Gracin Raz was second, and you finished ahead of Todd Gilliland. What do you remember about that race?
I remember missing the pole barely to Ryan Partridge. And then I was on the outside of the front row; it’s a real tight racetrack. A lot of cautions. I was on the outside on like pretty much all the restarts and then Gracin got me there at the end.
Ryan Partridge was also up front with Chris Eggleston. I think it was Ryan Partridge, Chris Eggleston, then me. And then there was a lapper, Rich DeLong Sr., we were lapping him and Ryan Partridge went low, Chris Eggleston went high, and then Ryan Partridge got taken out for the lead. So that was a big points implication deal for that race. I think it was the third or fourth race of the season.
7. Who is the best rapper alive?
I don’t know.
You’re not into rap?
I’m into rap and I like listening to those rap songs, but I don’t know any of the rappers’ names. I just listen for the beats and the songs. I don’t know. Like Drake’s pretty good. I don’t know all those guys.
8. Who has the most punchable face in NASCAR?
I’m gonna get in trouble for saying this, but probably Austin Cindric.
Just his face, or do you actually want to punch him?
I actually want to punch him. I just don’t like him.
No, I take that back. Austin, he’s not P1. Justin Haley is. I would rock him. And I about did, after he talked a bunch of trash on me after Phoenix (when Gragson wrecked and Haley crashed into him in November). And then I saw him last year, like in person, because I don’t like to get into it on Twitter. I like face to face. And so Justin, if you’re gonna be reading this, it’s coming one day, buddy.
Wow.
I’ve still got one on him. It’s coming. That’s the only person I’ll ever say that about, too.
I can’t tell if you’re serious or not.
I’m dead serious. I do not like that kid with a passion. Sorry, fans, if you like him. I can’t stand him.
9. NASCAR enlists three famous Americans to be involved with your team for one race as part of a publicity push: Taylor Swift, LeBron James and Tom Hanks. Choose one to be your crew chief, one to be your spotter and one to be your motorhome driver.
What does Tom Hanks do?
He’s an actor. A movie actor.
Oh. Like what movie?
He was in Cast Away, where he was on the island with the volleyball.
Not a clue.
He was in Forrest Gump!
That’s him? OK.
I don’t know. Definitely not LeBron, LeBron can drive the motorhome cause he won’t know what the hell is going on. Taylor Swift has a nice voice, so she’d be the spotter. And she can sing to me.
During the race?
During the race. And then Tom Hanks can be the crew chief. He seems like a pretty smart guy. (Does Forrest Gump impression) Jenny!
10. What is the key to finding the best pre-race bathroom?
The closest one. When you’re going to driver intros, you’ve kinda got to scout out the land and see, “Alright, there’s one right there. But if I’m getting out of the truck after we go around the racetrack for the wave lap, we’re gonna end up here. So there might be one closer down there.” So it’s crucial. That’s a big deal. If I gotta pee an hour before the race, I try and save it as long as I can for that one last hurrah.
11. NASCAR misses the highlight reel value brought by Carl Edwards’ backflips and decides a replacement is needed. How much money would they have to pay you to backflip off your car after your next win?
Probably none.
You’d do it for free?
I’ve tried it. I used to race Bandoleros, and I started winning a few races out in Las Vegas. I got pretty ahead of myself there, and I’m like, “Man, I’m winning all these races, I’m the guy at the (LVMS) Bullring.” But they’re racing Super Late Models there and Bandoleros are nothing. So I’m like, “I’m gonna learn how to backflip.”
12. Each week, I ask a question given to me from the last interview. Last week, I interviewed Christopher Bell. He wants to know: What drives you to race? What motivates you?
Just all the hard work that everyone puts in, and when you can have a good run and people notice that and the team notices that. I like seeing all of the joy and smiles on everyone’s faces, and that’s what I love about it. It’s an addiction to be racing. We all do it for one reason and that’s ultimately to win. But for me, I like seeing all that hard work pay off. I know how much time and effort goes in to building these race cars, how much time these crew guys are away from their families, away from their kids, away from home. So I feel like that’s the magic here to all of this, is if you can get into victory lane, everything is worth it.
This is the latest in a weekly feature called “How I Got Here,” where I ask people in NASCAR about the journeys to their current jobs. Each interview is recorded as a podcast but is also transcribed on JeffGluck.com. Up next: Zane Stoddard, NASCAR’s vice president of entertainment marketing and content development.
Before we get into how you got to this point, what do you do now on a daily basis? What are some of your goals now?
We are responsible for all things entertainment-related. We develop content; we are one of the groups within NASCAR that develops content as part of our company’s broader content strategy. So we develop TV, film, digital projects. We work on strategic partnerships with studios like Disney and Pixar in Cars 3 last year.
And then lastly, we work with talent — so we program the performers for some of the pre-race concerts across our tracks as well as getting the celebrities out to our events, which is something that we work hard on and hope that we can sample our sport for these guys, particularly when we’re in the L.A. market.
So right now, we’re sitting in a suite where I understand later today, you’re going to be entertaining the celebrities right here. You have some big names coming out. How important is it for you guys to show the sport to different people who don’t normally see it?
We think it’s very important. Our product is so great, so it’s really just a matter of giving people an opportunity to be exposed to it and sample it. I have not experienced having somebody out who didn’t flip out and think this is one of the coolest experiences they’ve had, so it’s really fun to get them out. And once again, when we’re in Southern California and many of them live here, it’s a little easier than some other markets to get them out. So we think it’s a good thing for NASCAR, along with all the other great things that our company does in marketing, is to get these influential people out, have them leveraging their social media to talk about their experience at our events.
Zane Stoddard of NASCAR. (Zack DeZon/Getty Images)
So how did you get to this point? How did you get to the point where you’re showing up at a NASCAR race and hosting celebrities and you have an IMDB page because you were the executive producer of Logan Lucky and all those sort of things. How did you get to this point?
I have no idea. (Laughs) So I grew up in California. I didn’t happen to be exposed to NASCAR, but I was certainly aware of it. I’ve been a sports fan, every sport under the sun since I was a kid, which I think many people are that work in NASCAR. I had the fortune out of college for working for an NBA team, then Nike, then the NBA league office itself for almost a decade. And so, hadn’t had the exposure to (NASCAR), but being in the sports business, I knew that it was a big, great business, so I had respect for it from arm’s length. And through relationships, the opportunity became available and I jumped at it, and it’s been awesome ever since.
When you get out of college, there’s many people that say, “Hey, I want to work in sports.” It’s not that easy, though. So how were you able to make that first opportunity, that first door open for yourself with the NBA?
I think everybody who’s in sports would agree it could happen 100 different ways. I think the tried and true is through relationships, making sure that you are interacting with people who have the ability to give you opportunities in the space.
Like many people in sports, I worked for free. I started out with the L.A. Clippers in the sponsorship group over there, working for free, hustling up and down the stairs at the L.A. Sports Arena way back when. And then just being in that position gave me the opportunity to develop those relationships deeper and then when the position became full-time, I was the guy that happened to be sitting there and already trained by them.
So developing those relationships and working for free is something that — there’s not many people who will turn down the opportunity to have someone who’ll work for free for you, so I’m a big advocate of that.
So you go from there to Nike, and then when you were at the NBA, you did a lot of the entertainment stuff — similar to what you’re doing with NASCAR. How did you end up on the entertainment side suddenly for a huge sports league like that?
I think just growing up out here and having so many friends who went into the (entertainment) business, not the least of which is my wife, who grew up in the business and has been in the business for 30 years or so. I had a certain level of exposure to how it worked. The process for me was I was really in a more traditional category of the sports business, which is sponsorship, and then went into some level of marketing and promotions while at Nike.
But being in Southern California, it was around the time when product placement and “entertainment marketing” started to become relatively important to brands. It was something the brands were looking at. I started transitioning on my own. I was working with sponsorship, but I still started to develop some relationships with bands and then some productions and started to develop or generate some opportunities with Nike to be in movies, to be in music videos and some of those things.
So when I went to the NBA, I was there all of six months in the consumer products group (in New York), which is your traditional line of marketing within sports. And with the help of some others, I proposed that we open an L.A. office. They had moved me out from Southern California. I was there six months, I literally just found an apartment and started proposing an L.A. office in the entertainment marketing division.
And just the timing was good because, as I said, brands were starting to check out entertainment to promote themselves and so David Stern signed off on it and sent me back out to L.A. I literally had just gotten my stuff off the moving van, put it back on the moving van, and moved back out to L.A. and opened a small office out there and did that for a decade.
At that time, it became full-time, the entertainment marketing opportunity, and it was new, so I could try some new things and kind of figure out through mistakes and what worked and refine it.
Certainly the media landscape is changing, as everybody knows, so you’re constantly changing things like any category of business. But when I got to NASCAR, I was able to apply some of those learnings even though the sport is a little different, the cadence of the season and ability to shoot at the track and things like that are different from sport to sport, but the application within entertainment is the same.
How do you first have successes with celebrities or movies? Do you contact 100 celebrities and if you get five to say, “Yeah, we’ll come to the race,” that’s a success? How does that even begin to work?
(Unlike) other forms of marketing, generally speaking, we don’t spend money, and so we can’t just buy a billboard and expect the billboard to be out. There is a heavy element of speculation in it, so to be speculative we do have to develop a certain number of TV projects, for example, in order to get one to hit. And we do have to invite a lot of celebrities in order to get a certain number to come, and that’s part of the drill.
We have a great group out here, it’s by far not just me. We have gotten very strategic about it so we can at least reduce some of the fat. Entertainment marketing can be a lot of spending a lot of money, there are a lot of brands out there that spend money to get a suite at a hotel to give a bunch of swag to celebrities. We don’t do that. We try to do things that are as quantifiable as possible. You have to be able to translate it to something that is quantifiable and address the strategic direction of the business, and so we try to be as sophisticated about it as possible. I think we do a fairly good job of that.
You’ve had a lot of success recently from Cars 3 and Logan Lucky. It seems like there’s a lot of projects in the pipeline from what I’ve read from Adam Stern’s tweets and things like that. How do you guys define success in your role? What is a good day for you guys?
A good day is generating opportunities that meet our strategic needs. Just by the nature of what we do, we’re leveraging other people’s platforms, so inherently, the things that NASCAR does in entertainment is gonna get in front of new audiences. So any time we can get in front of new audiences and then even more defined, some of the younger and multicultural audiences that we’re going after, is a win for us. Within that, underneath all that, we have certain goals based on metrics that we go after. So we try to be as targeted and surgical as we can with what we do.
If somebody wanted to follow your career path and is like, “Wow, this sounds really cool, I love sports, I love NASCAR. I’d love to sort of spread the gospel and get involved in TV projects or movie projects and have celebrities come.” What advice would you give them? Where would they even start?
There’s so many companies now that invest in entertainment marketing. They either have an entertainment marketing person, or they have a group that does it, particularly the major Fortune 500 brands like Coca-Cola — they have folks who are dedicated to entertainment marketing.
When I was starting, it was quite niche. Nowadays, there is a career path for entertainment marketing. The agencies have groups or divisions that represent brands in entertainment marketing and will develop programs for the brands they represent in entertainment marketing. Obviously there’s some of the sports properties that are dedicated to it, as I mentioned, most of the major consumer brands are committed to entertainment marketing, so they have groups that do that.
We will often sort of joke that we’ll get the fill in the blank, the (reality show) Housewives out to a race. And understandably, you might have some people in the halls (of NASCAR) grumble, “Why are we doing stuff with the Housewives?” And I always say, “We don’t really care about the Housewives, we’re going after their audience.” Because it’s Bravo and it’s millennials and it’s a relatively progressive audience.
Each week, I’ll be ranking the remaining castaways from Survivor: Ghost Island by their best overall chance to win the game. Here’s how things look heading into Week 5 (the sixth episode of the season).
Right now, the members of the Original Naviti tribe (nine players left) are running the game and sticking strong together. They’ve been quickly picking off the Original Malolo members (six players left), forcing yet another tribe swap this week. Because of that, I’m now going to add a (O-Nav) or (O-Mal) by the names to help keep track of the balance of power.
Note: If you are confused on which player is which, click on their name to see a photo of them.
Survivor Power Rankings: Week 5
1. Wendell(Last week: 2) — (O-Nav) There’s something I like about Wendell that I can’t really nail down, but he seems to just be playing a smart, under-the-radar game so far. That said, he hasn’t really been tested yet.
2. Domenick (Last week: 3) — (O-Nav) I’m leaving him up here as a pair with Wendell. They could really run the game if Original Naviti sticks together and then they end up with the stronger half of that tribe.
3. Kellyn (Last week: 5) — (O-Nav) Kellyn showed a great deal of emotion last week in voting Stephanie out, but she stuck to her guns anyway and made the right move for her game (and her alliance). At some point, I think she’ll start making some bigger moves.
4. Sebastian (Last week: 13) — (O-Nav) He showed some consideration of listening to the other side, which could be a sign for later. And he’s with a strong group for now. But he seems like a physical threat and could be targeted around the merge time.
5. Chelsea (Last week: 8) — (O-Nav) She has the numbers, but she hasn’t shown too much of a game so far. That said, there’s no reason for someone to take her out at this point.
6. Desiree (Last week: 9) — (O-Nav) She’s played a quiet game. Like Chelsea, she’s with a strong alliance that has no incentive to consider her a threat in the near future.
7. Angela (Last week: 12) — (O-Nav) Honestly, she sort of floated up here based on having the numbers. But she seems to be toward the bottom of Original Naviti once it starts to fracture (Wendell and Domenick already tried to boot her earlier).
8. Laurel(Last week: 4) — (O-Mal) After rising in the rankings, I have to drop Laurel purely based on the weak numbers of the Original Malolo tribe. She’s playing a great game, but how is she going to break through that tight-knit block of Original Naviti?
9. Libby (Last week: 11) — (O-Mal) Libby played well after being swapped over to Naviti, but there’s concern over how this upcoming shakeup will affect her game. Given she doesn’t seem to have the numbers, making the merge is no sure thing.
10. James (Last week: 10) — (O-Mal) If the trend of picking off Original Malolo continues, he’s a convenient target.
11. Donathan (Last week: 14) — (O-Mal) He’s made connections, and his lack of strength combined with people constantly underestimating him will only help his chances of making the merge. Still, he’s definitely in the minority group.
12. Michael(Last week: 7) — (O-Mal) He’s been fun to watch, but he’s an endangered species right now given the lack of a big alliance. Maybe he can use the wise-beyond-his-years game to make it to the merge as a swing vote, but he’s running out of lives.
13. Jenna (Last week: 6) — (O-Mal) It’s clear anyone from Original Malolo is not in a good spot right now, and she hasn’t shown enough game play to be considered a serious contender.
14. Bradley (Last week: 16) — (O-Nav) I still can’t stand Bradley, but he definitely has the numbers to make the merge. Once there, hopefully people will turn on him.
15. Chris (Last week: 15) — (O-Nav) Whoa, this dude is really good at challenges. And he has made it further than I thought after some early missteps, even reaching out to Donathan last week. Still, what Survivor winner has ever said: “I’m a diamond in the rough — do you see me glow?” He’s way too big of a target to win.
ELIMINATED:
Week 1: Gonzalez (ranked No. 8 of 20 castaways) and Jacob (ranked No. 4 of 20).
