Steve Phelps, NASCAR President on his new role and how he started in racing
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Midway through his third week of overseeing day to day operations at NASCAR, Phelps joined to discuss how he benefited by entering his new job with 14 years of experience (1:30); holding his first “town hall” with NASCAR employees (3:00); the measuring sticks for NASCAR on fan satisfaction (4:30); his background before NASCAR (7:00); why he fell into the business and branding of sports (8:00); the most important difference between working at NASCAR and the NFL (9:30); what he feels his best accomplishments have been at NASCAR (10:30); his roots as a childhood race fan in Vermont (13:00); a fun anecdote about his childhood racing hero and Bill France Jr.’s awareness of him (14:30); the scouting report on NASCAR that he once compiled for the NFL (16:00); a memorable story about Richard Childress (17:00); how radically different could the 2020 schedule look? (19:00); the groundswell of support for short tracks and road course (21:00); what the 5-year sanction agreements would mean for schedule changes (22:30); steps being taken by NASCAR toward enhancing race promotion to help attendance and ratings (24:00); encouraging Cup drivers to race other series while extending an olive branch to short tracks (27:00); on if he is talking to other series yet about more cooperation (28:00); the likelihood of IndyCar doubleheaders (29:00); how “geotargeting” fans works with increasing ticket sales (30:15); the one-stop shopping approach to selling sponsorship in the future (32:00); what the logistics of that would be for teams (34:00); NASCAR’s efforts to help sponsor involvement at the track and with team investment (35:30); why he thinks a full-season sponsor could return for teams (in a limited way) (37:30); the case for NASCAR sponsorship (38:30); his approach to Twitter and how active he plans to be in his role (40:30); do tracks need to do more to supply wifi and cellular access for social media (42:30); the likelihood of a new manufacturer in NASCAR by 2021 (44:00); why Steve’s personal family experiences are a big reason that NASCAR appeals to him (45:30).

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