Hawks on the scene for historic NASCAR street race
With one of the world’s most recognizable cityscapes in the background, NASCAR drivers in July navigated a thrilling 2.2-mile course in and around Chicago’s Grant Park. And right in the middle of all the action of the first street race in NASCAR’s 75-year history were 16 Hawkeyes.
The students, who were taking part in a summer practicum course through the University of Iowa sport and recreation management program, worked with executives from NASCAR to build promotional campaigns aimed at attracting new Gen Z ticket buyers and TV viewers to future NASCAR Chicago street races. They also traveled to Chicago to job-shadow executives and assist in managing the historic event.
Giana Spilotro, a third-year student from San Diego working toward degrees in sport and recreation management and marketing, says she chose the University of Iowa in large part because it offered opportunities like this.
“I didn’t know much about NASCAR, but I thought it would be a good learning opportunity and super cool to be a part of something that’s brand new,” Spilotro says. “I texted my mom when I was at the race and told her I cannot wait to do this as a career.
“It’s so valuable to get this type of inside look because when I go to look for a job, I have a lot more knowledge of what I want to do and what I don’t want. It gives me an edge. Because of opportunities like these, things that I could have never seen myself doing are now things that I’m thinking about.”
Dan Matheson, professor of instruction and director of the sport and recreation management program, has facilitated practicums in past years related to NASCAR’s Daytona 500. But when he heard about the Grant Park 220 in Chicago, he knew he wanted to develop one specifically for the unique event, which proved successful for NASCAR.
“It was the highest-rated NASCAR race on NBC for the past six years. About 70% to 80% of ticket buyers were new to NASCAR, which was a huge number for them. And social media engagement was five times the typical level for a NASCAR weekend at one of their own tracks,” Matheson says. “Those were a lot of good metrics, and the students got to see how the strategy and goals that NASCAR was aiming for were achieved.”
Matheson says to develop their promotional campaigns, the students utilized resources on campus, such as databases at the University of Iowa Libraries, and contacted executives from organizations such as the Big Ten, including its senior director of football operations, former Hawkeye A.J. Edds, to brainstorm potential partnerships.
“Something that we’ve learned over the past few years working with NASCAR is they’re very interested in outside-the-box ideas,” Matheson says. “They gave the students a hypothetical $1 million budget and encouraged them to think and go big.”
“I didn’t know much about NASCAR, but I thought it would be a good learning opportunity and super cool to be a part of something that’s brand new. I texted my mom when I was at the race and told her I cannot wait to do this as a career.”
University of Iowa alumnus Cole McGinnis, senior manager for licensing and consumer products for NASCAR, speaks to people gathered for the Grant Park 220 in Chicago. McGinnis graduated from Iowa with degrees in sport and recreation management and finance.
The students presented their campaigns to NASCAR executives, including Cole McGinnis, senior manager for licensing and consumer products for NASCAR and a 2016 Iowa graduate.
McGinnis, a Davenport native who received degrees in sport and recreation management and finance, says experiences like this were extremely beneficial to his career, including propelling him to internships with the University of Iowa Trademark Licensing Program and NASCAR Team Properties while he was still a student.
McGinnis and his colleagues were impressed with the students’ proposed campaigns. One that particularly stood out involved NASCAR teaming up with multimedia company Lyrical Lemonade, which specializes in music videos, live events, exclusive content, and merchandise. Lyrical Lemonade also happens to host its hip-hop festival, Summer Smash, in Chicago the week before the race.
“I thought, ‘Wow, they are way better than we were when I was a student,’” McGinnis says. “I think the students did an excellent job of trying to put themselves in our shoes and understand the whole picture and not just the individual project or tasks that they were assigned to or working on.”
The practicum participants included graduate and undergraduate students from the sport and recreation management program, the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, the Tippie College of Business, and the School of Art and Art History.
Alex Economos, a fifth-year student from Des Moines who plans to graduate in December 2023 with degrees in journalism and art, says he has an interest in working in the sports field. He participated in a sport and recreation program field trip in Indianapolis in the spring and then decided to apply for the NASCAR practicum.
His team proposed creating a Gen Z-oriented tailgate event at Chicago’s Navy Pier to help generate awareness and excitement around the NASCAR race. Economos says his interest and expertise in graphic design, photography, and videography came in useful during the project.
“I was able to bring skills to the table that some sports people may not have, and vice versa,” Economos says. “The whole project was about collaboration. Can you work well with a group of people? That’s the ultimate test. The people who can come together are the ones who are going to be successful. And I felt like our group, which included skills from all areas of campus, really meshed well.”
Spilotro’s team proposed that NASCAR team up with the Big Ten to host watch parties during street fairs on college campuses. She says she appreciated that Big Ten executives took time to provide advice.
“We really learned a lot about budgeting, sponsorships, branding, and how much legal stuff goes into planning an event like this,” Spilotro says. “For example, they noticed some issues in our proposal around sponsorships that wouldn’t work with certain Big Ten schools. But it all helped in our effort to develop a plan that is feasible.”
The weekend of the race didn’t entirely go to plan. Record-setting rain led to hours of uncertainty, shortened races, and canceled concerts.
But Matheson says the students benefited from this in some ways, including being able to visit with executives who had more free time than they would have had during a normal race weekend. They also were able to observe quick decision-making and the scramble to pull off events in a shortened time frame.
“I told the students at one point, ‘You’re in a real-time case study right now. You’re getting to watch this all unfold and see how they adapt when the conditions are not ideal,’” Matheson says.
Students had media credentials, giving them full access during the weekend, and were involved in a wide variety of activities: riding along with McGinnis on licensing enforcement sweeps, assisting with photographer credentialing, hosting paid influencers, visiting team garages and pit areas, and attending press conferences.
“When you’re a student, it’s kind of hard to imagine going through the job process, getting a job, doing the work. But when you see people who are not much older than you who went to Iowa and took the same classes you did doing something you hope to do, you see that it’s possible.”
The University of Iowa sport and recreation management program offers many opportunities for students to gain real-world experience in their desired area of interest while also earning semester hour credits.
Economos says his favorite part of the weekend was shadowing a NASCAR social media manager.
“Before the Xfinity race, I followed her across the track and went behind a couple of ropes to an exclusive area where only photographers could be for the race introductions,” Economos says. “I was able to experience this kind of access that nobody else gets. I took my camera out and started taking pictures with a bunch of photographers, and I got some great photos for my portfolio. Seeing what she does on a day-to-day basis on a day like this was really cool.”
Spilotro says she especially enjoyed working with the social media influencers NASCAR invited to the race.
“I was with Snapback Sports, and we followed them around, answered questions, and made sure they were having a good experience,” Spilotro says. “It was really interesting to talk to them and learn about their social media platform because it was a side of sports I had never seen but also related to what I am learning.”
Matheson says experiences like the NASCAR practicum set up students with the skills, practical knowledge, and application of what they learn in the classroom to be job ready in a competitive market.
McGinnis, who recently accepted a seat on the Iowa Sport and Recreation Management Advisory Board, agrees. He encourages students to take advantage of such experiential learning opportunities.
“Those experiences give them a leg up on the competition because they subject them to real-world problems that we as NASCAR employees, or whatever organization they work with, deal with on a daily basis but you wouldn’t see in the classroom,” McGinnis says. “It also gives them a larger network of people to connect with. Not only for jobs, but when they’re in these positions later in life, they have colleagues that they can lean on for advice or to help get tasks completed. And lastly, it’s a confidence builder to go out and be able to pitch these things in front of executives of different companies. It’s definitely a great skill builder.”
Economos says he appreciated the chance to meet and talk to former Hawkeyes like McGinnis.
“When you’re a student, it’s kind of hard to imagine going through the job process, getting a job, doing the work,” Economos says. “But when you see people who are not much older than you who went to Iowa and took the same classes you did doing something you hope to do, you see that it’s possible. It was valuable to talk to him and learn what he did—hopefully, one day we can follow the same path.”
NASCAR’s contract with Chicago calls for three years of racing. Economos says he looks forward to seeing what the second year of NASCAR street racing brings.
“I might not get behind the ropes, but I’m going to try and get there,” Economos says. “Whether I’m working it or whether I pay for a ticket, I want to go back.”
