Remember when slugger Reggie Jackson was called “Mr. October” because he always seemed to shine during the World Series? Well, it may be completely appropriate to refer to Tim Buckwalter as “Mr. Kutztown”.
On Wednesday, August 28, in the final point race of the season at Foley Cat Action Track USA on the Kutztown Fairgrounds, Buckwalter won his third All Pro SpeedSTR race of the year. That victory did two things for the driver from Douglassville, PA…it clinched his third consecutive (and fourth overall) SpeedSTR point championship and; the win moved Tim into first place on the all-time SpeedSTR win list at the Berks County oval. Oh, and he is also the track’s winningest 600 Sprint racer, and he is a two-time point champ in the 600’s.
And lest we forget, this year’s SpeedSTR point crown, his fourth at Action Track USA, ties him with Billy Pauch Jr. for the most titles in that division.
Delaware’s Preston Lattomus put on quite a show in winning the Hyper Racing 600 Sprint main, while Colin White sewed up his second point championship with a fourth place finish.
Tyler Hoch recorded his third All Star Slingshot triumph of the year as his brother, Dylan, notched his fourth Slinger point crown at the track located across the street from Kutztown University. That ties Dylan with Brett Bieber for the most All Star Slingshot championships at Action Track USA.
And Carter Mullins, who makes the weekly trip to Kutztown from his home in Harrington, DE, finally captured his initial Junior Slingshot victory. While Mullins took Wednesday’s battle, Matthew Laubach won the war, as he nailed down his second straight Junior Slinger point championship
Keith Majka, President of the Atlantic Coast Old Timers and a well known figure in the world of vintage race cars, has secured October 12, 2024 at Hinchcliffe Stadium in Paterson, NJ to be the site of this year's ARDC Reunion.
The first midget race held at Hinchcliffe Stadium took place in August of 1934 and the last event was in 1950.
The stadium has been completely refurbished back to the way it was in its heyday. For more information on Hinchcliffe Stadium go to https://www.thehinchliffestadium.com/.../midget-car-racing
The firm information we have now is the date October, 12 2024. The event will be held rain or shine. As more information becomes available we will pass it along.
If you have a vintage midget you would like to have on display at the reunion, please contact Keith at 551-486-0173, space will be limited.
San Diego has emerged as one of the cities where NASCAR is interested in hosting a future street race, according to people familiar with the matter, as the sanctioning body continues to explore the concept across America.
A source who has spoken with a senior NASCAR executive on the topic confirmed that NASCAR is exploring sites in Southern California. The Sports San Diego commission and the San Diego Mayor’s office both did not respond to requests for comment, while NASCAR declined comment. Meanwhile, NASCAR is said to have spoken to groups in other cities including Cincinnati, Baltimore, Pittsburgh and some from the Pacific Northwest.
NASCAR has one more year left on its contract to race in Chicago. The deal contains options for possible additional years, but NASCAR could elect to move on after 2025 and try the street racing concept in a different city.
NASCAR also explored buying a stake in the Long Beach Grand Prix, according to a report from Racer magazine in March, but was not successful. That NASCAR has explored bids in L.A., Long Beach and now San Diego points to how the racing series is looking for its next place to compete in California after selling off the majority of Auto Club Speedway in Fontana for $544M last year.
NASCAR president Steve Phelps on Austin Dillon wreck: 'We're not demolition derby'
Austin Dillon caused a stir in the Cook Out 400 at Richmond Raceway, which prompted a consequential response from NASCAR.
Coming around Turn 3 and past Turn 4 on the final lap of the race, Dillon spun leader Joey Logano and then hooked Denny Hamlin out of the lead, helping Dillon win the race and punch his ticket to the NASCAR playoffs. Days later, though, NASCAR announced that it was stripping Dillon of the automatic playoff bid, taking 25 points off his season total and suspending spotter Brandon Benesch for three races. Dillon is still credited for the win, while Logano finished 19th and Hamlin still finished second.
On a recent edition of "Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour," NASCAR president Steve Phelps explained the sport's perspective on stripping Dillon of the automatic playoff bid.
"I've heard from drivers over the years, ‘I don’t know where the line is.' ‘Tell me where the line is.’ ‘Can you show me the line?’ I'm like, 'I can't show you the line, but you will know when it has been crossed. So, if you hook someone going 170 mph on a mile-and-a-half track, you have crossed the line, and we're going to park you," Phelps told host Kevin Harvick. "We've been consistent. We've had two of those. Do we want to do that? We don't, but we need to make sure that we are keeping our drivers safe, and when you have a situation like that, it's not safe. I think as we were looking at the data and what happened, it happened so quickly, but you had two incidents in a split second. Turn 3 you had an incident. Turn 4 you had an incident, and then the race was concluded.
"I think the bump-and-run or slam-and-run or whatever it was, I won't suggest that there wouldn't have been a penalty; I have no idea, because you had a second move, and the second move was a hook, in our opinion, which was both the eye test and the data would suggest that's what happened. And then he put a competitor also at risk. Denny took a hard hit … there was a line that was crossed in our opinion."
Phelps felt that NASCAR had to send a message about Dillon's antics.
NASCAR docks Denny Hamlin 75 points and 10 playoff points for engine violation
Denny Hamlin's hopes at a possible first Cup championship got a little bit more difficult after NASCAR issued him a hefty penalty Thursday.
Austin Dillon loses first appeal to Richmond penalty, remains out of playoffs
A three-member NASCAR appeals panel denied the appeal of Austin Dillon, who remains without a playoff berth despite a victory Aug. 11 at Richmond.
"If we hadn't penalized it, then I think what we would see over the next 12 weeks would look significantly different," Phelps said. "We just can't have it. It really comes down to 'what do you want your sport to be?' And that's why I think we ruled the way we did because we're not demolition derby; we're just not. We are a sport that if we had done nothing, we would've opened ourselves up for a mess, honestly."
And on August 26th NASCAR denied a second effort by Childress and Dillon to overturn the penalty.
So why does NASCAR stay with mid-and-late afternoon starts? “I’d say it’s a balancing act, like almost everything that we do here, NASCAR Senior Vice President, Broadcasting & Innovation Brian Herbst told Sports Media Watch on Wednesday. Beyond having to balance the concerns of the tracks, the teams, the drivers, the sponsors and the media partners, NASCAR must also balance two separate groups of fans: those in attendance and those watching on television.
The impact of an earlier start on that television audience is not trivial. For every hour a race is moved back, NASCAR estimates a five percent viewership hit. “If you look at it purely from a data perspective, you’re averaging 3 million viewers per event. That 10 percent from 3:00 pm to 1:00 pm is about 300,000 viewers, just broadly speaking,” per Herbst. A recent example is the annual Cup Series race from Indianapolis Motor Speedway, which gained about 500,000 viewers after moving from a 1 PM ET start in 2021 to a 2:30 PM start in 2022. “If the overarching goal is to drive fan interest in the sport and make sure there’s as many people that are paying attention to your sport as possible, trying to get those 300,000 extra viewers on a typical Sunday is important.”
Sometimes, NASCAR’s media partners will prefer an earlier start to accommodate their other properties; for instance, a 2 PM ET start for Talladega in October to ensure that NBC is able to air its nightly newscast at 6:00. For the most part, however, the trend is toward later start times due to the impact on viewership. Do not expect that to change with the additions of TNT and Amazon Prime next year. The networks, Herbst said, “like to see numbers — and so would we, frankly, on the league side — where we’re drawing in the biggest audience possible.”
Ultimately, even if a race starts early enough to more easily accommodate a weather delay, a rain-impacted race is still a rain-impacted race. In moving up its start times, NASCAR would be guaranteeing itself a smaller audience each week in order to merely lessen – not prevent – the negative impact of a rain-delay. The cost/benefit analysis simply does not work in favor of earlier starts, especially as rain-impacted races are still relatively rare.
When you ask Martin Truex Jr. how his relationship is going with Bristol Motor Speedway, you get an odd look, a smile and finally a chuckle. Admittedly, the relationship needs a little work.
In 34 Cup Series starts at Bristol he’s managed to salvage just three top five finishes, and only five top 10s. When you look at his performance at other tracks it is well above average. For some reason he and Bristol just don’t get along.
“It’s never been my best track,” Truex Jr. said recently. “I don’t go there beaming with confidence, but over the years I’ve had a few opportunities.”
The driver of the No. 19 Bass Pro Shops machine will head to the .533-mile all-concrete, high-banked bullring for the final time as a full-time Cup competitor on Sept. 19 for the crown jewel Bass Pro Shops Night Race. As it stands today, he is in the Round of 16 Playoffs on points. That race is the cut-off race for the opening round of Playoffs and only 12 of the 16 championship drivers will advance to the next round once the checkered flag falls that night.
He would like nothing more than to grab a Playoff victory in front of his longtime sponsor Bass Pro Shops at their title race in pursuit of his second NASCAR Cup Series championship at the ultra-challenging Bristol Motor Speedway, and finally conquer The World’s Fastest Half-Mile.
When you say it like that, it sounds like the ending to a fairy tale.
Truex has seen BMS’s unique Victory Lane high atop the Ballad Health Care Center, just not from inside a Cup car. He won an Xfinity Series race at Bristol in 2004 and also claimed a Craftsman Truck Series victory on the Bristol dirt in 2021. He nearly grabbed that first Cup victory this past March, on St. Patrick’s Day, but Denny Hamlin got in the way at the end.
“We were so close there in the spring, I feel like, and I could taste it,” Truex said. “…Yeah, I guess this tire management thing fit into my wheelhouse.
“Man, the difference was just coming out of the pits so far behind Denny. I had to use mine up more on the last run. The last four, five laps of the race, was cord. (But) I gave it a hell of an effort.”
Should Truex get that Cup win next month he would join an elite list of drivers who have conquered Bristol in all three of NASCAR’s top touring circuits. Those drivers include Mark Martin, Carl Edwards, Kyle Busch, Joey Logano, Brad Keselowski and Kevin Harvick.
“Man, it would be so awesome,” Truex said. “It would be incredible. Yeah, we’ve not had much luck there, but we’ve been getting better at it, I feel like, and in the spring, we ran really strong. It’s going to be a whole new tire situation and everything. Hopefully, we can go there and have a chance. It would be a cool race to win.”
Win or not, after this season Truex plans to set sail in a large body of water somewhere on the planet and throw out his fishing rod. That’s his ultimate happy place.
“Enjoy life, race a little for fun—I’m not sure exactly yet,” Truex said.
A full-feature story on Truex's final visit to Bristol penned by veteran racing journalist Reid Spencer will be included in the souvenir program for the Bass Pro Shops Night Race. The program, in Playbill format, will be available in both print and digital formats.
The Bristol race weekend begins with Ben Rhodes and defending winner Corey Heim battling for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series victory Thursday night in the UNOH 200 presented by Ohio Logistics (Sept. 19, 8 p.m., FS1, MRN Radio). The rising stars in the ARCA Menards Series, including top talents William Sawalich and Connor Zilisch and former IndyCar racer Marco Andretti, also will take on the challenging half-mile bullring in the Bush’s Beans 200 as part of a titan Thursday night doubleheader (Sept. 19, 5 p.m., FS1, MRN Radio).
On Friday, Sparks are sure to fly in the Food City 300, as NASCAR Xfinity Series favorites Justin Allgaier, Austin Hill, Cole Custer, Sheldon Creed and Riley Herbst will be fighting hard in the Xfinity Series regular season finale (Sept. 20, 7:30 p.m., The CW, PRN Radio). Also, remember, Dale Earnhardt Jr. is also going to make his Bristol return at the Food City 300 driving the blue and yellow No. 88 Hellmann’s Chevy.
Finally, the stars of the NASCAR Cup Series will take to the track on Saturday for the Bass Pro Shops Night Race (Sept. 21, 7:30 p.m., USA Network, PRN Radio), you’ll get to see all of your favorite drivers like Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott, Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin to name a few, racing hard in the Round of 16 to advance in the first elimination race of the Playoffs.
To purchase tickets, please visit www.bristolmotorspeedway.com or call the BMS Ticket Sales Center at (866) 415-4158. Fans can also purchase tickets at any Food City location through Sept. 13.
NBC Sports has announced that veteran motorsports commentator Leigh Diffey will serve as the lead play-by-play voice for its NASCAR Cup Series coverage, and he got started with the recent Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway, in primetime on NBC and Peacock, and continuing through the playoffs and season championship at Phoenix on November 10.
Diffey, who most recently served as NBC Sports’ lead track & field play-by-play commentator at the Paris Olympics, is one of the most prolific voices in motorsports. He has served as NBC Sports’ lead INDYCAR commentator for more than a decade, including all six of NBC Sports’ Indianapolis 500 broadcasts, and has handled play-by-play for nearly every major motorsport series, including NASCAR, Formula One, IMSA, Supercross, and MotoGP.
With Diffey assuming NBC Sports’ NASCAR Cup Series play-by-play duties, long-time INDYCAR commentator Kevin Lee will handle play-by-play for the remainder of NBC Sports’ 2024 NTT INDYCAR Series coverage. Lee, whose play-by-play work extends for more than 30 years, has been a host, pit reporter and play-by-play commentator for NBC Sports’ NTT INDYCAR SERIES coverage since 2009, and has handled play-by-play for a number of INDYCAR races this season.
Rick Allen will continue as NBC Sports’ lead NASCAR Xfinity Series play-by-play commentator. Xfinity Series coverage will air on USA Network until the Food City 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway on September 20, when the CW Network assumes its role as the television home of the Xfinity Series.
Allen has called NBC Sports’ NASCAR Cup and Xfinity Series coverage since NBC Sports acquired media rights prior to the 2015 season. Prior to joining NBC Sports, Allen served as a play-by-play announcer for the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series for more than a decade.
Today marks a moment worth savoring, as America’s No. 1 motorsport and the nation’s No. 1 meat snack brand join forces to help race fans feed their wild side. NASCAR and Jack Link’s together announced that the U.S. meat snacks market leader has become an Official Partner of NASCAR through a multi-year agreement set to begin in 2025.
“Much like NASCAR, Jack Link’s built itself from a determined pioneer into a household brand committed to delivering quality to its customers while having some fun along the way,” said Michelle Byron, NASCAR Executive Vice President and Chief Partnership and Licensing Officer. “Jack Link’s fits perfectly as an Official Partner of NASCAR and we’re eager for everyone involved to enjoy the benefits of catering to the most passionate and loyal fans in all of sports.”
As the Official Meat Snack of NASCAR, Jack Link’s will activate across multiple areas of the NASCAR ecosystem including at-track, social and digital media, and radio and television. Jack Link’s will also leverage the NASCAR relationship at retail, as the company continues offering consumers a wide amount of real, high-quality protein snack options that span multiple flavors, formats, sizes and sub-brands.
“Jack Link’s is thrilled to partner with NASCAR, a true icon in American motorsport, and share our passion for quality snacks with their loyal fan base," said Matt White, SVP, Sales & Commercial Strategy of Jack Link’s. "This partnership allows us to bring our delicious meat snacks to life at the racetrack and in retail locations nationwide, fueling fans' adventures with bold new flavors. We're excited to satisfy cravings and enhance the fan experience both on and off the track."
As the rain fell over Michigan International Speedway, racecars sat on pit road with drivers and crews hoping for enough dry skies to get the Firekeepers Casino 400 in between ran showers on Sunday afternoon (Aug. 18).
Without lights at MIS, the window quickly closed, leaving NASCAR to postpone the bulk of the race (stage one had just ended before the rains came for the third time Sunday) to Monday (Aug. 19).
Racing on Monday doesn’t make anyone happy. Many of the fans with tickets can’t stay an extra day. Teams with an already tight turnaround time to get cars to Daytona International Speedway for next week’s action now lose a full day. Television loses viewers and fans at home miss out on watching because many have to work.
So everybody loses. And it’s nobody’s fault … mostly. Kind of.
With so many of the summer’s races being affected by weather, it sometimes seems like an endless loop of delays or shortened events.
While it looks like Mother Nature is not a NASCAR fan, NASCAR and its television partners are also a little bit of the problem.
The insistence on later-afternoon or evening start times is at odds with typical summer weather in much of the country. Mid-to-late afternoon is when showers and storms tend to spin up. There’s a good reason the summer race at Daytona used to start before noon: It beat the almost daily Florida thunderstorms. This week at MIS, had the race started an hour or an hour and a half earlier, fans would have gotten to see a lot of racing and teams would be headed back to Charlotte to get ready for next week instead of spending an extra night in a Michigan hotel.
When you look at the start times of many of the rain-affected races in recent years, there’s a pattern: A lot of those races could have been official on the scheduled day if they’d started at the once-usual 12:30-1:30 afternoon post times. Ratings were at an all-time high well before those start times changed to later hours, so it’s hard to argue the TV rating angle.
Rearranging the schedule can only go so far. It’s already 36 weeks long with two exhibition races tacked on and just one scheduled week off most years — unless the Olympics happen to be going on, then it’s two weeks.
There’s only so much racing that can be packed in from early February through Thanksgiving. There is a finite number of weekends in the spring and fall. You can only move so many summer races out of the summer stretch of weekends. Many tracks are limited by weather. As it is now, there are tracks where race weekends are very chilly, like Martinsville Speedway in late March or early April. NASCAR couldn’t move a track like New Hampshire Motor Speedway or Michigan to February or March even if there was an open date.
Moving Phoenix Raceway or Las Vegas Motor Speedway to the summer months would be equally silly; it’s brutally hot to the point of being dangerous for teams and fans. Those races are kind of stuck on the schedule.
NASCAR experimented with having a few races on Wednesday nights, a viable option for some locations (Charlotte Motor Speedway, North Wilkesboro Speedway, Bristol Motor Speedway, Martinsville and Darlington Raceway are all close enough geographically to make it work). But fans didn’t tune in, and that was that. Same with doubleheader races run at the same track on Saturday and Sunday, which seems like a pretty fantastic weekend for a race fan.
So what’s left?
There’s one more thing NASCAR could do. The 36-race season is ridiculously long, and it wasn’t that long ago that the schedule was 32 races in length.
Cut it back to that.
That would allow a four-week summer break, five if the existing off-week was factored in. It wouldn’t eliminate all the issues with rain, but it allows races to be scheduled outside the worst weather in some places.
You could get half of that, at least, without eliminating races if NASCAR brought back the doubleheader weekend to a couple of tacks. Bristol immediately comes to mind because the cavernous stands don’t fill for two race weekends any more. They might for one with two races. Martinsville would be another option, though a harder sell because it’s date as the final cutoff in the playoffs. Kansas Speedway could host a double. So could Las Vegas.
Two doubleheader weekends would mean still cutting two races. Kansas has been so good with the Next Gen it’s hard to put a target on it, but Vegas could lose one. If Phoenix dropped a race, the title race would be the only race of the year, with no practice race in the spring. It’s not a terrible idea.
The rumored Mexico City/Montreal race is better on paper than in practice, and just not necessary. They were dropped because they were logistical nightmares for teams. Keep it that way. No current track would need to be eliminated completely if four races were dropped from the schedule.
NASCAR could kill two birds with one stone by lopping four race weekends. At least a few of the rain issues could be avoided, and the 36-week grind would be less of one for teams. They say absence makes the heart grow fonder, so maybe a summer break would be a good thing for fans, too, as they return energized for the playoff run.
It couldn’t hurt to try. It wouldn’t be any worse than the status quo.
You just my want to put this one on your calendar. Date: Saturday, October 4th & 5th 2024Mark your calendars—it's almost time for the biggest weekend of the entire season: the 36th Annual Pittsburgher presented by Big River Steel! With $50,000 on the line and the Chase for the Championship cutoff hanging in the balance, the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series is bringing the most talented Super Late Model drivers from across the nation to 'Dirt's Monster Half Mile.' These elite racers will face off against the best local talent, making this a showdown you won’t want to miss.
And that’s not all! The Bill Hendren Memorial for the RUSH Late Model Touring Series is also part of this incredible weekend, with a $10,000 prize up for grabs. This is a Pittsburgh racing tradition you can’t afford to miss—make sure you're there to witness it all!
Don’t wait—skip the line and grab your tickets today at ppms.com/schedule and secure your spot for this high-energy event. Tickets are on sale now, so grab yours early and get ready for an unforgettable weekend of high-stakes racing. Stay tuned for more updates as we get closer to the event.
NASCAR announced The Clash will come to historic Bowman Gray Stadium for the first-time as the opening exhibition event for the 2025 season on Feb. 2. The announcement was made by Ben Kennedy as part of pre-race for tonight’s NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series event at the racetrack. This will mark the first NASCAR Cup Series event at the racetrack in 54 years. The Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium will be broadcast live on FOX.
“Bowman Gray Stadium has a storied history in motorsports, so we look forward to bringing the Cup Series back to this revered racetrack for the first time since 1971,” said Kennedy, Executive Vice President and Chief Venue & Racing Innovation Officer, NASCAR. “As NASCAR’s first weekly racetrack, Bowman Gray Stadium holds a special place as the original home to grassroots racing. With a history of intense competition, we are proud to host The Clash at the ‘The Madhouse.’”
To commemorate the return to Bowman Gray, NASCAR Studios and FOX Sports Films are producing a one-hour documentary entitled The Madhouse: NASCAR's Return to Bowman Gray Stadium that will premiere on FS1. The film will explore the rich and rollicking history of the Winston-Salem venue while weaving a narrative that focuses on preparations for The Clash in 2025. It’s a story that intersects two unique worlds: the biggest motorsports series in North America, and the grassroots charm of small-town America at Bowman Gray Stadium. More details on the documentary, including when fans will be able to watch on FS1, will be released at a later date.
“The city of Winston-Salem is very excited and grateful to NASCAR for selecting Bowman Gray Stadium as the site for The Clash in 2025,” said City of Winston-Salem Mayor Allen Joines. “This further solidifies our city’s relationship with NASCAR and the many fans in the region as we welcome the NASCAR Cup Series back to Bowman Gray Stadium.”
Built in 1937, Bowman Gray Stadium, a quarter-mile short track, holds a special place in NASCAR history as the longest-running weekly racetrack. In 1949, Bill France Sr. and Alvin Hawkins, two founding fathers of NASCAR, brought motorsports to the facility as the first weekly racetrack and first paved racetrack that NASCAR competed on. Earlier this year, NASCAR took over the long-term management of racing operations at Bowman Gray Stadium in partnership with the City of Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
The racetrack hosted 29 NASCAR Grand National, now NASCAR Cup Series, races from 1958 to 1971. Bowman Gray Stadium has hosted many NASCAR legends including Richard Petty, Junior Johnson, Glen Wood, David Pearson, Ned Jarrett, Richie Evans, Jerry Cook, and others. Petty won his 100th NASCAR Grand National race in the 1969 Myers Brothers 250 at the racetrack.
More recently, Bowman Gray Stadium hosted several East Series races from 2011 to 2015. Ben Kennedy, great grandson of Bill France Sr., won an East Series race there in 2013. Other winners include two-time NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series champion Ben Rhodes and Cup Series drivers Ryan Preece and Corey LaJoie.
Current NASCAR Cup Series drivers Alex Bowman, William Byron, Chase Elliott, Justin Haley, Corey LaJoie, Kyle Larson, Ryan Preece, Daniel Suarez, and Bubba Wallace have all competed in their professional careers at Bowman Gray Stadium.
For more information and to get on the list to purchase tickets for The Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium, visit NASCARClash.com. To learn more about the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series season with weekly modified, sportsman, street stock and stadium stock competition, visit bowmangrayracing.com.
If you plan to attend I suggest you bring some warm clothes.
NASCAR announced that it will partner with the national nonprofit We the Veterans and Military Families to support Vet the Vote, a national campaign aimed at recruiting veterans and military families to serve as nonpartisan poll workers across the country this fall.
“NASCAR is honored and humbled to count thousands of military veterans as NASCAR fans and we’re encouraging them to consider once again serving their country this election season as poll workers,” said Eric Nyquist, Chief Impact Officer, NASCAR. “We are committed to doing our part to help address the critical shortage of poll workers in this country, so we’re proud to support Vet the Vote and its vital mission this fall.”
The Vet the Vote campaign was designed to address the historic shortage of poll workers across the country by inspiring veterans and military family members to leverage their sense of purpose and patriotism to serve as poll workers.
The 2022 elections saw more than 63,500 members of the military community raise their hands to register through the Vet the Vote program. Today, that number has more than doubled, with more than 140,000 registrations through Vet the Vote to-date.
“We are thrilled NASCAR is joining the Vet the Vote coalition to support recruiting veterans and military family members to be the next generation of election poll workers,” said Ellen Gustafson, Executive Director of We the Veterans and Military Families. “Vet the Vote has recruited over 140,000 veterans and military family members to serve again in their local jurisdictions since our inception in 2022. We’re proud to have a great American institution like NASCAR as a partner and look forward to collaborating with them in the future to support our elections.”
Typically, America needs approximately 900,000 poll workers to effectively run elections in all states and territories during a presidential election. In 2020, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on an aging volunteer base and upticks in threats of political violence significantly depressed volunteerism, especially among the 60+ year old traditional election volunteer cohort, leading to reduced number of polling stations, longer lines at the polls, increased stress on volunteers, and ultimately, more difficulty voting.
To address this critical issue, NASCAR will join a cohort of 38 national businesses and organizations, including the NFL, Microsoft, and Walmart, in support of the Vet the Vote program.
Through the work of NASCAR IMPACT, the league’s social responsibility platform launched in 2023, NASCAR has strengthened its support for veterans and active-duty service members through partnerships with veteran-serving organizations.
This year, NASCAR launched partnerships with American Corporate Partners (ACP), which provides one-on-one career mentorship for transitioning service members, and Sound Off – a technology-based non-profit that provides mental health support for veterans and other members of the military community.
