Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news, Carol Master, Joe Matthew
Speaker 1: live here at Milkin and it is a race.
Speaker 2: To the finish that was really good.
Speaker 1: We might have saved the best for life.
Speaker 2: The stars for the Johnson and.
Speaker 1: I know, I know. Ben Kennedy is with us. He's
Speaker 1: executive vice president, Chief Venue and Racing Innovation Officer over
Speaker 1: at NASCAR. Jeff Gordon, you know.
Speaker 3: Who he is.
Speaker 1: Introduction needs no introduction, vice chairman of Hendrick Motorsports Hall
Speaker 1: of Famer. Oh my gosh, thanks for joining me. He thanks,
Speaker 1: good to have you here. I'm not sure where to start.
Speaker 1: First of all, when you guys come to Milkin, what
Speaker 1: is it that you want to Who do you want
Speaker 1: to talk to? What do you want to do here?
Speaker 1: You know, well, we're excited.
Speaker 3: This is our first time.
Speaker 1: First timers this year. So how are you like so far?
Speaker 3: It's I mean, it's blown our minds. You know, it's
Speaker 3: just the who's who have everybody and you know, business
Speaker 3: and business leaders. So yeah, it's great to be here
Speaker 3: and be on a panel.
Speaker 1: Well, speaking of business, NASCAR is a huge business. Tell
Speaker 1: us about how things are going, and I'm just curious
Speaker 1: about how you think about the next phase of revenue
Speaker 1: growth for it.
Speaker 4: It's great. We're you know, in our season. So we're
Speaker 4: seventy eight years old. This year blew out our candles
Speaker 4: on that a few months ago. Eleven races into the season.
Speaker 4: Eleven races into the season, six different winners. Jeff was
Speaker 4: in Victory Lane this past weekend with Chase Elliott. So
Speaker 4: we have a good start to the season. And you know,
Speaker 4: it's been a fun four or five years for us
Speaker 4: really ever since COVID. We had a bit of a
Speaker 4: paradigm change, you know, as far as leadership goes. A
Speaker 4: lot of the initiatives that we've been pushing, whether it's
Speaker 4: the next gen car, a lot of schedule innovations, and
Speaker 4: then we had our new media rights agreement that kicked
Speaker 4: off last year, so brought in new partners like T
Speaker 4: and T with Warner Brothers, Discovery, Amazon Prime is covering
Speaker 4: five races during the summer, and it's been great from
Speaker 4: a distribution perspective and giving us an opportunity to get
Speaker 4: to some of those younger audience.
Speaker 2: As one of the greatest drivers of all time, you
Speaker 2: helped to mainstream NASCAR. You made NASCAR households events. We're
Speaker 2: seeing f one experience a moment now, and I'm wondering
Speaker 2: if you see that as competition or if this is
Speaker 2: the rising tide that lifts all boats.
Speaker 3: I mean, obviously their presence in the US has grown,
Speaker 3: so I've always looked at them as totally different.
Speaker 2: It's totally different. But does it actually help you to
Speaker 2: just have more race fans in this country?
Speaker 3: I think is if motorsports is growing, I think everybody's
Speaker 3: growing along with it. So yeah, absolutely, And you know,
Speaker 3: I think that's what we're focused on right is is
Speaker 3: we've got some great characters and storytelling and rivalries Chase Elliott,
Speaker 3: you know, one of the most popular winn in this
Speaker 3: past weekend, a new star in Carson Joseovar. So we
Speaker 3: understand them.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: We're always trying to link our TV partners to our
Speaker 3: fans as well as our partners within the business on
Speaker 3: our race teams, to our drivers and to the storytelling.
Speaker 3: And I think we've got some great momentum right now,
Speaker 3: especially collaborating with NASCAR what they're doing.
Speaker 1: Yes, Well, I want to ask you guys both, how
Speaker 1: do you expand the global footprint? And Jeff let me
Speaker 1: kick it off with you in terms of NASCAR, how
Speaker 1: do you see how do you go about it?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 3: I think a lot of it has to do with OEMs.
Speaker 3: Right right now we're Chevrolet, Ford and Toyota. Your Dodge
Speaker 3: has recently come into the truck series and could expand there.
Speaker 3: But I think it kind of starts with where are
Speaker 3: the OEMs and their footprint And it's always been North
Speaker 3: America for US, and that's been their focus. But as
Speaker 3: if we can bring in some OEMs that look at
Speaker 3: it outside of just North America, I think that could
Speaker 3: be a great start.
Speaker 1: Well, are those talks going on at this point?
Speaker 4: We like headlines, some noise, No, We're excited about it.
Speaker 4: And to Jeff's point, we have always focused on Newilliams.
Speaker 4: So Ram came into their sport this year with the
Speaker 4: truck Series, which has been great, and then Jeff and
Speaker 4: I have been talking about what what does the future
Speaker 4: of NASCAR look like? So primarily a domestic sport, all
Speaker 4: the races of year in the United States. We had
Speaker 4: a race in Mexico City for the first time in
Speaker 4: our sports history last year, which was great on so
Speaker 4: many different levels. Have a lot of interests north of
Speaker 4: the border, and then we have interests abroad as well.
Speaker 4: We worked with Jeff and the Hendrick team on a
Speaker 4: broad fifty six cars, so a car that went over
Speaker 4: to Lama a couple of years ago and I can
Speaker 4: tell you the fans there went nuts over it.
Speaker 1: So we're in the OEMs in Europe or anybody in Asia, like,
Speaker 1: are you talking to you?
Speaker 4: Yeah, there's there's a handful, it's eager to hear. Yeah,
Speaker 4: there's a there's a ton that we're talking to. So
Speaker 4: domestic and then international as well. And I think a
Speaker 4: lot of these different OEM brands, a lot of them
Speaker 4: are consolidating, a lot of them are working together now,
Speaker 4: so whether it is their flagship brand or one of
Speaker 4: the brands that live within their ecosystem, always having conversations.
Speaker 3: I just want to add that, you know something NASCAR's
Speaker 3: down and that we have a next gen or Gen
Speaker 3: seven car. Right now, we're able to go to stadiums.
Speaker 3: We were here at the Coliseum in Los Angeles competing.
Speaker 3: We're going to Sandy, go to a naval base. So
Speaker 3: now we're able to go to places even outside of
Speaker 3: the US and put on a great event, either a
Speaker 3: street course, a stadium course, and I think that really
Speaker 3: opens up the door for more global.
Speaker 2: You mentioned Prime, is that your exclusive streamer? Obviously we
Speaker 2: start looking to the future. The TNT deal is a
Speaker 2: big one, of course, but you need to have digital
Speaker 2: rights at some point. People need to find you in
Speaker 2: different places. Where are you looking for streaming and how
Speaker 2: big can that be for NASCAR?
Speaker 4: Yeah, so we created the Amazon Prime Dealer New Meteorites
Speaker 4: package which takes us through twenty thirty one, so they
Speaker 4: have five races in the summer. They're actually going to
Speaker 4: kick off a Memorial Day weekend for the Coke six
Speaker 4: hundred and it's been great for us so far. What
Speaker 4: I didn't actually realize about it is you're not the
Speaker 4: hold into any broadcast windows or TV windows, so they
Speaker 4: can come on whenever they want and they'll leave whenever
Speaker 4: they want. So they've been really intentional about creating pre
Speaker 4: ratios post ratios.
Speaker 2: Is that an exclusive arrangement, putting a.
Speaker 4: Lot of data into it. Further Cup series, yes, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 4: So they cover those five races and then the promotion
Speaker 4: that they're able to bring as well. If you go
Speaker 4: to the Amazon app or Amazon dot Com on racey,
Speaker 4: you're literally one quick quick away from watching Cup Series race.
Speaker 3: Cool.
Speaker 4: Great.
Speaker 1: I got to ask you about Jeff Michael Jordan. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Michael repetia against Michael Jordan except.
Speaker 3: For winning too much typical Michael fashion.
Speaker 1: What was you know? What is it like having him?
Speaker 1: He's a massive celebrity. I don't even need to say that.
Speaker 1: You know, presidence at you know his presence at the
Speaker 1: ownership level for NASCAR. Just got about thirty seconds of motorsports. Right.
Speaker 3: We've seen him in motorcycles, We've seen him around NASCAR
Speaker 3: races even before he became an owner, but I've never
Speaker 3: seen him as engaged as he is right now. Of
Speaker 3: course they're having a lot of success Atona five hundred win. Yeah,
Speaker 3: but as an owner, it's great to have Michael so
Speaker 3: engaged from an ownership and I think it's only going
Speaker 3: to help the whole sport.
Speaker 2: Girl fantastic Kennedy Jeffson.
Speaker 4: No, it's just gonna say what I love to see
Speaker 4: about it is in Jeff touch On. This is he
Speaker 4: he is truly passionate about the sport. He is a
Speaker 4: fan that's great, a lot of races. He grew up
Speaker 4: going to a lot of NASCAR events, so it's neat
Speaker 4: to see that come out of him.
Speaker 2: Thank you for helping us animate some of the great
Speaker 2: stories that are coming out of milk in here. This
Speaker 2: was fans said Hall of Famer. Yeah, I thank you
Speaker 2: guys Won actually, Jeff Gordon, Ben Kennedy. Great to meet
Speaker 2: you both, and thank you for sharing your insights with
Speaker 2: us here on Bloomberg