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