Transcript

The transcript below has been lightly edited for readability and clarity. Click any starting timestamp to jump to that exact point in the YouTube video.

Podcast Introduction

[00:00] Don Costante:

Welcome to the Rundown Podcast hosted by Don Costante, a sports and event management expert with over 25 years experience. This unique podcast provides an opportunity to hear from some of the best professionals in the industry. You’ll get valuable insight and perspective on what it takes to deliver authentic experiences, activate brands, and most importantly, connect with audiences. All on the Rundown Podcast. Let’s get started.

The Daytona 500: The Great American Race

[00:27] Don Costante:

The sports industry is filled with exciting marquee events that take place once a year, including the World Series, Stanley Cup, Super Bowl, NBA Finals, the Masters, and more. All of these events are bucket list type of events that provide once in a lifetime experiences. But there’s one sporting event that goes beyond the traditional fan engagement and totally immerses its spectators into the fabric of their brand like none other. The Daytona 500, also known as the Great American Race. This event is more than a motorsports icon, but rather an entertainment destination that provides unprecedented access to its facility and drivers on race day. Today’s guest is Sean Belgrade, Managing Director of Consumer Experience for NASCAR. Sean has oversight of the fan experience for the Daytona 500, as well as various year-round events that take place at NASCAR-owned track properties. His employee and fan-centric views have proven successful in delivering best-in-class experience and operational excellence at NASCAR events. Due to the enormous scope of the Daytona 500, my discussion with Sean is focused entirely on the pre-race activations. In this episode, Sean shares his event presentation philosophy and takes us behind the scenes of the Daytona 500,

Meet Sean Belgrade

[01:45] Don Costante:

uncovering logistical details that have elevated the fan experience to mirror the prestige of the race itself. During our conversation, we cover preparation, immersive experiences, sponsor activation, driver introductions, and much more. I’m ready to get started. Let’s meet Sean Belgrade. Hi, Sean. Thanks for joining me on The Rundown.

[02:07] Sean Belgrade:

Thanks, Don. It’s a pleasure being here with you today.

Sean Belgrade’s Career Path

[02:09] Don Costante:

We have a lot to cover today, so I’m going to get right into it. You have over 25 years of experience in the sports and entertainment industry. Please take a moment and share your career path with our

[02:20] Sean Belgrade:

listeners. Wow. The time certainly flies there, Don. It sure does. Well, I spent my college years actually at the University of Florida, where I graduated with a degree in sports administration, which is really all they had to offer back then. While I was at Florida, I was also a four-year scholarship tracking kind of cross-country athlete. So I was constantly around sports and knew that that was my path. When I graduated, I moved to Orlando, Florida, where I had an internship. I did that with the Florida Citrus Sports Association down there. They were the promoters of the New Year’s Day bowl game, the Florida Citrus Bowl. It actually turned into my first job. I was a special events coordinator there. We promoted several types of sporting events, from college football games to college basketball, baseball tournaments, preseason NFL games, pep rallies, parades, you name it. We were typically doing it. Moved from there to the Anheuser-Busch theme parks. Actually helped promote SeaWorld and Busch Gardens as a promotions manager, helping drive their daily park admission, managing their and promoting their special events in the park, and ultimately selling some sponsorship. It wasn’t until around 1997, yeah, I started with International Speedway Corporation, we call ISC. At the time,

[03:21] Sean Belgrade:

they owned three racetracks. NASCAR was their big events that they ran. I was the director of promotions. Eventually, I moved to our lead corporate sales role for all the racetracks a few years after that. By then, we had actually owned 12 racetracks, so it grew substantially during that time period. I spent two years at the Daytona National Speedway in the early 2000s as the VP of Sales and Marketing, and then also moved back to ISC to start a consumer marketing department in the early 2000s, and then ultimately ended up back at the Daytona National Speedway in 2010, where I served as Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing, overseeing all our revenue, advertising, on-site content event presentation until April of 2020, at which I moved to NASCAR, where I’m currently the managing director of consumer experience, where my key responsibilities now really include inspiring a group of people across the company who focus on enterprise-wise best-in-class event experience deliverables and operational excellence across our NASCAR events, as well as other year-round events that may occur at our track properties.

Event Presentation Philosophy

[04:18] Don Costante:

Wow. Quite a laundry list of great experiences there. As managing director of consumer experience, you have oversight of the event experience for the Daytona 500, as well as the rest of the NASCAR-owned tracks. Before we start into our discussion specific to the great American race, will you share your philosophy on event presentation?

[04:37] Sean Belgrade:

Sure. And I would say my philosophy is really in alignment with our company philosophy, in which our goal is really to provide meaningful, immersive experiences to all our guests from the moment they arrive on our properties to the moment they leave. Our fans will always come first. People aren’t just buying a ticket to a NASCAR race when they come to our events. We want to make sure they’re completely immersed in an all-day experience in whatever way they wish to spend their time with us. We want every event to feel big and need to provide value for those customers. We don’t want it to be just a race. We want it to be an event. We’re in the hospitality industry and we must make our guests constantly feel welcome and entertained throughout their visit with us.

Don’s Daytona 500 Experience

[05:13] Don Costante:

Well, I can tell you, I’m excited for today’s discussion. In 2017, I attended my first and only Daytona 500 and was blown away by the experience. Not knowing what to expect, I honestly can say that the event far exceeded my expectations. So during our conversation today, I want to focus on pre-COVID. At the end, we can touch on the impact that

[05:32] Sean Belgrade:

COVID is going to have on this year’s event. Sound good? That sounds great. And certainly a lot easier to

Daytona Rising and the Fan Experience

[05:37] Don Costante:

speak to pre-COVID as well. No question. So let’s go back a few years. In 2016, NASCAR completed a $400 million renovation at the Daytona International Speedway titled Daytona Rising. This renovation took place because it was determined that the in-stands experience was not living up to the prominence of the Daytona 500 race itself. So can you share the consumer pain points that led to the renovation? And how did you make the fan experience rise to the prestige of the Daytona 500 race?

[06:10] Sean Belgrade:

Sure. I’d be happy to do that. You picked a great year to come. The year after we actually renovated the property. If you’d come two or three years earlier, I think your experience would have been different. For years, Forbes has actually ranked the Daytona 500 as one of the top 10 sporting events in the world. The racetrack and the property opened in 1959. We’ve added and changed parts of the property over the decades. The racetrack’s really never changed. We’ve repaved it a few times, but the geometry of the track has stayed the same. The race has been always been super competitive. It’s delivered to that top 10 edge of your seat, top 10 event. However, as you mentioned, the customer experience was certainly lacking. We had a property that was nearly 60 years old, old seats, and they were not comfortable. Trust me. Small person next to you is typically in your area. Minimal leg room. In some places, we even still had some wooden bleachers, believe it or not. And they were bleachers. So if you’re walking underneath, things could fall from those bleachers below. And we also had a seating area that was almost a mile long. So think of that, a mile long. So people had lots of walking,

[07:06] Sean Belgrade:

lots of stairs to climb. And I’m sure you saw this. In motorsports, actually, the best seats on our property are the highest seats, okay, and closest to the start finish. So we were making our best customers walk up all those flights of stairs where they had minimal, smaller concourses to go through. And so you think of where you sit, it’s very different than stick and ball sports. Restrooms were old, and we’ll just leave it at that, okay, on the restrooms, okay? The concourses we had, they weren’t very wide. The concession stands were real small, didn’t really have enough of them, and we had very limited technology. So if you kind of sum things up, then I’ll kind of go through some of the changes we made. The seating area was a real challenge. We now have 100,000 individual chair back seats with plenty of leg room. So very different experience that we had prior to. The restrooms that I mentioned, we now have a lot more modern restrooms and a lot more of them. The walking became a challenge for people. So if you think of a term we used a lot during that process was vertical transportation. We had lack of vertical transportation. We now have over 40 outdoor escalators, nearly a dozen elevators. The concourses were very small. We now have three

[08:07] Sean Belgrade:

massive, large concourses. From a technology standpoint, we really didn’t have any Wi-Fi or accessibility. Cell phones were challenged. We now have Wi-Fi through all of our concourses, charging stations throughout. The food and beverage points were far and few between. Now we have several branded food and branded bar locations. Out front, we now have a Midway, which before was way over in the corner and grass. And if it rained, our merchandise haulers and corporate displays were real challenged. And we now have three quarters of a mile of a paced and landscaped area, which everybody has to access when you come on the property. And one of the worst things you would have seen is our back of house was actually our front of house. And so when you entered the ground level, we had golf carts and cars passing by. The ground sometimes wasn’t very even. So we now actually enter through a concourse level. We have five main areas where you enter. I think before we had up to 15 or 20 different gates. So easier to manage. They’re all named. We have naming rights on every one of those. We call those our injectors. And those companies then actually help build out interactive exhibits within the property

Why the Daytona 500 Is So Prestigious

[09:07] Don Costante:

itself as well. You’re right. I picked the right year to get there in 2017. Now the Daytona 500, as you mentioned, is one of the most recognized sports brands in the world. For those who might not be familiar with the great American race, can you please take a moment and just provide a general overview of the event and why this is considered the most prestigious and important race in NASCAR?

[09:27] Sean Belgrade:

Wow. I think I could talk for a while on this one, Don, but I’ll try and keep this a little brief here. But the event is massive. The facility is huge. We sit on over 600 acres of land. We could actually fit every professional stadium in the state of Florida and most of the college stadiums inside of the track. It’s that big. The stands span almost nine tenths of a mile. And for those for the first time who’ve never witnessed it, NASCAR starts the season with the Daytona 500. So it’s our Super Bowl. Okay. It’s the biggest race of the season. We have thousands upon thousands of fans who literally camp on site anywhere from a few days to several weeks, depending on where they’re staying on property. It’s the largest TV rating by far in our sport, the largest purse for any driver or owner, the most coveted race by far as well. So many different ways to experience it in person. And I’m sure you saw that. We program nearly every part of the property. So you’ll be completely immersed no matter where you’re at. We have attendees from all 50 states and probably over 40 foreign countries in any given year. We also, we don’t have a race winner here at Daytona. We have race champions. We use the word champion to define this as a victory in the Daytona 500. We’ll define a driver’s

[10:29] Sean Belgrade:

career, the history and tradition of previous champions on event day. We celebrate the past and the traditions and the future all over the property. There’ll be nearly 150,000 people in attendance, huge numbers of C-level executives, lots of pro athletes and celebrities will also be attending. It’s often the most competitive race in the world. This is the top race. You feel like you’re walking on hollow ground when you walk on a property too. It’s that Americana. It’s a bucket

Planning the Daytona 500

[10:53] Don Costante:

list type event. That for me, exactly. That’s exactly what it was. It was a bucket list. And I was very lucky to be able to check that off. I want to talk and get into preparation. As you mentioned, planning an event of this stature is such a huge undertaking for any organization. And as you mentioned, the Daytona 500 is NASCAR’s first event of the season and takes place annually in February. So when do you start the planning process for this major event and who’s involved in that process?

[11:17] Sean Belgrade:

Good question. So typically we’re 15 to 18 months prior to the race. If you think about that, we’re planning right now already for the next year in 2022. Okay. And so we’ve got to be that far ahead. We have many group groups, stakeholders that are involved in that from NASCAR senior management to competition. Scheduling is obviously an important part of it. Our marketing teams to make sure we’re positioning the event content teams. And then also when you think about just the sure magnitude of the event, our operations and security groups, and really our entire event experience teams. Plus, we got to take our broadcast partners in mind too. So all those really are key people that are in the planning part of it. And the other thing is due to the size of the event and its importance in our community and at the state level here, we’ve got to make sure we’re coordinated with those stakeholders, both locally and at that level too, because this event will have impact on the area and the region in a big way for resources. And as you can imagine, it’s a huge economic driver locally and throughout the state. It has Superbowl impact every year to the state of Florida. Wow. Now you mentioned C-level

Collaboration With Ownership and Senior Leadership

[12:14] Don Costante:

being involved. How much collaboration are you having with ownership and other senior level personnel within NASCAR in the development of the vision for the programming each year? I’d say there’s some

[12:24] Sean Belgrade:

collaboration with several of these groups, including ownership too, Don. This level, it may vary a bit depending on the group. Also, all depends on what we’re going to do too. If we plan on making any large changes, then that’ll involve them a bit more. The groups do a great job of giving us feedback each year. If there’s anything we may have overlooked or ways we can improve or change things, we certainly do that ourselves too. Also, like I mentioned, if we’re going to make any dramatic shifts, we want to make sure that senior management and ownership is aware of those and is in alignment with it as well.

Developing New Race Day Programming

[12:53] Don Costante:

I see. So when it comes to race day programming, are you repeating your format each year or are you adding in new concepts? And if new concepts are added, what’s that process like for generating the ideas? I’d say kind of both, to be honest with you. And it depends on what parts of the, from a

[13:08] Sean Belgrade:

programming standpoint, they’re parts that we, we may repeat like our driver intros or the way we’re positioning our concert. We also try to incorporate some new elements where need and appropriate all over the property. As I mentioned, these typically will come from feedback from various team members, our staff, senior management, actually through fans. We do customer satisfaction surveys. So we get feedback back from them. Then we get unsolicited feedback as well. We get input from other industry stakeholders. We also try to sit down with our various agencies and other stakeholders in the sport and ideate new things for the coming year as well. So it’s kind of a little bit of everything.

Challenges Leading Up to Race Day

[13:41] Don Costante:

Yeah, totally understand. Now, aside from COVID, what’s the biggest challenge or obstacle that you’re facing leading up to the race day? Well, you mentioned the big one that, and really all the

[13:51] Sean Belgrade:

new protocols are by far the largest obstacles. However, for this year’s events, I’d also include the amount of events that we’ll be hosting from really starting this weekend through February 21st. We also have gone through on the past year, a merger with NASCAR. So we’ve got some people in some new roles. And so those people going through the first time we’ve also changed the schedule. We added another race weekend to be at another location in a state that wasn’t a good time. So during that time period, we have to change over from the oval to the road course. So from a two and a half mile race to a 3.5 mile race. And so that impacts our operational teams. And you think of a plan that goes into that, but also impacts our guest services groups as there’s different vantage points on where fans would want us to sit and view based on the type of event that we may running, whether it’s on the oval

[14:36] Don Costante:

or the road course. You made a great point that I meant to bring up when you’re talking about the planning, you’re not just planning for the one race day. I mean, you guys have a week long. And as you just mentioned, you’re already into the process for this year’s events. It’s crazy. It’s just tremendous

[14:50] Sean Belgrade:

amount of planning. This track does not sit idle. The Daytona 500, you’re right. While it may be a one day event that week, we’ve got over, I think five or six NASCAR races that lead up to the Daytona 500. So we got many chances to kind of get it right. And the last day when we’re all really tired is our

Immersive Fan Experiences

[15:07] Don Costante:

biggest day. Yeah. Let’s talk about the fan experience. NASCAR has done such an amazing job of finding ways to immerse fans into experiences that allow them to engage and play with the brand. Can you take just a moment and share some of those unique race day experiences that are available to

[15:24] Sean Belgrade:

those attending the Daytona 500? Would be happy to. Now we’re going to talk about normal year,

[15:28] Don Costante:

like we said before. Okay. Absolutely. One thing that NASCAR prides itself,

[15:31] Sean Belgrade:

on is accessibility. Okay. And the Daytona 500 is no different. I’m sure when you were here, you saw we allow our fans to upgrade their experience and actually walk on the racetrack, sign the finish line prior to the start of the race. It’s nuts. It’s crazy. So think about that. What other sport allows you to walk on the court or the field prior to the biggest moment that they have too? Yeah. We allow our fans to slap hands when the drivers, as they’re introduced, they can actually peer into their garages, which is really akin to the locker room moments before they go racing. Be front row for an A act from a concert standpoint as it leads into the race. They get to get close to the cars on pit road to take photographs. We also, as I mentioned earlier, allow our fans to camp on property in many different ways for different periods of time. For example, we may have different segments of people that come with their upscale RVs all the way down to tents. We’ve also recently even allowed a handful of people to purchase what we call like a VVIP experience, Don. And that includes, we actually assign them a personal concierge for the day. They have access to all our high-end clubs, which the concierge takes around. They get to attend the

[16:35] Sean Belgrade:

National Cup Series drivers meeting with all the drivers and crew chiefs prior to the event. A meet and greet with a concert performer. We put them in a pace car to go for a ride around the track at a hundred miles an hour. We get in the VIP seating for the race and that’s all inclusive. And I’d mentioned earlier, we also set up an interactive midway that all our guests, you got to walk through that. You probably saw it as you enter the property.

[16:55] Don Costante:

I did, yeah.

[16:56] Sean Belgrade:

Midway’s full of interactive exhibits from our largest sponsors, merchandise, trailers. We have TV, radio sets, static exhibits, interactive stunt shows, food trucks, and many more. And what we also have is a good fortune of having access to a bunch of our drivers, the stars of our sport, who make themselves available for appearances around the property hours before they’re getting ready to get in the race cars and go racing. Unbelievable. There’s a lot in that that you just talked about.

Technology and the Race Day Experience

[17:21] Don Costante:

We could probably have an entire podcast interview just on the immersive experiences that you can have at the Daytona 500. So in this next question, you’ve kind of touched on it already, but what current technology is being utilized to enhance the race day experience?

[17:35] Sean Belgrade:

So we now have Wi-Fi throughout all the concourses within the venue. Also, that expands to all of our camping areas. So it certainly helps those people that are staying on property for a long time and in our midway too. This has been a huge change, allows people to have access to things that are accustomed to doing at home. We’ve added a much larger distributed antenna system to ensure people can have access to their cell phones if they’re calling in or calling out. That was a real challenge years ago. We had so many people in a small area and trying to get out was very difficult. Racing Electronics, which is one of our companies, allows fans actually to rent or purchase scanners so they can listen to the drivers actually talk to their teams during the race. So think about, that’s the equivalent of listening to the head coach or office coordinator call plays in football. Right. This past year, we’ve actually collapsed a lot of our mobile track apps into the broader NASCAR mobile app. We’ve executed several actually virtual experiences over the past year during the pandemic. So here I am bleeding that into that. And I anticipate some of those even continuing to 2022 and beyond as we get into those two. And we’ve also moved mostly to a mobile ticketing platform, which most teams

[18:32] Sean Belgrade:

have as well, but we’ve certainly been able to do that as well. Now, broadcast partners are so important,

Live Attendance Versus the Broadcast Experience

[18:37] Don Costante:

but they can also be seen as a competitor by some people simply because they can influence fans to watch from home versus coming to the stadium. So what are some of the ways that you’re enticing fans to leave the comfort of their homes to engage in person outside of the immersive experiences that

[18:52] Sean Belgrade:

you’ve already stated? Well, I would say we’ve got a great work in relation to broadcast partners. We don’t view them as competitors to our live experience. I know one could certainly think of it that way, but really we do it as a way to follow NASCAR throughout the entire season after you’ve attended a live race. To ensure we continue to stay relevant and top of mind with our current new fans, we have expanded, again, those Wi-Fi capabilities of most of our property. This certainly allows fans to actually access some of the in-car feeds if they’re going through NASCAR mobile, okay, if they were doing that at home. Plus it allows them to just generally stay connected. Also the importance of really seeing and promoting the live event, all the programming we do on property, okay, why it’s different, and really promoting the fact that it’s way more than just a race, okay? It’s an entire day experience for people.

The Daytona Midway and Sponsor Activations

[19:35] Don Costante:

Yep. So we talked about preparation. We talked about fan experience. Now I want to discuss that midway outside. When fans arrive at the Daytona International Speedway, you provide such a great opportunity for them to engage with NASCAR’s brand through a sort of fan fest setting. Can you take a moment and just illustrate to listeners again in a little bit more detail to the scale of this activation and what the fans can experience when they attend? That’s actually a pretty good name, fan fest. Maybe we should have

[20:01] Sean Belgrade:

thought of that one. So it sounds a lot better than midway. That’s exactly the feel I had when I was

[20:06] Don Costante:

there in 2017. Oh, and it does create that feel. So the midway Daytona, as I mentioned, is basically

[20:11] Sean Belgrade:

three quarters of a mile long, contains dozens and dozens of corporate interactive displays, sampling, product demonstrations. We have productions on site, both live and tape shows from network and radio. We’ve had stunt shows on property. Toyota has a permanent ride and drive location within the midway. We’ve hosted small concerts. You’ll see marching bands, live DJs. It’s a great way for all of our corporate partners to really provide value to them, gives them a chance to activate, showcase the new products. They can collect data. Last year, we even had the Budweiser Clydesdales here. It’s a program with dozens of merchandise, trailers and tents, different food and beverage points. And as you said, whoever enters the venue side of the property, which is the way to get in the gates and up to the concourse is they got to enter this area. It’s free to the public and fans can certainly spend hours in this area. You know, I think what was most impressive amongst all those things that you just mentioned

[21:04] Don Costante:

is the fact that you have your drivers just hours before the race incorporated into sponsor content on stages and talking and engaging with the fans. You don’t see NBA or major league baseball or any of these other sports taking their players on game day and engaging in these types of manners. Just truly special.

[21:21] Sean Belgrade:

Yeah, we’re very fortunate to have wonderful relationships with the drivers and the teams, and they understand the importance of activating for their sponsors, but they also understand the importance of getting up close and personal with the fans and as a little lifeblood of the sport.

Coordinating the Midway

[21:34] Don Costante:

Well, I can tell you, I did get there a few days in advance. So it took me a couple of days to go through all the different activations because your sponsors come strong and they do a great job with their activations and the food and everything else and the demonstrations. And it was very well done. But it leads me to my next question. Who’s coordinating that? Who logistically has oversight over that area on your team?

[21:54] Sean Belgrade:

Well, it’s a huge undertaking as you can imagine when you program over three quarters of a mile long area, but lots of planning by many teams. And so it’s not one individual. It’s working as a cohesive team with our operations, our security, our safety groups, marketing, corporate sales, maintenance. Got to keep to make sure the place is clean and tidy too. But ultimately, the job of running it comes down to our event experience crew and their teams. Plus lots of advanced work with our corporate partners, our broadcast partners, our food and beverage concessionaire, our merchandise concessionaire. But it’s like I said, the majority of it really falls on the event experience team. And what’s interesting and you came for the week of the Daytona 500, but we literally have to flip that entire midway immediately after the Daytona 500. Because two weeks later, we have the world’s largest motorcycle rally that rolls into town and will be filled with completely different corporate displays and OEM displays for a different group of fans.

Inside the Fan Zone

[22:44] Don Costante:

Wow. So now I want to leave the outside midway and let’s travel inside the stadium and talk about your fan zone. Can you describe to people what they’ll find in your fan zone? What are the key components?

[22:56] Sean Belgrade:

Sure. Typically, the fan zone is an upgrade to your grandstand ticket. So it allows the fans to access some other corporate activations. We have a very large program stage where we host live entertainment, DJs, several Q&As of drivers and celebrities. We have several food and beverage locations and bars. We actually have a dedicated large jumbotron to this area. For fans to be able to stay in and watch and provide content. There’s a kids area, a large merchandise tent. One of the big highlights is really the ability for the fans themselves to look into the garages. We’ve got windows built into every garage where they can see the crew working on the cars. We’ve also built in little pass-through windows. So if a driver would like to sign an autograph or a crew member can reach his hand through there and offer a kid a lug nut from the race car.

[23:38] Don Costante:

That’s awesome.

[24:08] Sean Belgrade:

That’s awesome. So members of that club and fan zone have a view of victory lane.

Programming the Fan Zone Main Stage

[24:12] Don Costante:

Everything is so well thematically designed and there’s options for everyone. There’s so much to see and do and get involved with. But I’ll tell you this, if you’re going in and you’re not a fan, you’ll be a fan when you leave because it was just amazing. Now you talked a little bit about the programming. When do you begin developing the program for the main stage? Who’s involved in that process?

[24:31] Sean Belgrade:

Yeah, it’s the entertainment group, Don. We’re probably starting several months out. I mean, you’re talking one part of the property here versus the mammoth of the entire event itself. And we’re filling up some holes really weeks leading up to the event. We try to keep a balance of kind of pure entertainment, music, DJs, demonstrations, and then live driver and celebrity Q&As and giveaways. But the event experience team is the one who manages that. But they get help securing talent and drivers from other various parts of really the industry as well.

What Programming Appeals Most to Fans

[24:57] Don Costante:

Oh, it’s well done. What type of programming have you found to be the greatest appeal to the spectators?

[25:01] Sean Belgrade:

You know, to the core fans, they want to hear their drivers. We’ve also programmed it. We’re very fortunate to have the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds do our flyover every year. They’re wonderful. The fans love them. We also tap into some of the celebrities for Q&As when we have them on property who first is going to be the grand marshal or maybe wave the flag or anybody else who are willing to lend their time to that. People want to get close to the stars of their sport, hear what they have to say literally hours before they’re getting ready to jump in a race car. Live music is a hit as well, especially if we’re able to get a known act. But being able to see the crews and even the drivers in their garages, okay, those are big hits with the core fans.

Future Ideas for the Fan Zone

[25:35] Don Costante:

Oh, yeah. For me, it was a big hit. Now, what’s one thing that you would like to try but have yet to implement into the fan zone?

[25:41] Sean Belgrade:

That’s a great question. I think we’ve tried a lot in this area. And as you probably saw on the 800-500 day, we’re actually limited to space because of the volume of people. So trying to do some things that would be difficult. We’ve had karaoke in there for the day of the Rolex 24. We haven’t done it for the day of the 500. That may be difficult to execute. But I’d say on a more serious note, I’d love to have some type of e-sports competition or demo in this area as a more permanent attraction.

[26:03] Don Costante:

Oh, yeah. We’ve done this in the midway before, but due to proximity of where the fan zone is located in the garages, I think we’d have actually some driver participation and an opportunity for fans to compete with them as well. So that’s something that we’re looking into. Cool. Now, I want to take some time and talk about your pre-race ceremony. When I attend sporting events, the one thing that I always look forward to is the pre-event ceremonies. I thoroughly enjoy watching the content and the execution that leads up to that climatic conclusion with the start of the event. And the Daytona 500 is no exception. During my visit in 2017, your pre-race ceremony included the following, the VIP introductions, the pre-race show, driver introductions, color guard and national anthem, the Thunderbirds fly over, the introduction of the grand marshal and the starting of the race with the green flag. All of these elements made for a fantastic show. For today, I want to focus on the driver introductions. How you facilitate your introductions is truly special. And at this point, I would like you to illustrate to those listening exactly how the driver introductions are facilitating.

The Daytona 500 Pre-Race Ceremony

Driver Introductions

[27:02] Sean Belgrade:

Sure. I’ll kind of start with a little bit philosophical standpoint. The drivers are the stars of sport. That’s why people are here. We must find compelling ways to introduce them. We want to position them as gladiators getting ready to go into battle. We didn’t know how to find a way to get our fans as close and accessible to them as well. We’ve always believed this must be choreographed the last moments prior as we build to the national anthem as well. And not everybody’s going to have a front access view to this as well. And so the way we’ve been introducing the drivers here is we have a large stage set up where they’ll enter under an arch where we’ve got some pyro. We actually have the Daytona 500 trophy, which we call the Harley J Earl trophy. Whoever wins the race gets their name etched in that trophy. Okay. They’re walking out to a raised walk area and hitting high fives with all the fans as they go by. And we’ll do it in sequential order for when they’re starting position all the way to whoever’s on the pole. And then to make sure that we can give access to the rest of people in attendance, they actually get into a truck at that point. And then we drive them around in that truck. So the hundred thousand plus fans in the stands all get the view of that driver.

[28:05] Sean Belgrade:

So all 40 of those drivers at some point will be in an individual truck going around the property until we drop them off back at their car where we could then go the next phase into the anthem package. Ultimately, if you mentioned the flyover and into that big command of driver, start your engines and we start the race.

[28:21] Don Costante:

The whole experience is amazing. The one thing that I want to highlight here and make sure people have a total understanding. You invite the fans. They’re already been down there. They’ve been there for the VIP introductions. They’ve been there for the pre-race show. They’re there like a rock star setting when the drivers are coming up and it’s like a perfect picture with them on either side of that trophy. And it’s all choreographed to the music and the video. And they come walking down the ramp through the crowd. They’re high-fiving the fans and they’re having that connection. And it’s just gives you goosebumps as you’re watching it. Probably the best introductions I’ve seen.

[28:55] Sean Belgrade:

We certainly appreciate that. It’s something we’ve tried to tweak over the years and the importance of it to the fans is paramount. We actually open the gates at nine o’clock in the morning for a race that starts around 2.30 and that set is already there. And so the fans know where they want to sit. Okay. Where they want to stand for that. And then they’re piled back 15, 20 deep or more to be able to slap hands or get that front view or get a photograph of their star.

Planning the Driver Introductions

[29:17] Don Costante:

They’re planning for their driver introductions and what elements are discussed during that process.

[29:21] Sean Belgrade:

I’d say typically it’s done several months prior to the race. And as we said, we haven’t really changed any of the large elements in a few years. Every year we discuss, you know, it can be changes to music or cadence, timing or other simple effects like pyro. Plus we do change on an annual basis, the creative backdrop. So, you know, we look at a more historical, traditional, is there any kind of special anniversary or opportunity to bring back like a legend? For example, a few years ago, it was the anniversary year when, from when Mario Andretti won the Daytona 500 back in the 1960s. And so he actually came. Okay. And so we used him as part of the driver intros. We introduced him first. And then we had him stand at the end and shake every driver’s hand as he got into the truck. Very memorable for the fans, but also for the drivers too. And then it’s also important that we involve TV in this process as we need to make sure and see if they’ll be picking up any parts of that live.

Driver and Ownership Involvement

[30:07] Don Costante:

Now, when the original concept came for this driver introduction format, how involved, if at all, are the drivers and ownership in terms of the approval process for that concept?

[30:21] Sean Belgrade:

I’d say for the Daytona 500, not a lot in the detail. However, we have meetings with the teams and had before the track president and several of us will go up to Charlotte and we go through our promotional plans with all the teams, the drivers, the PR reps of anything that’s going to be new on site, any changes. And we also ask them for feedback too. And so there’s tweaks we’ve made to different parts of things we do based on the feedback of them as well. So I wouldn’t say they’ve had that kind of direct piece to this point, but that is definitely something that we’re evaluating and really want to change in the future because they really have some great thoughts and ideas and the ideas coming from them. You know, they’re going to buy into that and it certainly helps to have that voice.

A Future Vision for Driver Introductions

[30:59] Don Costante:

What is something that you have always wanted to try with your driver introductions, but have yet to implement?

[31:04] Sean Belgrade:

All right. I like this one because this is the one we’ve thought about how we could try and do this for years, but we always say we typically don’t want to try new things at the Daytona 500. We’d like to pilot them at other places and see if we can kind of make it work here. But I’d love to find a way to introduce the drivers to get closer, to get more fans, to create even more accessibility. And can we do that from the stands? Can they come out of the stands where they’re coming down to the stands or walking on the track in multiple locations, a lot more pyro, smoke. Again, that kind of gladiator feel as they kind of walk onto the racetrack and down, but really brings them out of the crowd themselves.

[31:35] Don Costante:

Wow. That would be amazing. Let me know when you’re going to do that. I’m going to come to that one for sure. Let’s talk a little bit about communication because this is such a mammoth event. What is the race day communication process with all the parties involved with the execution of the event? Meaning what kind of documents that are being created or what pre-production meetings are being held?

Race Day Communication and Production

[31:54] Sean Belgrade:

I’d say a combination of several pre-production meetings between track, NASCAR, our agency. We go through lots of different renderings, signage, logistics, routes, development of a minute-by-minute schedule. It certainly allows us to kind of build these assets up. Pre-production meetings as we get closer with all of our broadcast partners, TV, radio, a lot of advanced scouting of any routes, timing. And we’ll also be attached to the hip with radio should we encounter anything like weather on the day of that could impact the event in any way.

Who Runs the Pre-Race Show?

[32:22] Don Costante:

One question I meant to ask you, is the pre-race ceremony being called by one individual or are there a couple of people with different segments of the show?

[32:30] Sean Belgrade:

From a PA perspective?

[32:31] Don Costante:

Yeah, from the race director, if you will.

[32:33] Sean Belgrade:

That might be next to the PA announcer, queuing them with scripting and just the timing and execution of things. One person is running the show, but they’ve got eyes in the skies and assistance around the property to see if we need to make any changes or things that may not be set up or in the correct order. And then typically that person is attached to the hip. We have a production agency that works with us as well, but we’ll have one person running the show.

[32:55] Don Costante:

Gotcha. Execution, so important. What steps or measures are you taking to ensure proper execution of the programming specifically for the pre-race ceremony?

Ensuring Proper Execution

[33:03] Sean Belgrade:

Advanced meetings with our agency, the civic stakeholders to work on our civic planning, timing.

[33:09] Don Costante:

Are you doing rehearsals prior to the gates opening?

[33:12] Sean Belgrade:

Yeah, we do week of and night. I’d say kind of run throughs for the Daytona 500 activities. And so the Saturday event, we run an externity race that day. And so at the end of the event, we’ll actually pre-position a lot of those elements. And so we’re able to fire up a lot of the audio and different things that we’re going to use from lighting, if we use lighting and stuff like that, to ensure everything’s working. And then on the day of, we’ll do a sound check for the concert to make sure everything’s working there. And then we, as I mentioned before, we’ll have somebody up in the tower to help the staff down on the ground and make sure we give them updates and any changes that are needed.

Measuring Success

[33:43] Don Costante:

Let’s talk a little bit about measuring success. How do you go about measuring success of programming being delivered during the Great American Race for the stakeholders? And for the stakeholders, I’m talking about fans, partners, drivers, and NASCAR itself.

[33:57] Sean Belgrade:

That’s a good question, Don. As I mentioned, we do a post-race customer satisfaction survey for live event attendees. And we’ve been doing that for almost the past 15 years. And that touches really every touch point from the person when they enter the property to when they leave in their car. And the pre-race ceremonies and this programming has a section in this as well. And so we get feedback from the fans there. Believe it or not, we do partner feedback via surveys with our sponsors. We have annual events with them. And then really open feedback that we get from the drivers and from NASCAR.

[34:24] Don Costante:

Wow, that’s great. So let’s talk about this year’s race, 2021, with the pandemic. What would the differences be this year aside from attendance restrictions? And how would the fan experience be affected?

The 2021 Daytona 500 and COVID-19

[34:35] Sean Belgrade:

Yeah, the COVID protocols and attendance restrictions, we will be in place to ensure we follow the CDC recommendations, six-foot social distancing. So most of the entire property will be open. Reserve camping will most of it be open. We won’t have any tent camping on site as that doesn’t fall into the approvals that we’ve gotten to be able to do. We had some scheduled changes for the week, open speed weeks from the previous year. So we’ll open speed weeks this year actually on Tuesday. And so typically we’ve opened it eight days before the Daytona 500 on that Saturday where we’ll run the Busch Clash. We’re now going to start on a Tuesday. So it’s a little bit of a shortened week. But I also say that was purposeful. To be honest, we are moving this direction anyway. So the Busch Clash will open on Tuesday night. We’ll move it to our 3.5-mile road course, which until we moved an event under COVID back in August of last year, it would have been the first time the NASCAR teams have run on the road course. As well, the fan experience will be impacted, I’d say, somewhat. Our COVID protocols that we have in 2020 will still be in place. Unfortunately, we won’t be allowing fans on the track or the ball field.

[35:31] Sean Belgrade:

So that’s the big piece that we just went through. But we’ve repurposed our fan zone in the infield to actually a reserve seating destination to help fans that might have been displaced. Because we seat over 100,000 people. We can’t do that now in 2021. We’ve also created some additional kind of car drive and viewing in the infield.

[35:46] Don Costante:

Oh, cool.

[35:47] Sean Belgrade:

We repurposed a few of our suites in areas into clubs. And we’ve had to change our typical driver intros. However, I think the fans are going to be happy with the change we did this year as we’re going to get them as close as we can to the fans, but still keep it safe for both the drivers and the fans.

[36:01] Don Costante:

Awesome. So, Sean, I could go on and on and ask you a dozen more questions. But we’ve come to that final question of the day. For those listening to today’s discussion, what are your final thoughts?

Final Thoughts From Sean Belgrade

[36:10] Sean Belgrade:

Well, I’m assuming most people listening today won’t be able to attend this year’s race due to our limited attendance. However, I encourage everyone listening today, watch the event on TV and plan to attend an event in the future here for the day 10 to 500. You’ll be blown away with the immersion, the awesome spectacle. It’s a true American event. It’s a bucket list event. I get goosebumps. And maybe you did too there, Don. As you’re standing for the national anthem prior to the start, the U.S. Thunderbirds fly overhead. You for sure get those goosebumps. You don’t need to be a NASCAR fan or a race fan to truly enjoy this once-in-a-lifetime event. If you like big events, if you like sporting events, this is one that you need to have on your bucket list.

[36:48] Don Costante:

You said it right there. If you haven’t been to the Daytona 500, more specifically those in the event management industry, go to the Daytona 500. Unbelievable. It will be the most immersive event that you’ve ever been a part of and will give you so many great ideas moving forward. Well, Sean, I want to thank you for being on the podcast and for sharing your behind-the-scenes details for this iconic great American race. It’s been a pleasure talking with you.

[37:11] Sean Belgrade:

Well, thanks, Don. It’s a pleasure speaking to you as well. And thanks for the time. And thanks for including NASCAR and the Daytona 500 as one of your topics that you do each month. And if there’s anything that we can do for you in the future, please let us know. And if there’s anybody listening today who may have questions or we can help, hey, we’re all in the same industries here. So please don’t be a stranger.

Don Costante’s Key Takeaways

[37:33] Don Costante:

What a fantastic conversation with Sean. There were so many more topics I would have loved to discuss in depth, like the camping areas, specific to the programming he initiates to engage with that group. The in-race content. And of course, the post-race trophy presentation. Perhaps we’ll address those topics in a future episode. I have been in sports for over 26 years and the Daytona 500 not only exceeded my expectations, but it reiterated the impact that immersive experiences can have on consumers. The Daytona 500 is logistically a massive undertaking. If you ever get the opportunity to experience it in person, I highly recommend it. You’ll walk away with a true perspective of this marquee event. Now, we covered a lot of information in our conversation today. Here are some points that were interesting to me. First, planning. It’s important to point out that these types of large-scale events take time to plan for. And it’s no different with the Daytona 500. What did Sean say? They start 15 to 18 months in advance. Next, when I asked Sean about his process for generating new ideas, I liked what he said. He gets input from fans, drivers, upper management, industry agencies. He even takes a look at the customer satisfaction surveys.

[38:47] Don Costante:

He’s involving all of the stakeholders in the process. When we got on the subject of fan experience, Sean was very clear. NASCAR prides itself on accessibility, including access to the stars of their sport, the drivers. Getting the fans up close and personal with the drivers is a priority for NASCAR. And how about the conversation we had pertaining to the outside stadium midway? The three-quarter mile long sort of fan fest of activations. I was truly impressed with the engagement from their sponsors, vendors, and partners. From demonstrations and sampling, broadcast production, stunt shows, live entertainment, merchandise, food and beverage points. All of this comes together to develop that something for everyone mentality. And it’s truly special. And finally, I love Sean’s driver introductions philosophy. It’s simple. The drivers are the stars of the sport. And it’s important to find compelling ways to introduce them. And Sean does just that. At the Daytona 500, they position them as gladiators going into battle. And they get the fans as close and as accessible to the drivers as possible. I could go on, but those were just a few highlights from our discussion that resonated with me.

[39:57] Don Costante:

As always, I hope you found the information covered beneficial. I want to thank Sean again for being on the podcast and for sharing his thoughts and best practices with all of us. Well, that wraps up this episode of The Rundown. As always, I encourage you to reach out to me and share your thoughts and or questions and send them to [email protected]Email The Rundown. Also, I would really appreciate it if you would subscribe and share this podcast and follow us on LinkedIn and Instagram. And until the next time, I’m Don Costante.