NASCAR today announced the expansion of its successful NASCAR Kinetics program from 12 to 20 schools, further increasing the breadth of the program to 17 states and dozens of additional students for the fall 2011 semester. This innovative case study competition gives college students the opportunity to work through real-world business challenges and scenarios provided by NASCAR and its various industry stakeholders, such as Official Partners, teams and tracks.
With the mission of educating and exposing college students across the nation to the NASCAR brand, NASCAR Kinetics was started as a grassroots initiative in the spring semester of 2009 with only four schools. Over the past three years, the program has grown to become the largest NASCAR college enterprise.
“NASCAR Kinetics is a dynamic initiative that merges educational and experiential tasks,” said Steve Phelps, NASCAR senior vice president and chief marketing officer. “We anticipate students will leverage the marketing techniques and lessons in teamwork they learn through the program to successfully position themselves in an increasingly competitive motorsports industry.”
The program is now available at the following 20 schools across the country: Central Michigan University, Coastal Carolina University, Delaware State University, East Tennessee State University, Elon University, Howard University, Indiana State University, Ohio State University, Ohio University, Oklahoma State University, Southern New Hampshire University, Syracuse University, Troy University, University of Central Florida, University of Florida, University of Massachusetts-Amherst, University of Miami, University of Southern California, Virginia State University and Winston-Salem State University.
NASCAR Kinetics is available every fall and spring semester to teams of five students who are chosen from each participating school. Eligible students must be at least a sophomore with a minimum 2.75 GPA and pursuing a degree or concentration in sports management, sports marketing, business, management, marketing, public relations, communications, journalism, advertising or broadcasting. These students work together to produce one submission for each case study, while concurrently planning and executing a viewing party of a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race.
This semester the case studies will involve evaluating the social media strategies for Michael Waltrip Racing and generating sponsorship activation ideas for Dodge. The last stage of the competition – the viewing parties – will all be hosted in conjunction with M&M’s and will serve to celebrate the colorfulness of the M&M’s characters and NASCAR.
“We are looking forward to the creativity these young minds will undoubtedly contribute to further enhance the MWR brand,” said Michael Waltrip, owner-driver of MWR. “We hope the students will look upon this program with pride and utilize its lessons to establish themselves in the business world long after their college days have passed.”
Teams are competing for the grand prize of an all-expense paid trip to NASCAR’s season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
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