Interested in watching the NASCAR on the big screen while eating free food?
Central Michigan University will be hosting a viewing of the NASCAR Subway Fit Fresh 500 in Phoenix, Ariz. on the giant football stadium video display outside of Kelly/Shorts Stadium in Mt. Pleasant, Mich., as part of the ”NASCAR at Night, The Block Party” event Saturday at 7:30 p.m.
The event will be hosted by Central Michigan University’s NASCAR Kinetics team, comprised of junior and senior students who are given marketing experience while being into the everyday life of sports marketing profession, said Talia Mark, NASCAR consumer marketing national account executive and CMU alum.
It was Mark’s idea to come up with the NASCAR Kinetics: Marketing in Motion program. Central Michigan, along with a four other schools, were given a series of case studies throughout the course of 10 weeks, from different sponsors of NASCAR, including Sprint and the NASCAR foundation.
“They were given these case studies to give them situations that would happen in the real world and to see how the students would react to them,” Mark said. “They would have only a week to do each task.”
At the end of the case studies, the students had to put on the racing event that is taking place Saturday, although they only knew the specifics about the event for toward the end of the semester, Mark said.
“Through the 18 hours of class and homework, and the case studies they were involved with, they have also been planning a viewing party,” Mark said.
Four other universities including Clark Atlanta University, Howard University, the University of Texas Pan-America and Winston-Salem State University are involved in the NASCAR Kinetics program, with the winner getting an all-expense paid trip to the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race in Charlotte, N.C. on May 16.
Kelly Morse, one of the CMU team members, feels confident in the turnout for the event.
“One week we were hoping for about 500 people to attend our big year-end event and then before we knew it, we were planning for 5,000," Morse said.
The event will include food from Subway, a pit crew challenge, and a NASCAR simulator, which has three plasma screens in front of the steering wheel allowing a 180-degree view for the driver as well as speakers projecting the crew chief’s instructions. Mt. Pleasant Speedway will also be bringing a few of their racecars, 98.5 FM WUPS will be providing the sound for the Subway 500 and members of the CMU football team will also be attending the event, which follows the CMU football spring game.
The students also plan on several free giveaways including Michigan International Speedway tickets, concert tickets, Celebration Cinema gift cards, gas cards, spa packages and T-shirts.
The best part is that everything at the event is absolutely free, said Tara Hanner, another CMU NASCAR Kinetics member.
Hanner hopes that this event will change people’s minds about NASCAR, particularly students.
“Don’t be afraid to try something new,” Hanner said. “ Check it out. There is a lot going on. It will be a fun eventful night. And maybe it will change (people’s) opinion from there, make a new aspect from there and see what NASCAR is really about.”
Regardless of how the successful the event is, Mark believes the lessons the students have learned in this program will be worth all the work even after they graduate.
“If you can take the program a step further and, and have the students come up with different plans to execute something and getting used the corporate culture of motorsports marketing and sports; marketing I think that it’s very important so that when they when they are ready to graduate they don’t just have book knowledge but practical knowledge,” Mark said.
The CMU NASCAR Kinetics team consists of Andy Bohannon, senior; Erica Lemm, junior; Morse, senior; Sara Kirkland, junior; and Hanner, senior.
