As the pace car pulls into pit road and the chief starter waves their green flags this Sunday, NASCAR’s nationwide viewers will watch James Davison take off in the newly sponsored No. 15 vehicle highlighting real-time visibility provider project44 and location tracking company Tive.
The newly wrapped Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE, driven for Rick Ware Racing and sponsored by BYRD Racing, will showcase the two FreighTech companies for the NASCAR Cup Series midsummer installment taking place Sunday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway for the Foxwoods Resort Casino 301.
The partnership came about from a project44 connection to racing through Tim Bertrand, the company’s president of worldwide field operations. The Bertrand family grew up in the racing world, giving the real-time visibility company firsthand knowledge of the impact a NASCAR sponsorship can produce for a brand.
“My dad got me into it when I was about 7 years old. My family and I actually still own a semi-professional, open-wheel auto racing team called Bertrand Motorsports,” Bertrand told FreightWaves.
Bertrand explained that his close connection with the Byrd racing family opened up the opportunity to sponsor the car.
“David Byrd came to me and said, ‘I have an interesting opportunity for your company.’ It is interestingly aligned with a personal passion of mine and a great way to get publicity for our partnership with Tive.”
The two companies announced a collaboration earlier this year to create their Open Visibility Network partner program that would produce collaborative data sharing for each of their customers.
Related article: Tive, project44 collaborate on Open Visibility Network
While the NASCAR promotion will showcase the partnership to millions of racing fans this weekend, Bertrand explained that a huge motivation for the sponsorship was from the number of project44 customers who have participated in the past.
“Customers of ours have either sponsored series or historically been involved in NASCAR. Procter & Gamble, Lenovo, Interstate Battery and Koch Industries have sponsored cars and McDonald’s and Canadian Tire have sponsored the whole series,” he said.
On Thursday, the company also began tracking the vehicle for its customers to view as the car makes its way from North Carolina to New Hampshire.
“We are sending five trackers down to the team. They’re going to put the trackers on the rig as it comes up from North Carolina to New Hampshire. Then we’re going to be integrating that data into the project 44 Visibility Operations Center showing real-time tracking of the car’s transit,” Bertrand said.
Overall, Bertrand expressed that the whole team was excited to get involved with NASCAR and gain brand exposure.
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“It is very exciting for us to know that we’re doing something that is cool and will actually have an impact on brand recognition in our market,” he said.
The race is set to begin at 3 p.m. EDT Sunday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, commonly referred to as “The Magic Mile”, in Loudon, New Hampshire, and will air on NBCSN. James Davison, ranked 32nd in the Cup Series, will be in car 15 in row 19, taking the 37th position in the starting lineup.
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