Story By: KIM ELCHLEPP / LEARFIELD – PLANO, TX – LEARFIELD, a media and technology services leader in intercollegiate athletics, and NASCAR today announced that after establishing its first-ever official partnership with a college athletics program in 2022, America’s No. 1 motorsport will return for a second year as an official partner of University of Alabama Athletics while also becoming a proud partner of University of South Carolina Athletics for the first time.
The expanded two-year agreement will continue to offer NASCAR access to use of athletic intellectual property, in-venue and experiential activations, social and digital media engagement, and first-party data across both athletic departments.
While NASCAR focused its first-year activations on Alabama football and men’s basketball, the sanctioning body is diversifying the sports mix in year two to include Alabama baseball and softball in addition to football. Its activations at South Carolina will include football, women’s basketball, men’s basketball and baseball.
Specific sponsorship assets will include:
- Radio spots in each broadcast of Alabama football, baseball and softball as well as South Carolina football, women’s basketball, men’s basketball and baseball.
- Full-page program ads for South Carolina women’s/men’s basketball and baseball games.
- Rights to display/activate onsite in Gamecock Village and the University of Alabama fan zones.
- In-venue LED board inventory and the “NASCAR Drive Summary” videoboard feature at Alabama football games.
- Title sponsorship of “Crimson Drive,” Crimson Tide Sports Network’s weekly show hosted on Facebook Live covering in-season sports.
- Title sponsorship includes logo recognition, live reads and commercial spots.
- Digital impressions and first party data across LEARFIELD’s Fan365 platform.
The holistic approach spanning sports in all three seasons enables NASCAR to promote ticket sales and tune-in for individual races in the region – including spring and fall races at Talladega Superspeedway (Alabama) and Darlington Raceway (South Carolina) – as well as other tentpole events like the Busch Light Clash at The Coliseum, The DAYTONA 500, and The Chicago Street Race, while continuing to build overall brand awareness.