American University’s (Washington, D.C.) nationally ranked business school, the Kogod School of Business, has entered into an agreement to develop business models for various aspects of the popular auto racing sport of NASCAR.

 

Kogod School of Business Dean, Richard Durand has selected Professor Robert Sicina, to lead a team of graduate students to develop strategies to help a lower division NASCAR team, Speed Wong Racing, LLC. The purpose of the alliance between Kogod graduate students and Speed Wong Racing is to bring a higher level of business sophistication to the art of racing. 

 

The racing business has changed in the past decade. NASCAR auto racing has become the fastest growing sport in America. The sport is driven by sponsorship. Corporate America has been fully committed to fuel the rapid growth of NASCAR for some time now.

 

What Speed Wong Racing has recognized is that race teams utilizing sophisticated business strategies will perform better than those teams who have not kept up with the pace of the race. That is why Speed Wong Racing has reached out to Kogod.

 

Developing the desire to improve upon the business of racing, the MBA students will be applying sports marketing techniques to develop a strategic approach to introduce Chinese corporate sponsorship to NASCAR. This has never been done before and is a global effort. Speed Wong Racing LLC chose American University and Kogod because they are microcosms of the global community, made up of a globally diverse student body with more than 60 countries represented. With access to the people and institutions shaping international change, it offers a truly unique perspective on the global marketplace. The Wall Street Journal Guide to the Top Business Schools noted that Kogod graduates have a solid knowledge of world issues. Students on the project represent four different countries and thus bring a global perspective to the work. These characteristics are all important to the project, particularly as they relate to international sponsorship.

 

Kogod attracts students who desire to be actively engaged in their educations and their communities. It is actively engaged with the business community and other external stakeholders to ensure it develops the programs the market demands.  Providing students with learning opportunities through live consulting engagements such as the one with Speed Wong Racing, LLC is just one example of how this is accomplished. Students gain first-hand experience conducting a consulting engagement proposing solutions to real-world strategic issues.

As part of the Speed Wong Racing LLC project, the team recently flew to California as the guest of the team owner to experience NASCAR competition first hand.  Students had credentials to the actual garage area and spent the weekend interviewing fans, team owners and general managers, NASCAR officials and the President of the Phoenix International Raceway.  Students also got to present their work-in-progress to the owner of Speed Wong Racing LLC and the owner of the Wood Brothers Racing Cup team. Perhaps most importantly, the students got to experience NASCAR racing which developed a “grass roots” level of understanding of the sport that cannot be duplicated through research. This too will enhance the quality of their final work product. As an added bonus, they had a very exciting weekend at the races. 

 

The graduate business students participating in this very special project are Jose Arrieta, Boglarka Balanyi, Leonard Gooz, Jana Lind, and Scott Lubochinski. Supplementing the program in Washington, D.C., are Jennifer Wong, and in Phoenix, Arizona, Randy Titzck.

Look for the winning results of the Kogod School of Business' efforts in NASCAR.