Nascar Race Today

Nascar and some of its major sponsors hosted approximately 100 local small business owners Thursday morning as part of a program to reach out to local companies in key race markets.

The Nascar Business Series meetings today at Phoenix International Raceway looked to give local business owners information on working with race circuit sponsors, track operators and marketing on race weekends.

PIR is hosting the AdvoCare 500 on Sunday. It is the second-to-last race in Nascar's Sprint Cup season.

The event featured former driver and current ESPN commentator Dale Jarrett. He stressed that Nascar is not just about big corporate sponsors but offers opportunities for local and small businesses.

This is the second year Nascar has hosted the small business event at PIR in Avondale. It hosted a similar event last week at Texas Motor Speedway before its Sprint Cup race.

The stock car racing circuit hopes to roll out more small business events at other tracks, said Norris Scott, Nascar vice president for partnership marketing.

Jarrett said Phoenix is one of Nascar's top market and its population size makes it a prime place for more outreach to smaller business. He said smaller businesses often think Nascar teams, tracks and races are just sponsored by large brands and corporations but there are other sponsorship and marketing deals to be had. Jarrett said that includes business-to-business deals.

Major Nascar car sponsors include Home Depot, Best Buy, Lowe's, Miller Lite, Budweiser and two Scottsdale-based companies, Discount Tire and GoDaddy.

Bank of America, Sprint, Nationwide Insurance, 3M, UPS and Hewlett-Packard were the sponsors of today's small business event in the West Valley.

Mike Sunnucks writes about politics, law, airlines, sports business and the economy.