ADmire!
ADmire!
ADmire! Season 5, Episode 3 Guest: Lori Waran - President Richmond Raceway
Ever wonder what it takes to run a 51,000-capacity NASCAR track? Lori Warren knows firsthand. As Richmond Raceway's first female president in its 77-year history, her journey to motorsports leadership began unexpectedly in childhood, standing on her grandfather's shoulders as he directed cars into parking spots at the very venue she now oversees.
Curious about the changing face of motorsports leadership? Listen now to discover how unexpected paths can lead to innovation in American racing, and why the in-person NASCAR experience continues to draw fans in an era of high-definition broadcasts and digital distractions.
Join the conversation...tune in today.
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I'm Larry Woodard, and this is Admire. Everybody knows somebody who's working in a career that they were called into when they were single digits. They always wanted to be a doctor.
Speaker 1:They were taking care of birds with broken wings when they were eight years old and scoping out medical schools in the eighth grade. Well, my next guest had a career path and was a rising media star, until they accepted what some would call a dream job overseeing a racetrack with a capacity of 51,000 and race cars flying around the track at high speeds. And, of course, like everything else she's done, she's excelling. Lori Warren, welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much, larry. What a treat to be here with you today. And yeah, you're exactly right, it absolutely is a dream job. It's not one that you know when you're going to school or when you're going into, deciding what you're going to major or minor and there's no class that says how you run a racetrack right. But it really has been incredible since the start here, since the green flag dropped here, so to speak, so it's been fun.
Speaker 1:Right and I can totally relate. You know, I was working in advertising and spent a lot of time around cars because I had the Ford account and then I had the General Motors account for lots of years and we did lots of great work and I went all over doing with stuff. But it wasn't until Brent Dewar took the job you know at NASCAR and eventually became president that I got asked to, you know, to interview to be on the board of ISC and let me tell you that first race, my first race, was a Daytona 500.
Speaker 2:And.
Speaker 1:I was on the track, I was track side, I was, you know, in the, the, you know the, the, the meetings, the pre-race meetings. I was, I was everywhere and I fell in love that day and then it was 13 to 15 races a year, you know, for the last 14 or 15 years and so, and I've become a fan, you know, while while working in the industry. So I can, I can totally understand that and I and I'm I'm really anxious to be able to get to that because that's the fun part. But I like to be very deliberate in these podcasts because, you know, over time, you know, my listeners have really told me that their favorite part, and so their favorite parts eventually become my favorite parts.
Speaker 1:And one of the favorite parts is sort of the origin story. You know, like I was a big comic book fan as a kid and I loved reading about. You know this guy's a superhero because this is what happened to him in his developmental years. So let's talk a little bit about your family, how you got here and your upbringing. So where are you from and so what was happening when you were growing up?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, my boys are comic book fans. By the way as well, so I'm actually from the Richmond region. I grew up in a rural area right outside of Richmond, virginia, hanover County.
Speaker 2:My parents were actually both educators long time. My mother was one of the first female high school principals in this area. In fact, I believe she was the first when she was named. My father was a football coach and then he eventually became a high school principal as well, so you can imagine there was a lot of education talk in my family and a lot of late nights that they had. My grandparents actually lived about a mile away from Richmond Raceway. When I was young, and because my parents were working late nights or they were on the football field etc.
Speaker 2:I often stayed with my grandparents and you know, got to have some fun with them, but one of the fun, most memorable components of that and growing up with them was my attending the racetrack and the state fair. Back then this was the state fairgrounds as well with my grandfather as a little girl and I can remember.
Speaker 2:Larry, being three, four, five years old, and my grandfather was a huge race fan and he couldn't always afford to come and watch some of the races and the events here, but he would help park the cars here and, as you well know, there's acres upon acres of parking facilities here, so he would help park the cars and he would let me tag along, being, you know, barefoot because it was summertime at some point, you know and sitting on his shoulders and helping him wave cars to the left or right and waving hello to people, and just the sense of sort of community back then and the excitement that people had.
Speaker 2:And then, of course, you know, attending the race once. Once the cars were parked in his section, we'd go watch, you know, attending the race Once, once the cars were parked in his section, we'd go watch and it was, it was just super special. It was something that you know memories and core memories are made of and it smells, the sounds and just feeling like you were a bigger part of something was was really really cool. And so I think that I didn't realize back then, of course, that that would be so foreshadowing in in what I do now. But yeah, I grew up around here and I've got a brother and a sister and both of them went into education as well. So I'm sort of the black sheep of the family that put the path with my grandfather into a race band.
Speaker 1:That's a great story. My wife is a teacher, a career teacher, and so I know that whole side of the world. Yeah, what's interesting is you know with you talking about you know, being with your grandfather when you were a kid it was one thing, getting sort of socialized into the world of NASCAR and going to races and learning the business side it was another you know, when you're a kid and you're, you know, nine or 10, particularly if you're a boy when you're a kid, you're playing with these race cars.
Speaker 1:And so no matter where you are, you know you have the race car, you know who the race car driver is, and so obviously I grew up knowing those names and then, you know, getting involved with it, I had a chance, you know, while he was still with us, to meet Bobby Allison. I'm on a board with.
Speaker 1:Rusty Wallace, you know, I know. Richard Petty, you know, and those are all. They were just names of famous guys who could go fast in cars that you looked up to you know, and now they're, they're, they're all real people, right, yeah.
Speaker 2:So you, you, you, right yeah. Or educators in your family there's not a lot of room for, you know, bad grades, bad behavior. You are urged significantly to do well and perform well. And you know, my brother, my sister and I were really good students. We, you know my parents, did not believe in us working after high school, or, you know, when we were of age, they felt that we should our job, should be going to school and we should make the most of that experience. So we sort of all threw ourselves into all the extracurricular activities you could do.
Speaker 2:When it was time to go to college, I sort of followed in my mother's footsteps. Upon again her urging, uh, went to Mary Washington. It was back then. It was Mary Washington college, uh, and it's now the university of Mary Washington. So just a short ride up 95 North in Fredericksburg, virginia, between Richmond and Washington DC, and ironically, I was, uh, was, I was a theater major there. So you do, you know, I think it's amazing that people can succeed in that.
Speaker 2:I was not one of the more successful ones, but but what that led to was there was a job up in Washington DC. There was a job up in Washington DC between a couple of my years in Mary Washington and it took me. It was a performing arts job. I thought that that's what I would do for the rest of my life, of course, but it ended up. I was fascinated by the business and that was a company owned by Sodexo Marriott called Spirit Cruises and I went up there, got a you know you call it a gig got a gig and I was really fascinated by the business side of the entire unit. It was wonderful hospitality, the F&B, entertaining, you know, millions of people that were coming through the Washington DC Harbor throughout the entire year, and even entertaining, you know, vip and a lot of government officials on the vessels. So I thought that that was really interesting.
Speaker 2:You know, I actually met my husband up there as well. He was on his way back from Prague. He had been over in Prague for about a year and a half working and happened to meet him there and, interestingly, he was a race fan. So it was cool because I had stopped after, you know, attending races with my grandfather. You know you've become this really cool teenager that wants to just hang out with your friends and do stuff with school. So I stopped being a race fan. Wants to just hang out with your friends and do stuff with school. So I stopped being a race fan.
Speaker 2:But getting to know my husband, he was a huge race fan and he sort of really reintroduced me to the sport but really taught me what I now know about NASCAR and, you know, got into the attending the races as a more young adult, really understanding the drivers and the teams and the storylines behind those. And in fact, when we got married you're going to probably think this is a little weird but also maybe a little ironic, but my mother is a very kind, gentle, southern hospitality woman and so she wanted just a very Laura Ashley-esque wedding for us. But my husband was a race fan. So I my wedding garter. You know the garter belt that you wear and the big reveal it is.
Speaker 2:It was a black and white checkered garter belt with a big number three for Dale Earnhardt on it as a surprise to him and a nod to his racing fandom. And that's actually hanging in my office right now. People come in and they are like this is there's no way. And I said, you know, 28 years ago I was a fan, my husband was a fan, and look at how life just sort of comes full circle.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, what's interesting about your story is that when we look back, all of us in hindsight. You know life is teaching us, you know, and giving us the things that we need whether we know it or not. You know, I don't care where you start. A lot of the things that you learn are the things that ultimately you need. You know if you're successful, and so your story doesn't surprise me.
Speaker 1:And when I looked at your CV and I saw the whole you know cruises, sodexo thing, I was like there you go, because you know that's a direct corollary to what you're doing now, and you know, the old saying is is when the student's ready, the teacher appears right, and so it's sort of that's going on all the time.
Speaker 2:You're exactly right. And so, you know, my career went from Sodexo Marriott. A manager that I had at the time left there, one that I was very fond of and who taught me a lot, and he ended up going to a company that we know as Auto Trader, and he knew that my husband and I and at that point my child, my youngest was we're looking to move back to the Richmond area, and he said you know, there's a lot of opportunity in this, this media company. It's owned by this bigger media company that that started and lent the weather channel eventually sold it, but there was. It was a company named Landmark Media. I'm sure you're very well aware of it.
Speaker 2:It had lots and lots of different TV stations, daily newspapers, community papers and even one of the cutting-edge digital companies within. So I ended up joining him and that's kind of how I transitioned into media. It's funny, I can't seem to get away from cars. That's a common theme throughout as well. But then that led to other opportunities overseeing a lot of magazines throughout the state, alternative news weekly throughout the Commonwealth, and really launched me into a love of the media world in which I was there for about 22 years until this opportunity sort of found me and I wasn't even looking for it at the time, but it seemed like an appropriate transition to go from media to here and because everyone is always asking me how did you go?
Speaker 2:What was the reason? But in media, as you know, we're always looking to retain our viewers or our readers or our users, but also go and get new users and viewers and readers. Right, it's an audience-driven business model and that's exactly the same thing here at Richmond Raceway or really any sport that you go, you want to retain your loyal fans and then you want to go out and seek out new fans and create an even bigger audience for your sport. So I'm solving for the same problem, it's just a different industry.
Speaker 1:Now, yeah, there's a direct corollary, and those of us on the inside see it in a very, very big way. You know, the first probably sports entities and I've been in sports from Major League Baseball to Major League Soccer to, you know, to basketball to the USTA with clients, and all of them hired us for one principal reason and that is that they had fan engagement issues and they came out to seek professionals in marketing and advertising to deal with their issues.
Speaker 1:And their issues could have been like the USTA, where moms had put down the rackets to become soccer moms and how do you attract them back and how do they start playing. Or with baseball fans had gotten sort of upset after the strike and ticket prices were too high, and so how do you? How do you get them back? But the whole idea of fan engagement was, was is, key to it. And then you look at at teams like the Savannah Bananas, right at teams like the.
Speaker 1:Savannah Bananas, right. Or you look at any real robust, you know fan engagement sport, you know and you see what they have to do to excite those fans, to get them to come back, to tie them into it. And you know NASCAR has always been one of those sports that's enjoyed this big fan group.
Speaker 1:And then all of a sudden we hit the same wall, which is you know, what do we have for people, how can we keep them interested, how can we engage them? You know, going from everything that's happened to the, you know, to the next gen card, to you name it, but I think that you're absolutely positively right and media is a good place to you know, to sort of call and to bring people in because they have that consumer-centric site that you sort of need to really do it, and sports that get full of themselves wind up on the outside looking in.
Speaker 2:And.
Speaker 1:I think NASCAR has done a very, very good job and a lot of people well I know that Sports Business Journal a few years ago absolutely got it when they named NASCAR the sport of the year.
Speaker 1:And it beat the stick of all sports Because in some ways it had further to come, because it had this installed base of fans and they had to broaden. And a lot of people just never thought because the roots of NASCAR were in the South that they were ever going to be a company that would be able to diversify and do the things that they've done. But being on the compensation committee of ISC, I watched how deliberate it was, you know, to bring in outsiders, to bring in people who could breathe fresh air into what was going on, to bring in someone like a Gillian Zucker who's now at the Clippers doing a wonderful job as president, you know, and to just really do with what they've done. And so you're part of that group and you know I really never like to talk about things like you know, diversity and those kinds of things in the way that most other people do right, you know so they look at it, and not with a ton of understanding.
Speaker 1:They just say, oh, she was the first woman, or second woman, or third, or he's the first black you know, and I never really look at it that way because all my life I've always looked at it as bringing that different perspective in, bringing people with a different focus in is really where you get the good stuff, that's really where you get the stuff that allows you to do it. And so, being very familiar with the, with the Richmond track, I just want to segue a little bit and talk about, from your perspective coming from media, coming from you know the perspective of being one of the first few well, the first at Richmond, but one of the in 77 years, but the first group of women that have come in as track presidents. From your perspective, you know what have you seen and what do you think your unique perspective has bought to being as successful as you've been so far.
Speaker 2:I'm not sure it has a lot to do with gender.
Speaker 1:And.
Speaker 2:I know that people tend to want the answer to be something that lends itself to that, but I think it's simply a unique perspective. Because of my background in media, you know, coming as someone who helped other clients promote their brands and business, no matter the industry, I think I have the unique ability to be able to see here's a void that we have to fill, or here's the obstacle that we're overcoming. And right now the obstacle there's many, to be frank, and we aren't alone in that with our sport, but all sports are challenging. Having to overcome the fact that when you watch it on your TV in the comfortability of your own home, the experience is wonderful. The broadcast production quality is just amazing these days and you can do it without having to deal with traffic, et cetera.
Speaker 1:You're never sure about weather.
Speaker 2:So that's hard for any sport these days, and it wasn't always that I can remember, you know, back when I was attending races, a lot of times we still had the antenna, that rapid ears on that TV, and so it was a question mark whether you were going to be able to get the whole thing. So it was better to attend it because you wanted to see who was going to be in the lead those last 10 laps and eventually take the checkered flag. That was special to be there. And so nowadays we have to overcome that, that the broadcast production quality is so good. And then, of course, folks that are in the younger generations becoming more and more used to connecting on their phones or remotely, and that feels sometimes better to a lot of people than to come in person places.
Speaker 2:So the obstacles that we have now are certainly different. And how do we make this place so enticing and the experience so one of a kind and certainly a bucket list item? How do we do that, but not just do it one time, do it over and over and over again, so people want to come back again and again and create memories here. And I think what LaTosha Causey out in Phoenix and Julie Yeesey and up in Chicago Street Course, who's the track president there, and then Don Berlue, who is the newly named Watkins Glen president. What we do is, I mean, we certainly collectively talk a lot about what's working and what's not, even though we all have very different markets, but the one thing is we all have the same bottom line is how do we make this experience something that you have a fear of missing out? You know, and and I think we're doing that in a lot of cases and what's cool is that we're actually seeing a lot of young ladies come, because they're like wow that I didn't even think racing was for me, or multicultural fans.
Speaker 2:I didn't think that was a place that I could feel comfortable coming to because of the the old thoughts about what this sport is.
Speaker 2:But I think that we're certainly reaching new audiences just getting out there, being in front of new audiences, giving a different perspective on how we can have the best fan engagement possible. But I'll tell you I named the four women that I speak with at NASCAR often. But there's incredibly talented track presidents now that are coming from lots of varying backgrounds and we certainly benchmark off each other. We don't want our fan to have the same experience at Richmond as they get at Martinsville. So Clay Campbell, the track president there, and I talk to make sure that a fan is going to get something different because they deserve that.
Speaker 2:We compare and benchmark to even places as far away as like Pocono, to make sure that we're, you know, giving something that maybe we hadn't thought of before here, but not competing, because we're, you know, it's the rising tide concept. So hopefully that answers your question a little bit, but I do think it's making a difference. We certainly all love it to make a quicker difference, more sizably so, but we're all heading in the right direction, and that's a lot more than a lot of sports can say at this time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I agree with you and I think that you answered the question wonderfully and just raised up in my mind all kinds of other things to talk about, Because, you know, as you talk about tracks or people, you know, just things hop in my mind. You know, Julie Giese is an absolute rock star, you know.
Speaker 1:And I've always loved working with her and I thought she brought so much excitement to Phoenix and now to Chicago.
Speaker 1:It's amazing and you know, just thinking about the different tracks, and they all have different personalities, right, and they all have different sort of sort of traditions and ritual and in some tracks it's just different. Different because what you bring, you know you have to bring new stuff Because, as you say, you have these young fans and these young fans have short attention spans and they take things differently and they're used to the little screen and all the rest of that stuff. Young fans and these young fans have short attention spans and they they take things differently and they've, they're used to the little screen and all the rest of that stuff and at minimum, they're still going to be on two or three screens, no matter where they are, because that that's the way that they've. They've learned it. But I learned a lot that you guys have to contend with on a, on a really, you know, day-to-day, week to week and certainly year-to-year basis as you get your cup race. We spent maybe $600 million redoing the Daytona track.
Speaker 1:And we were so proud of what we did and I remember going to the restroom and hearing guys in there complaining because we had this brand new urinal system and they were used to troughs right. And they were lamenting the fact that in the good old days they had troughs right. And I've gone to Talladega where you know guys are really into the fact that you know it's the only track with the jail on it.
Speaker 1:You know they like sort of that part of it and so you got to balance that and that group of people who come out there for that, you know, with the real race fan, who has been particularly the race fan, who is now in a group of people who really feels that they're invited to the track for the first time, as I remember going to Michigan and talking, you know, to senior management and realizing that there are over 10,000 engineers you know, in the automotive industry in, you know, in Detroit, most of whom hadn't taken the trek to the Michigan track and a lot of them were performance and NASCAR fans.
Speaker 1:But they really felt like TV was the way that they needed to appropriate it, because they didn't necessarily feel like, you know, the track was going to be welcome to them with what they understood to be NASCAR Right.
Speaker 1:And I run into people all the time and I challenge them now, you know, with a big smile on my face, to go to a track anywhere and compare that to what's in their mind, to a track anywhere, and compare that to what's in their mind, Because you guys have done such an awesome job every track in really bringing something new and different and there is a lot more diversity out, but more than that, there's just the diversity of ideas and concepts from the midway to inside. You're not going to see what you expect to see. You're going to see something different and you're going to see, you know, a good racing product and you're going to be able to be up close and personal with people that you've never been able to do in any other way. I never go to a basketball game and can brush shoulders with smile, shake hands or talk to the star. You know, even with my access, if I'm carrying a VIP pass, the closest I'm going to get to them is still 10 feet away and they're not looking at me Right.
Speaker 1:But in NASCAR, every track that you go to, I mean like there is a lot of access available.
Speaker 2:You know, you don't feel like you're watching the sport, you feel like in a lot of ways you're part of the sport. Yeah, yeah, you're. You're exactly correct and you you probably know better than anybody that we, a few years back, really updated our infield we call it our fan grounds to play off of the state fairgrounds, but the infield fan grounds is an area that we can have about 8,000 of our fans. They can get an upgraded ticket but they get to get into the garages, they get to see the inspection, they get to see some of the drivers, the red carpet walk that all the drivers take from their driver's meeting right to the pre-race, what we call stage and ceremonies. As you know, that's a really nice long red carpet for us here, and so fans get a very hands-on approach to the best drivers in the world, and that is unique. But I also think it's important and imperative that we do that. We're doing it to, of course, allow the fan to have a better experience and allow the fan to have a better experience.
Speaker 2:But our athletes are unlike other athletes in other sports, where when you see a basketball player shoot a basket, you can see their face, you can see the emotion when they miss one, when a wide receiver misses a catch on the football field, you certainly can see the frustration, and when they rip their helmet off or they're getting upset with themselves or even other teammates, you can be part of that and you feel part of that. But when you are here at a racetrack it can be challenging because you don't get to see the facial expressions. Our drivers are not only behind a helmet but they're behind a car, and so it's hard to see and feel part of the emotion unless you have a driver specifically that you're a fan of and you get to know their personality eventually through their driving. You know the Tony Stewart days of. You know.
Speaker 2:I mean you definitely knew how Tony felt, even if he was in the helmet and in the car, when you watched him on the racetrack. And, of course, dale Earnhardt and these new next gen cars they're definitely interesting for the drivers and the teams to maneuver and they're all figuring that out still a couple of years into this. So I think it's important that we continue to provide our fans the access to our drivers when they come out, so that they can get to know them, they can see them, they can be part of the emotion, feel part of the experience and then eventually root them on, and so I think that that's definitely key. But it is incredible the experience that you get down on those fan grouts because you can actually watch the race at Richmond from right inside the entire time if you wanted to. And that's just how cool is that? I mean you truly feel it, smell it, hear it. All of the senses are highly stimulated and it's the perfect mix of just history and culture and being in a perfectly interesting sport. So it's been fun.
Speaker 1:Great. So I have a question now about the business of running a racetrack. So you're the chief executive and so there are metrics that you're being judged on, you know, every year by NASCAR. You know whether it be, you know, fans, ticket sales or whatever the metrics might be. So, coming into this business and having that kind of latitude as well as pressure on occasion, what's easy that you thought would be hard and what's hard that you thought would be easy.
Speaker 2:Easy. That I thought would be hard is probably connecting with fans. I didn't realize how much I was going to enjoy that specific component of this job and understanding their stories and where they came from and how they got to this track that particular day and how long they've been a racing fan and just the memories that, the fact that all the memories that I hear are just, they're unique, unique and it just really speaks to you know the reach of this sport and the impact that we've made in. You know the decades of racing. So I think that and that was something I didn't know that I would enjoy that much and thought it might be a little difficult for me, especially coming in as the first female track president here. I thought that I was going to get more pushback, although I certainly have had my fair share, but that's okay with me. I mean, I certainly expected that and they should hold anyone in this position to a very high standard because there's such a storied history here Hard that I thought might be easy.
Speaker 2:You know, I guess I did not realize and I should have how much of our track here is underground in pipes and you know it's the HVAC systems, it's the plumbing, it's those kinds of things that are millions of dollars, that you know.
Speaker 2:It's the HVAC systems, it's the plumbing, it's those kinds of things that are millions of dollars, that you know when they break you have to spend millions in order to get it back. And it's very frustrating to me because I want every single dollar we spend here, the fan, to be able to see it. When they come on the property and feel it or touch it or smell it. I want them to notice we just spent $10 million. And it's frustrating because you know we have 108 HVAC units here. We have I can't even tell you how many feet of piping that is, you know, 78 years old at this time in some cases, and so. But that means that it's a priority that we keep people comfortable and safe and healthy, and so those are where we end up putting a lot of our dollars. And so I think that that's probably the area that I just didn't expect that it would be that sizable, although I should have.
Speaker 1:Very interesting. So you know a lot of listeners will have never been to the Richmond track, which is an amazing, you know beautiful piece of property that has you know land and it has other you know buildings, venues on the property. It's just a really interesting property.
Speaker 1:So when we got on the call this morning, this afternoon, to do the podcast, to take the podcast, you know you were in the midst of a regular busy day, because a lot of people when they go to tracks don't realize that the tracks just don't do race car stuff that you do a lot more, but talk a little bit about just your property what, what happens on it, because it's actually amazing, the different kinds of activities that happen and what you have.
Speaker 2:Right, well, you're, you're exactly right. You know we have about 1100 acres here of property and that consists of, of course, a short, a three quarter mile D shaped oval short track. We this property, as I mentioned earlier, was also home to the State Fair of Virginia. It was home to horse racing for many, many decades as well, and so we have some components that are still from those days. We have five different exhibit slash, expo hall buildings with a little more than 150,000 square feet of that combined, and throughout the year we actually have about 120 to 130 different events. Some are open to the public, like RV shows, boat shows, auto shows, some and, of course, lots of craft shows for the ladies who enjoy or the men who enjoy a craft show. And then we also have a concert amphitheater that seats just around 7,000 and it can host up to about 10,000.
Speaker 2:And we bring in nationally known artists, usually about 10 times a year, and and you know we've got we've got four concerts scheduled coming up. Two of those are sold out. Megan Maroney is a country singer that's very popular right now, and then we have Teddy Swims, who just won a number of Grammys. Those are two of the artists that we have, but we've had. You know, it's really interesting because people believe I think. So. It's really interesting because people believe, I think that we only operate once or twice a year for approximately the seven to ten days that we welcome race fans here. But the reality is that the little over a million attendees that come onto this property every year, most of them are actually coming for an expo or exhibit hall or concert event, and it's just, you know, about $110,000 or so a year of that $1.3 million that come for the racing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's amazing. A lot to oversee. Just within the last couple of days, canada has a new prime minister and the prime minister spoke gave an interview yesterday and in it he was talking about sort of the headwinds that Canada is in the midst of and he talked of course about, you know, the new administration and tariffs and those kinds of things.
Speaker 1:But he also said that this has been one of the most difficult years ever because they've had to deal with weather and from their fires to just extreme, extreme cold weather and they're to the north of us. They've had to deal with these things that you know. Heretofore they never had to deal with in the way they had to deal with it this year, where it actually affected the economy, deal with and the way they had to deal with it this year, where it actually affected the economy and I know similarly, you know the weather is becoming more and more and more a factor.
Speaker 1:You know, in outdoor sports and I know that you know over the in the recent past, nascar has made a number of moves and we used to do more stuff in Miami and stuff at the end of the season and those.
Speaker 1:But because of the weather we've moved to other places and there are tracks in 33 states, so there's a possibility of doing that. So in Richmond, how has that looked for you? And, as different things have happened, and there have been a couple of pretty intense weather things that happened this winter, you know, in Virginia.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:Exactly yeah, yeah. How are you dealing with that and what do you see in the future as a means of sort of to figure that one out?
Speaker 2:Well, I really hope that in the future I can control the weather that we have here, but I don't think that's an answer for me the weather that we have here, but I don't think that's as hard for me.
Speaker 2:But you know we, if you're talking specifically about race time, the seven days or so that we have folks on the property and I think most of your listeners know this but and I know you know this, but we actually we have, you know, about a thousand camping sites on the property and those campers are able to move in, starting on the Tuesday of race week. And so you know whether the, whether the entire week leading up to the NASCAR cup race day is something that we're very mindful of. And in the spring last year we actually had the Easter race. I don't know if you recall that and and unfortunately it's, it's, it's it. It was at the time of the year that you know it's Raining very heavily here, off and on and in fact Cup Day, the NASCAR Cup Day it rained.
Speaker 2:The cool thing that NASCAR has done as a whole for short tracks and on most road courses is they developed in partnership with Goodyear a wet weather radial and, in layman's terms, it allows our drivers and our competition, our race, to continue on with these different tires that are safe for our drivers and teams to run in wet weather and we say it can't be pouring down, of course, but there can be moisture in the air, there can be a light drizzle, they are able to navigate and still continue and that's huge for our race fans because that means that that's not going to be a lot of delay here and they're still going to get some really interesting racing because, as you can imagine, that definitely presents unique opportunities and challenges to our drivers and teams.
Speaker 2:So the strategy is different when that happens, when they put those different tires on. That's one answer, and we were the first track last spring that was a points race to actually utilize the wet weather radials and it was really, really cool. We utilized them the first, I think, 31 laps of our spring race and it was just. It was, it was history making for us and they've since been used other times to with a lot of success. If you cut to our summer race, you know, in Richmond and in the mid Atlantic in general, we are, we can run really warm here.
Speaker 2:You know we can have easily a hundred degree days, which I had, you know, a couple summers ago. We had that here, and so that presents a whole different set of challenges. And so, you know, we as a team are supposed to and make sure we prepare and over prepare for examples like that. So we bring in, you know, more first responders to make sure that we can adequately account for anybody who might have a heat condition. We bring in lots more cooling tents. We, you know, end up giving out waters. There's lots, there's a lot of things that we do to navigate to make sure everyone's safe and has a really fun experience.
Speaker 2:And the weather is secondary to the memories they're making here.
Speaker 2:And then I will say that those are that's sort of during the cup time, race time.
Speaker 2:In fact, I remember last summer the tropical storm, tropical Storm Debbie, came through, that's right, and so we had some significantly high winds, and we just work overtime to make sure that we can accommodate and keep everyone who is here on the property as safe and dry as possible and still have a great experience, because you know they're all paying, you know, good money, they're giving of their time and they deserve to make sure that they have still a good time in spite of Mother Nature, so that's what we do during the Cups. Throughout the rest of the year, the same sort of story applies. Our amphitheater only runs during the warmer months, and then occasionally we have to deal with weather issues, but luckily, our team is just so top-notch and we're in touch with meteorologists around the clock. In fact, we have one on call all the time, and so it's good to have the support system of NASCAR, knowing that this is something that you can't always control, but how you respond to it is what matters.
Speaker 1:Yep, yep, yep absolutely.
Speaker 2:As we wind down.
Speaker 1:I have a question that I found that over the interviews has been relatively important. I get a lot of feedback on people and their answers to this question. When I was a managing director and I was looking at positions CEO positions and when I got one, one of my mentors at a large company told me. He said listen, larry, you have been as you've come up using the analogy of a car you've been the guy who's driven the car.
Speaker 1:But now you're going to be the guy who has to like lift up the hood, look, figure out what's going on. Change the tires. You know and he just talked about every aspect of the car that now. I would be responsible for as a CEO and the leap from being a managing director, where you think that you're managing everything to being a CEO was huge, but thankfully, you know, but but, but thankfully, you know, got through that and have had several since then.
Speaker 1:So, in this role that you have, what have you now learned? That you could tell an executive coming up. You know what, what, what lessons have you learned?
Speaker 2:running this racetrack? That is a really unique and interesting question, you know.
Speaker 2:I think that what I would share is, no matter what position you're in, at no matter what level, you have to be coachable, and that's probably because my father was a coach for such a long time and I always heard from him, and when his players would come back and visit him, that he was a coach for such a long time and I always heard from him, and when his players would come back and visit him, that he was a great coach.
Speaker 2:But he said it doesn't matter how good the coach coach is if the student or the player is not coachable, and so, no matter what, I'm really trying to still learn a lot from others around me.
Speaker 2:I definitely surround myself and this is very cliche sounding, but I certainly surround myself with people that are far smarter than I am, and then I try to help them knock down the obstacles, but I still learn a lot from them. I learn a lot from the leadership at NASCAR and those who've been in the industry, but I also and maybe the greatest coaches that I have are our fans. You know they have given me pointers, they've made suggestions, they've shared some of their frustrations, they've shared some of their you know great ideas and, to the extent that I can learn and be coached by them, it certainly helps, and so I think that that's probably what I would say is just it kind of doesn't matter, although you're correct, it is a big leap sometimes to go from one position to another, because the level of accountability and responsibility you feel increases, as it should. But I think the common denominator is that I've tried to act with humility and gratitude and I try to be as coachable as possible.
Speaker 1:Still, yeah, look, time has flown by. You've been such a delightful guest. This was a lot of fun and I can't wait until my next time coming down to the track, as a matter of fact, I cannot wait either.
Speaker 2:You're always such a fun fan to have here. As a matter of fact, I cannot wait either. You're always such a fun fan to have here, larry, and we can't wait to have you back.
Speaker 1:Hey, appreciate it. This has been admire and my guest has been laurie warren, president of the track at richmond raceway um so please subscribe to the podcast on any of your favorite podcast platforms. Thank you, till next time.