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CHARLOTTE, N.C. – JANUARY 27: JTG Daugherty Racing co-owner Tad Geschickter speaks to the media during the NASCAR Sprint Media Tour at Charlotte Convention Center on January 27, 2014 in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Photo by Rainier Ehrhardt\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Getty Images<\/p>\n
Tad Geschickter spent 30 years as a Nascar team owner, first in the Xfinity Series before moving to the Cup Series. As the team he co-owned with wife Jodi grew, they partnered with NBA legend Brad Daugherty to form JTG Daugherty Racing in 2009. <\/p>\n
The Geschickters witnessed the highest of highs and lowest of lows as Nascar Cup Series team owners. They won the 2023 Daytona 500 with Ricky Stenhouse Jr., but they also struggled mightily at times as primarily a single-car program (ran two cars for five seasons).<\/p>\n
Last year, they opted to sell their share of JTG Daugherty Racing, which now operates as Hyak Motorsports with a group led by principal owner Gordon Smith. But Geschickter, 63, could not stay away from racing, as his Brand Activation Maximizer (BAM) agency still manages Kroger\u2019s Nascar effort. Kroger notably swapped teams, going from the No. 47 group to be featured on all three RFK Racing Fords in 2025.<\/p>\n
Now, BAM is welcoming Sysco, a major food distribution firm, into Nascar. Sysco is having a soft launch to its Nascar sponsorship program as the 2025 Cup Series season comes to a close. Ryan Preece\u2019s No. 60 Ford will feature Crumbl at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Cole Custer\u2019s No. 41 Ford will sport RaceTrac colors at Talladega. While further details have yet to be announced, BAM confirmed there is a plan in place to expand the Sysco program in 2026.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s always exciting when you bring in new companies that are interested in the sport,\u201d Geschickter said. “Sysco will be a little different than the vertical with Kroger, but very similar. We can use these Nascar activations to help their clients \u2013 restaurants \u2013 drive more traffic and sales, which automatically helps Sysco. Everyone shares costs and wins together in it.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom a BAM perspective, it\u2019s about finding the right personality and demographic as a spokesperson. If a brand is an exclusive in the Kroger program, one might choose to be an exclusive in the Sysco program. It\u2019s like a Rubik\u2019s cube of figuring out how to put it all together.\u201d<\/p>\n
BAM structured its Kroger marketing program in a unique way. Essentially, it is a sponsorship vertical with Kroger at the forefront of the program. The vendor-funded program then enables different companies to be featured as primary sponsors, similar to how Menards runs its operation with different organizations across the top three national series. <\/p>\n
BAM manages the vertical from every aspect with capabilities such as merchandising opportunities, brand awareness campaigns, at-track hospitality and business-to-business relationship building among several other assets provided by the agency.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur strategy grew organically,\u201d Geschickter said. “I grew up with Procter & Gamble, and they\u2019re very into creating a brand and a point of difference. Our retail background \u2013 our ability to turn sponsorship into case sales \u2013 is what we really focused on. Sponsorship isn\u2019t just an advertising or marketing vehicle. But if you structure it properly, it can be used as a sales tool that delivers measurable growth for the participating brands.<\/p>\n
Kroger has certainly seen the benefit of its Nascar program over the years. It\u2019s a sponsor that has historical ties to the sport, dating back to the late 1980s with driver Connie Slayor. It became more prominent in Nascar beginning in 2010 with Marcos Ambrose at JTG before 2000 Cup champion Bobby Labonte took the reins of the No. 47 car in 2011.<\/p>\n
“Tad Geschickter and his team at BAM have truly been the backbone to the Kroger Racing program now for more than a decade,\u201d Brent Cox, director of health and baby care at Kroger, said. \u201cBAM has enabled Kroger and its vendor partners to capitalize on all aspects of the program in a successful way to showcase not only brand awareness, but an overall return on their investment. We\u2019re proud of the relationship and look forward to continuing to find success on the track and on the shelves.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, the vertical concept has not spread much outside of the Kroger program and Menards, which currently works with Team Penske,Joe Gibbs Racing and ThorSport Racing.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt starts with having the right people with industry knowledge for the sponsorship you\u2019re working with,\u201d Geschickter said. \u201cYou have to carry them through to the last mile, which is the point of purchase in the store.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Geschickter announced the sale of his share of the team he built, he said he \u201cwasn\u2019t sure what it was going to be like.\u201d But now that he is focusing his time on BAM, he is seeing results in the same way he did as a team owner. <\/p>\n
\u201cI loved every minute of our 30 years of owning a Nascar team,\u201d Geschickter said. \u201cBut life happens and you have other things that take up your time. Nascar is not something you can do without being 24\/7 on it. It was the right time to sell [my share of] the team, and we\u2019ve really been gratified with how our marketing company has taken off since we focused just on that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Geschickter, who is still visible in the Nascar garage, does not see himself owning a team or entering an ownership group again. <\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t have the same gas in the tank as I did when we started it [JTG],\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m not sure I have enough energy to run several companies at once. I think we\u2019d do a disservice if we looked to get back into it. But never say never. We certainly enjoyed it and we\u2019re big believers in the sport as a marketing platform.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kroger has been a primary sponsor of an RFK entry in 26 of the 32 races thus far in 2025. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHARLOTTE, N.C. – JANUARY 27: JTG Daugherty Racing co-owner Tad Geschickter speaks to the media during the NASCAR…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":193236,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[10136,49,48,8078,96259,94508,96258,634,32392,1702,9537,82,96257],"class_list":["post-193235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-bam","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cole-custer","tag-haas-factory-team","tag-hyak-motorsports","tag-jtg-daugherty-racing","tag-nascar","tag-rfk-racing","tag-ricky-stenhouse-jr","tag-ryan-preece","tag-sports","tag-tad-geschickter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193235\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/193236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}