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<\/p>\nReel Racing: The Movie Paint Scheme Chronicle, 2023-2025<\/p>\n
The result? The collaboration produced some of the most traffic VMS has seen across social media and at-track autograph sessions. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe craziest part to me was that I walked with Matt at Indy from the garage to the car for qualifying, and I\u2019ve never seen \u2014 I\u2019ve known Matt for a long time \u2014 I\u2019ve never him sign more autographs in a 45-minute, 300-yard walk than ever before,\u201d VMS general manager Jeremy Lange told Frontstretch. <\/p>\n
What sparked the idea for the partnership was a united mission between Clear 28 Agency (a motorsports marketing agency representing several drivers and brands) and VMS to promote the debut of the Bananas\u2019 games on The CW.<\/p>\n
\u201cInitial ideation came between Clear 28 and Viking Motorsports in trying to put together program that, with The CW being a great partner for the Xfinity Series that was having the debut broadcast for the Savannah Bananas, and they were playing in [Philadelphia] on Sunday the 27th (of July), and we were racing Indy on the 26th,\u201d Lange said. \u201cWe reached out to The CW as a collective unit. I reached out to Matt Elder (Director of Brand Parternships at CW Sports) after a conversation with John and the team at Clear 28, and said, \u2018Hey, what do you think about this?\u2019 He said, \u2018I love the idea.\u2019 Pushed up the flagpole to the marketing team, we got in touch with the marketing team, and off to the races, no pun intended.\u201d <\/p>\n
Off to the races and into the algorithms of social media it went. The new coalition brought unprecedented exposure, with two of the social media posts stemming from the partnership landing as the most engaged posts VMS had on its platforms. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt was tremendous exposure for a team our size, and Clear 28, John [Lewensten, Chief Growth Office of Clear 28], and I are in lockstep trying to find innovative ways to get exposure for our race team and knowing that exposure and access,\u201d Lange said. \u201cTrying to gain exposure and trying to gain sponsorship and partnerships, and this program was a really good case study for us to show what a team our size can do for a brand like the Savannah Bananas and CW, and it was also a great way to partner up with the CW in the sense of them being the new home for the Xfinity Series.\u201d<\/p>\n
Just like the fluid, ramped-up speed of Bananas games compared to traditional baseball, the partnership to get the ball rolling for VMS was rather rapid. After receiving approval from the CW and Bananas to move forward, the team had roughly five weeks to get all of the parts and pieces in place. Exemplifying just how devoted the organization was to making this a successful project, one of the most complex details involved the fire suit.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe biggest thing was the fire suit,\u201d Lange recalled. \u201cThe fire suit is made in Italy through K1, so getting that designed \u2014 we went through a few revisions \u2014 I had a vision of wanting it to look like a baseball uniform, which is why you had the white pants, the blue socks, and the jersey. That was the vision we had, and we wanted to make that come to life, and then we matched the crew shirts to make them look like the Bananas uniforms.\u201d <\/p>\n
As mentioned, Lange has spent several years alongside DiBenedetto, working with him when he raced in the NASCAR Cup Series for Leavine Family Racing. The 34-year-old fan favorite is no stranger to putting himself out there, from wearing boxing gloves and gear at driver introductions to going all-in on Barstool Sports sponsorship. And with the Bananas activation, Lange expected nothing different from his driver.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve put Matt in some very comfortable situations, at LFR and here,\u201d Lange said with a laugh. \u201cAnd I\u2019ll continue to do so because I have a driver in a sense that I know is willing to do whatever it takes for the partnership.\u201d <\/p>\n
As someone who has seen DiBenedetto transition through the highs of making it to the NASCAR Cup Series, the lows of searching for a job and now in a season of trying to savor the opportunity at hand, Lange believes it has expanded DiBenedetto\u2019s freedom to have fun with things like this partnership.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s funny because I texted Matt and said, \u2018Hey man, I know it\u2019s last minute, I know you\u2019re flying out in the morning, but it\u2019d be great if you and (Taylor, DiBenedetto\u2019s wife) could do just a quick dance video,\u201d Lange said. \u201cHe\u2019s like, \u2018Man, I\u2019ve already finished it, posted it in five minutes.\u2019 And that just shows you he\u2019s not afraid to not to embarrass himself, but he\u2019s not afraid to do something that puts himself in an uncomfortable position for the benefit of the partnership.\u201d<\/p>\n
The excitement surrounding the partnership carried over after DiBenedetto tallied a solid 11th-place result in the Banana car at Indianapolis. Both he and Lange were able to experience first-hand the adrenaline rush that Banana Ball brings by attending the team\u2019s game in Philadelphia the next day, where DiBenedetto had the opportunity to throw out the first banana (a banana is used in place of a baseball). <\/p>\n
Lange has been to the Super Bowl, World Series games and the Olympics, but none left him speechless and as welcomed as the Bananas did.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were beyond friendly,\u201d Langley said. \u201cThey made sure Matt was comfortable doing the first banana throw-out. They made sure of all of it, right? They checked to make sure that, \u2018Hey, how do you say the name of the race team? Hey, did you finish 11th? [Founded] last year, right?\u2019 They made sure they knew all of the facts.\u201d<\/p>\n
2-Headed Monster: Do the NASCAR Playoffs Focus on the Wrong Storylines?<\/p>\n While NASCAR is about as fast-paced as they come, the orchestration and flow of events impressed Lange. <\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t want to spill how they do things, but I saw their run of the show: it\u2019s to the minute,\u201d Lange said. \u201cI\u2019ve done a lot of shows in my career. I\u2019ve never done one to the minute. They literally said, \u2018Hey, can I get Matt on an interview in the Tailgaters dugout from 3.07 to 3.07.45. He\u2019s got 45 seconds [\u2026] So, it was fascinating to see the behind-the-scenes, but at the same time, they were beyond welcoming the whole time.\u201d<\/p>\n The experiment proved invaluable to the team\u2019s ability to innovate collaborations and sell itself to other potential partners, proving it can execute under the brightest of spotlights. As a result, VMS received the most exposure it had experienced from both a broadcast perspective, as well as its online presence. <\/p>\n Moving forward, the success from the collaboration brings the goal of outsourcing VMS\u2019 marketing ventures to groups such as Clear 28 into a clearer view, allowing the growing team to focus on the racing side, taking it one step at a time. <\/p>\n \u201cBy having partners like Clear 28 behind the scenes and along for the ride, I don\u2019t worry about any partner coming on board because we are fully, I don\u2019t want to say fully staffed, but we work with Clear 28 for a reason,\u201d Lange said. \u201cWe feel like they can help us achieve our goals. We would not be able to pull this off without Clear 28.<\/p>\n \u201cThat was a strategic goal of our\u2019s going into the season, we\u2019re going to outsource our marketing and let someone oversee it for us so we can focus on racing, because at the end of the day, we\u2019re a race team,\u201d Lange said. \u201cIf you look at Viking Motorsports, we\u2019re a race team, not a marketing agency, we\u2019re not a sales agency, we\u2019re a race team. And I think by having Clear 28 handle those things for us, it allows us and me to focus on the competitive side and the operations side, and allow the racing to take care of itself.\u201d<\/p>\n Lange\u2019s vision for VMS is clear: don\u2019t be a \u201cflash in the pan,\u201d but rather, focus on incremental, methodical growth to ensure long-term sustainability while getting closer to the pinnacle with each passing season. And because of partnerships like the one with the Bananas, the team continues to hit home runs of its own as it grows in the Xfinity Series.<\/p>\n Since finishing 11th at Indianapolis, DiBenedetto has only posted one top-20 finish, another 11th-place result at St. Louis.<\/p>\n Entering his fifth year with Frontstretch, Luken Glover is the author of\u00a0The Underdog House, shedding light on the motivation and performance of NASCAR’s dark horse teams as they strive to fight to the top. Additionally, Glover reports for the site at various events, and he contributes in the video editing department.<\/p>\n A 2023 graduate of the University of the Cumberlands, Glover is a middle school math and PE teacher, as well as a basketball coach. He is passionate about serving in his church, playing\/coaching a wide variety of sports, and researching motorsports history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The \u201cGreatest Show in Sports\u201d has taken full effect of the sports and entertainment world with the explosion…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":199202,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-199201","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nascar","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nascar","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199201","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=199201"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199201\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/199202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Denny](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/2025-charlotte-roval-cup-denny-hamlin-ross-chastain-racing-nkp-150x100.jpg\")
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