Since 23XI Racing’s inception ahead of the 2021 season, Xfinity had its eyes on the upstart team. It was hoping to do business with the Denny Hamlin– and Michael Jordan-owned organization as they filled out their sponsorship portfolio.
The ensuing partnership simply made sense. Both brands are innovative, forward-looking and are trying to push NASCAR to the next level. Come the beginning of the 2023 season, a deal was struck.
“We’ve talked to 23XI for the last couple of years, honestly, since their first year in the sport,” Matt Lederer, Comcast’s vp of brand partnerships and amplifications, said. “We’re always trying to figure out new and different ways to engage with the NASCAR fans, and having a relationship with a team was one potential way.
“[23XI] jumped off the page with a brand alignment perspective.”
Previously, Xfinity had endorsement deals with Kevin Harvick and Alex Bowman. It sponsored Joe Gibbs Racing entries in multiple events, highlighted by consecutive wins from Carl Edwards during the 2016 season with Comcast Business on the hood of his Toyota at Bristol Motor Speedway and Xfinity sponsoring the No. 19 ride at Richmond Raceway, when he nudged Kyle Busch out of the way on the final lap.
Incorporating race teams into Xfinity’s business strategy is tactical. It adds additional name value to the messaging that Xfinity has in the sport as one of the premier partners of the Cup Series and its 10th season as the entitlement sponsor of the Xfinity Series.
“Being able to work with drivers and teams and have the driver be an additional voice of messaging for your brand provides a level of authenticity,” Lederer said. “As great as our governing partnership is, there’s something different when your favorite driver or a driver is touting the importance of the brand or touring the attributes of the brand – or thanking the brand. It provides us a different level of messaging and authenticity.”
Xfinity replicates that same authenticity with its partnership with the Olympics, being a proud partner of Team USA. Still, the brand had to be smart about when it embedded itself into being with a NASCAR team.
“We were strategic about when we did it,” Lederer added. “We didn’t jump into it in a big way right out of the gate with the partnership, we slowly rolled into it with one or two races here and there because we wanted to establish ourselves at the support level.”
During the 2023 season, Xfinity sponsored two-time Xfinity Series champion Tyler Reddick in a pair of races at Atlanta Motor Speedway and Richmond. At Richmond, 23XI also included West Coast Customs on the No. 45 Toyota, with the company building a customized Camry that featured the same paint scheme as Reddick’s car.
The biggest event of the season for Xfinity was its coveted Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Speedway in the penultimate race. Both Reddick and Bubba Wallace, along with 23XI President Steve Lauletta, were on a panel hosted for Xfinity Rewards customers. Wallace’s No. 23 car was draped in Xfinity purple for the 500-lap race with more than 60 rewards customers having a selfie on its hood.
“[Xfinity has] recognition and we were only in our third year and we are still building a brand in 23XI,” Lauletta said. “Being aligned with a major player in not only NASCAR, but the sports base, was very appealing to us. There are a lot of levers to push and pull when you have a brand like Xfinity aligned with your team, and we were excited about that.”
Xfinity had time with Wallace and Reddick from a production and a creation standpoint. The brand was consistently represented on each driver’s firesuit. There were plenty of pit box VIP access, driver meet-and-greets and appearances included.
More impressively, 23XI created an Xfinity Connection Hub it used during practice and qualifying days so drivers, crew chiefs and engineers could gather around on pit road to focus on the task at hand. During the playoffs, Wallace made it to the final round of qualifying in nine out of 10 weekends, including his second career pole at Texas Motor Speedway.
Retaining sponsors with the name value like Xfinity is incredibly important for 23XI Racing – and all teams – as it continues to grow. The two sides will partner again for the 2024 season.
“We have two goals: be very competitive on the racetrack and be a force to be reckoned with both Bubba, Tyler and our cars,” Lauleetta said. “The second is to deliver value to our partners. If you don’t deliver that value then they don’t stay with you. We worked very hard in developing ideas.
“We are trying to break through and do unique programming with our team, drivers and brand and it takes innovative partners like Xfinity that see the value in doing that, as well. Having them want to continue with us and we would like to identify more unique things that we can do together as we move into 2024 is what we live to do every day and we’re very proud that they want to stay a part of the 23XI family.”
In two races representing the Xfinity colors this season, Reddick was in the hunt in the spring race at Atlanta Motor Speedway, finishing fifth while battling the flu. He won the pole for the summer race at Richmond and led his first laps – 81 of them – on a short track. During the Xfinity 500 weekend at Martinsville, Wallace finished 11th.
Dustin joined the Frontstretch team at the beginning of the 2016 season. 2020 marks his sixth full-time season covering the sport that he grew up loving. His dream was to one day be a NASCAR journalist, thus why he attended Ithaca College (Class of 2018) to earn a journalism degree. Since the ripe age of four, he knew he wanted to be a storyteller.