Industry Insights: Jill Gregory

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From corporate boardrooms to herding sheep—not to mention race teams, fans, and sponsors—at Sonoma Raceway, this former NASCAR executive’s motorsports career has been about managing change.

Jill Gregory took over management of Sonoma Raceway at the beginning of 2021. It would take going back to early 1942 to find a more challenging time to successfully run a race track. Gregory came to Sonoma with a strong background in marketing and motorsports management. Before moving west, she served as executive vice president and chief marketing and content officer at NASCAR. In that role, she was responsible for marketing, media relations, communications, and broadcasting, as well as diversity and inclusion functions for NASCAR. Finally, she was responsible for the sanctioning body’s digital presence, including NASCAR.com, the NASCAR Mobile app, social media, and fantasy games.

Before joining NASCAR, Gregory ran motorsports marketing for Bank of America, and managed the marketing of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series for Sprint Nextel. In 2011, she was selected for the inaugural class of “Game Changers: Women in Sports Business” by Sports Business Journal and Sports Business Daily.

Compared to all that, just running a world-class race course in California’s wine country would seem like a vacation. To top it off, this was a homecoming. Gregory is originally from California, having grown up in the state’s vast Central Valley in the city of Modesto. She earned a degree in journalism from California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo.

We caught up with Gregory to talk about the state of racing as the nation emerges from the pandemic, and her ideas on how to bring more people out to the nation’s race tracks in the future. 

PRI: You’ve come to Sonoma with a great background in racing and motorsports. How do you think your prior experience prepared you to lead this unique facility?

Gregory: Like any other business, motorsport seems to be one of those where relationships and connections are everything. All of my previous stops along the way have given me the right experience to take on the challenge at Sonoma. To your point, it’s a little different in layout than a traditional NASCAR track, but NASCAR is only one component of what we do here. The branding and the marketing experience that I’ve had from a sponsor side, and from the sanctioning body side, have given me a well-rounded approach to what we want to do here at Sonoma.

PRI: Among the biggest challenges at any raceway anywhere in the country are the neighbors and the neighborhood. Sonoma has had its share of resistance in the past. How are you dealing with that, and do you have any advice you could give to other facility managers?

Gregory: Being a good neighbor is a good rule, whether in your personal life or your professional life. As a race track, we have a unique assignment and responsibility to be mindful of our neighbors. No track more so than ours. We’re almost in the gateway of the Sonoma Valley, so we need to be mindful of our role in this community. A lot of [track] neighbors have the same concerns. If we are being good neighbors and staying in good communication, that puts us in a good position.

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With an impressive motorsports background that includes marketing and management roles at NASCAR, Jill Gregory is well-suited to running one of the nation’s top road racing venues. 

PRI: How do you do that? What steps have you taken? 

Gregory: Through COVID, we’ve been able to contribute even more to the neighborhood. We’ve had several community events here at Sonoma Raceway, but we’ve always been very connected to the community through our charitable donations. We’ve also acted as emergency centers for some of the wildfires and other natural disasters out here in Sonoma. 

We’ve been able to act as a command post for the Sonoma County Sheriff and other law enforcement and various firefighters here. There’s fair amount of elevation here. Our command center that plays a crucial role during a race weekend was also a place where a lot of our first responders could take advantage of the viewpoint to assess different situations. We also had a lot of displaced residents here during the wildfires. This is pre-pandemic obviously, but with a lot of campgrounds and a lot of real estate here, we’ve been able to act as a location to take care of people. So, all of those things go into being a good community member. Then when it’s time to figure out how to get back to business during COVID, we have a lot of strong relationships that help us do that.

PRI: Has the pandemic changed the way you do business with both big public events and smaller events like SCCA races or other track uses?

Gregory: It really has. The 2020 racing season was essentially canceled here in Sonoma and in all of California. While I was at NASCAR, we spent the better part of 2020 trying to determine what would be the right way to resume our business, whether that was without fans or virtually through iRacing and then moving on slowly to bring fans back in a safe manner.

That was on a national level in 2020, but when I arrived in 2021, California was still in a more restrictive situation than some other race tracks. I can’t speak for everyone, but we really had to become more nimble and more flexible in our business model. Now that we’re coming out of the pandemic, our challenge as business leaders is to determine what changes we made during 2020 and 2021 will make sense to keep, because they led to a nimbler operating model.

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After taking the helm of Sonoma Raceway, Jill Gregory’s first order of business was to navigate through the pandemic; although racing had resumed by 2021, California still had significant restrictions.

PRI: Can you detail some of those changes? 

Gregory: Whether it’s big fan-facing events like NASCAR races or car enthusiasts and clubs and racing experiences, we’re trying to evaluate what is the best way to keep fan engagement going, but how do we do it in a way that takes into account some of the new expectations that either a fan or a partner or a community has.

PRI: What are those new expectations? 

Gregory: If we didn’t have a race track on the property, it could be called a working farm. We’re working on water collection and mitigation issues. I’m looking out my window right now, and our flock of sheep is out here mowing the grass. We have a lot of environmental assignments here, to make sure that we are conducting and running this facility in the most efficient way possible. You’re really going to see us lean into green and sustainability efforts. We’re a natural fit for that effort here at Sonoma. Even the clients that we have, we’ve been hosting several electric vehicle brands and models here for proof of concept.

We also have a significant autonomous vehicle testing program that’s been out here since November. 

The challenge we have is trying to make sure that we can conduct all of these commercial endeavors but do it without ignoring our environmental impact. We have a lot of programs that we need to put in place to make sure that we are delivering on sustainability and green messaging.

One other challenge that I’d be remiss by not mentioning, and I know this is not unique to our race track, but as we ramp back up and add to our staff after a couple years of contraction, we have to find good people to come and help us run this race track. Hiring and retaining employees and providing a great work environment is something that’s a priority across every facility. The workforce challenges are fairly well documented in the world right now. We’re not immune to that.

PRI: You’ve been involved in promoting diversity and inclusion at NASCAR. That has been a very public effort NASCAR has made. How do you think the motorsports industry can encourage diversity and inclusion and make the sport more welcoming to more people?

Gregory: It was really important to me as I shifted my career from NASCAR to Sonoma Raceway to make sure that diversity, equity, and inclusion are still a priority. You’re seeing a lot more entities make this a priority. My feeling is, if we don’t state it as a goal and set metrics and objectives toward it, then it’s not going to be successful. We’ve gotten better as an industry, but we need to stay diligent in promoting those programs. 

For us, we need to attract fans and market specifically to them, make a wider group of fans feel welcome here at the track. We want any fan who loves racing, who loves speed, who loves the passion and excitement of NASCAR. It will be our job to bring those fans out here, because once they’re out here and they see racing, whether it’s a big NASCAR weekend or even getting in a hot lap car, we know they’ll be hooked. We just have to tell more people and showcase what the excitement of racing is all about.

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Besides its annual NASCAR weekend, Sonoma Raceway hosts a vast array of smaller events, such as the Winter Jam drifting festival. The busy schedule is now being conducted with lean staffing brought on by the pandemic.

PRI: You’ve worked a lot in digital marketing. Do you think influencers are important, or are they noise at the periphery? How can facilities utilize influencers to get their messages out?

Gregory: I don’t think there’s been a formula that has really proved tried and true. Influencers, used properly, can really showcase and accelerate your fan appeal and awareness. An influencer program where you put NASCAR or any form of racing in front of someone who doesn’t really understand it, or has been intimidated, or doesn’t know how to follow our sport, can be very impactful, but we need to make sure that we have a plan.

To be effective, you really have to understand what you’re trying to get out of it. That might be different from market to market. You may just want a lot of eyeballs on your event, in which case it could be about awareness. But if you’re really trying to drive engagement, then you have to have a very calculated plan, with metrics. That’s where some influencer marketing programs fall down, because it’s not enough to get someone to your event. You need to have them engage with it and show their enthusiasm and passion. It has to be that next step, or you might not get as much out of it.

PRI: Pulling the lens back, what do you think is the role of marketing and branding in motorsports in the modern era? 

Gregory: Sponsor branding has always been a part of motorsports, but if we’re going to continue to grow, what we’re looking at here in Sonoma is, what is the brand of the raceway? What makes it unique for someone to come to Sonoma, or any location? I feel pretty lucky because some of those answers are fairly obvious in a market like Sonoma. 

We’re now competing for people’s time, which is their most valuable resource in addition to their dollars, so we have to make it meaningful when they come and enjoy an event here. Making people understand what the Sonoma experience is all about, that’s our responsibility.

PRI: Does social media have a place in all that? 

Gregory: Absolutely. The social component is becoming less transactional and more branding focused. We will always use social media channels as a communication tool, to say, what time do the gates open, and where can you find a ticket. Those functions are important. But your social media channel should also be a way to showcase the experience. We’ll create different content through different channels. If we are not using social media as a tool, either as a fan engagement tool or a ticket selling tool, then we are missing the boat. 

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Beyond the work of overseeing racing at the track lies a number of ongoing challenges for Jill Gregory, including encouraging diversity, regional environmental concerns, and the need to market to ever-more-distracted consumers.  

PRI: Thinking in the other direction, how do you make motorsports an attractive place for sponsors?

Gregory: Sponsor engagement goes directly back to the fans. Our sponsors are here to reach the fans, whether it’s the fans here in the stands, or the fans watching at home, or the fans consuming on social media. If we bring more fans with the track, then we will attract more sponsors.

The other thing we have at our disposal is the ability to understand what a partner wants to do, and then how to help support that. If Toyota’s trying to sell more trucks in the Northern California market, what can we do to put Toyota vehicles in front of the fans, either on a race weekend or leading up to the race? We have a unique set of tools to provide to those sponsors, but the most important thing is to understand what they’re trying to achieve and help them achieve it.

PRI: Do you think drivers have a role to play in terms of their personal fan base? 

Gregory: Drivers are the most visible piece of our sport. They deliver against that excitement and passion message. Their back stories are what engages fans. Social media is a great tool for drivers to really let them show their personality in a way that they can’t do one-on-one. Doing that fan outreach just strengthens our sport even more.

PRI: Who have been your major influences or heroes in your life, and why did they inspire you?

Gregory: My parents are the two major heroes. The biggest reason is that they taught me an incredibly strong work ethic and intellectual curiosity and really encouraged us to try new things. They instilled in me the confidence to go try new things. As I’ve gotten further along in my career, I’ve come to realize that you can go home again, no matter how things go. That’s given me the confidence to jump in on opportunities that maybe I wouldn’t have if I had not had that support.

PRI: Are there any top principles that you follow in your career, and are there things that you avoid because of those principles?

Gregory: There isn’t a lot of magic to it. You have to do what you say you’re going to do, treat people well, and understand what you’re trying to achieve. I’ve also learned over time, and this was not true earlier in my career: Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good. We’ve learned in the pandemic to do the best you can with the situation in front of you, make the most informed decision that you can, and then move on. 

PRI: Last thing: What is the best piece of advice, whether personal or professional, that you’ve ever received? 

Gregory: It was not that long ago. Someone said to me, “Don’t be afraid to take your seat at the table. Then when you have it, don’t be afraid to participate and contribute.” Many times, if you’re unsure or there is a tentativeness, then you might miss some opportunities. So, go sit at that front table. When you have your chance to speak, have an opinion. People may not always agree with it, but that’s okay.

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