A leading exhaust technology brand, Flowmaster, announced from the floor of the 2013 Performance Racing Industry (PRI) show that it has been named the Exclusive Performance Exhaust of NASCAR. To reward loyal fans, Flowmaster is launching the Show Us Your Flows contest, a video based social media competition that will send one grand prize winner with a friend on the ultimate NASCAR experience—a trip to the Daytona 500.

“We’re proud to welcome Flowmaster to the NASCAR family because they exemplify the type of reliability our fans have come to expect from NASCAR Performance partners,” said Norris Scott, NASCAR vice president of partnership marketing. “NASCAR teams and contingency sponsors display a level of synergy and teamwork that is unparalleled and continues to be one of the major reasons companies choose to partner with NASCAR.”

As part of the new relationship, Flowmaster will offer exclusive NASCAR content to its fans and dealers, as well as on-track promotions, interactive fan experiences and more. The first big promotion will be the Show Us Your Flows video contest, which will give away a variety of prizes including a trip to one of the series’ biggest races—the 2014 Daytona 500. To participate in Show Us Your Flows, participants must submit a video showing their Flowmaster equipped vehicle and telling their “Flowmaster story”—why they love the brand and deserve to go to Daytona, along with filling out a short entry form.

Submissions will be accepted through the Flowmaster Facebook page through December 28, 2013. The applications will be narrowed down to 10 video finalists and fans will vote for their favorites on the Flowmaster Facebook page December 30–January 3. The video to receive the most combined likes, shares, and comments by January 17, 2014 will be named the grand prize winner. Winners will be announced January 20.

All 10 finalists will win a prize. The grand prize winner (and a guest) will win a trip to the Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida, including tickets to the Daytona 500 race, a garage tour, apparel, fully paid hotel and airfare from the continental United States.  

The first prize winner will receive any complete Flowmaster exhaust system from the current catalog. Second through eighth place winners will win a pair of Flowmaster mufflers and a Flowmaster apparel pack.  Ninth and tenth place winners will win a prize pack including a t-shirt, jacket, hat, and stickers.  

“NASCAR is one of the great American sports and Flowmaster was born on the circle track.  Flowmaster was built on performance – it’s in our blood,” said Nate Shelton, Flowmaster’s Chief Marketing Officer.  “I expect the cross over between NASCAR and Flowmaster fans to be huge and it’ll be a real treat to provide our fans and customers with some amazing NASCAR experiences, as well as to show the world our commitment and passion for all-American motorsports.”

MSD Performance Group (MSDP), one of the world leaders in vehicle aftermarket performance parts, announced that the company has been acquired by Hot Rod Brands, LLC an affiliate of Z Capital Partners, LLC (Z Capital). MSDP sells products under the MSD, Racepak, Powerteq, Edge and Superchips brands. MSDP filed a voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection petition on September 6th of this year.
 
Z Capital is a private equity firm with approximately $1.2 billion of regulatory assets and committed capital with offices in Lake Forest, Illinois and New York, New York. The firm specializes in investing in companies with a strong product line and top tier brand recognition. The group leverages its operational expertise in actively working with the management teams of their portfolio companies to enhance enterprise value.
 
“We are excited to add MSDP to the Z Capital portfolio of companies and believe it to be a terrific growth platform. We will work with the management team to continue to be a market leader and deliver cutting edge products to our loyal customer base.  MSDP represents substantial brands within the performance segment and we look forward to further solidifying and growing that brand recognition,” said James J. Zenni, President and Chief Executive Officer of Z Capital.
 
MSD Performance looks forward to the future as the combination of a stronger balance sheet and focused ownership will allow for an even greater ability to serve consumers with exciting new products and technology. In recent years MSD Performance has expanded its portfolio of products and technology including the award-winning Atomic brand Fuel Injection systems, Flashcal brand Jeep hand-held programmer, Vigilante brand Harley tuning products and this year’s SEMA Show introduction of Brainwave, the new Vehicle Management Network that allows aftermarket components to utilize a common technology platform for complete vehicle communication.
 
Ron Turcotte, MSDP’s CEO, said “Our restructuring allows us to be positioned for substantial growth through an even greater ability to serve our customers with new, innovative product offerings and a higher level of customer service.”
 
Over the last few years MSD Performance Group has been the Innovation Leader in game-changing technology for the aftermarket. SEMA supported this belief with the recognition of Todd Petersen- MSDP Chief Innovation Officer- as this year’s recipient of the Gen-III Innovation award. For more information contact Manny Grijalva at mgrijalva@msdperformance.com.

NASCAR announced the promotion of Dr. Michael Lynch to vice president, green innovation. The elevation of his role from managing director to VP reaffirms NASCAR’s commitment to aggressively continue to grow the sport’s green platform. As he has done over the past five years at NASCAR, Lynch will champion the adoption and implementation of sustainability practices across the sport.
 
Lynch joined NASCAR in 2008, shortly after NASCAR Chairman and CEO Brian France declared the sport would be venturing into an endeavor to reduce its environmental impact. After joining the company, Lynch launched NASCAR Green, which has since grown into the largest sustainability program in all of sports and one of the most powerful and impactful green programs in the public and private sectors.
 
“We knew that going green was not only the right thing to do, it was also good for business,” said France. “In the process of creating programs and implementing changes to help make our sport more environmentally friendly, Mike has also helped generate commercial opportunities for the entire industry through partnerships with more than two dozen organizations interested in using NASCAR as a platform to uniquely validate their technologies.”
 
Once coined ‘the dirtiest sport in America,’ NASCAR now boasts the three largest green programs in sports: renewable energy, recycling and clean air. As a result, 75 percent of NASCAR fans now say they ‘believe the sport cares for the environment’ and are ‘aware of NASCAR Green,’ according to Custom Environment-Related Tracker commissioned by NASCAR and conducted by Toluna in July 2013.
 
"NASCAR is a widely embraced and trusted form of community engagement to tens of millions of Americans,” said Allen Hershkowitz, senior scientist, Natural Resources Defense Council. “NASCAR Green, through Dr. Lynch's leadership, offers the encouraging prospect that millions of sports fans and businesses will be positively influenced about responsible environmental action for years to come."
One of Lynch’s key accomplishments was helping NASCAR develop and launch the world’s most visible biofuels program through the introduction of a 15 percent ethanol blended fuel, made from American-grown corn. In February 2011, Sunoco Green E15 made its competition debut and subsequently reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent while increasing race car horsepower. NASCAR has since put more than five million tough competition miles on the racing fuel.
 
Since joining the company, NASCAR has recycled more than 20 million bottles and cans; 600,000 race tires; and enough oil to power the Empire State Building for one year. It has also planted enough trees (188,000) to completely offset carbon emissions for all NASCAR national series racing for the past five years of NASCAR Green, plus the next 18 years. Additionally, NASCAR’s Daytona Beach, Fla., headquarters is LEED Gold certified, while NASCAR Plaza in Charlotte, N.C., has its LEED Silver certification. These bold initiatives also inspired change throughout the industry.
 
NASCAR has the largest renewable energy stadium project in the world – the solar farm at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway – that powers more than 250 homes in the region. The sport also features teams such as Roush Fenway Racing which recycle as much as 96 percent of each race car.
 
These enhancements are among many that now make the sport a more attractive partner to companies in the green and technology sectors. Since 2010, the number of green companies investing in NASCAR has grown at a 90 percent rate year-over-year. To date more than 150 green brands have entered the sport as sponsors of our industry with race teams and venues.
 
“The backbone of NASCAR Green has been the mass adoption and acceptance of sustainable practices by our green-conscious fans; the steadfast involvement of the industry; and the strong and unwavering support from a range of Official NASCAR Partners,” said Lynch. “Thanks to these key stakeholders, we’ve been able to make substantive changes to our operations and business practices and expand the reach and scope of the platform.”
 
Prior to joining NASCAR, Lynch served as an executive at Tyco International and Boston Consulting Group. He was a tenured professor at Purdue University, with his lab funded by the National Institutes of Health. Lynch graduated the MBA program at the Booth School of Business at University of Chicago with honors in Finance and Strategic Management. Mike also holds a Bachelor of Music degree in studio music and jazz from the University of Miami, where he played tenor saxophone and worked extensively as a professional musician. He has several patents in green technology and has been published extensively in peer-reviewed academic journals.
 

Three days of packed exhibition halls and brisk sales came to a close Saturday with the conclusion of the 2013 PRI Trade Show at the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis.

Tens of thousands of motorsports professionals from across the United States and 72 countries attended the 26^th annual show to discover and shop the latest in racing technology on display from 1200 manufacturers of racing and high-performance automotive components, as well as precision machining equipment.

“It’s been the busiest PRI Trade Show ever,” said John Kilroy, PRI Trade Show producer. “We are receiving positive comments from exhibitors as we walk through the aisles, describing the amount of business that they’ve been able to do this week and how pleased they are with the number of buyers and quality of buyers. The big return of the PRI Trade Show to Indianapolis was a pretty spectacular success for our attendees and exhibitors. We also learned some areas where we can tune up the show for 2014.”

An expanded Race Industry Week preceded this year’s PRI Trade Show, as seven major events were among 45 conferences and seminars that ran in conjunction with the show, beginning on Monday. The Advanced Engineering Technology Conference (AETC), Advanced Vehicle Dynamics and Data Acquisition Seminar, the Race Track Business Conference, the International Council of Motorsport Sciences (ICMS) Annual Congress, the Winning the eRace Digital Marketing Conference, and SEMA’s Motorsports Parts Manufacturers Council (MPMC) Education Day were among the showcase activities during this year’s Race Industry Week.

The Grand Opening Breakfast, a PRI Show tradition, featured “The King” Richard Petty, while both Indiana Gov. Bill Pence and Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard greeted the standing-room only crowd.

“There’s a real sense of partnership with the city, the state, the Indiana Convention Center, Visit Indy and the tourism industry,” Kilroy added.

Activity throughout the booths -- and the Convention Center in general -- continued well into day three of the Show.

“It’s Saturday and we’re still busy,” said Toby Hallet of Bell Racing Helmets. “The show has gone really, really well. We’ve been jam-packed every day.”

While this year’s event has just concluded, many are already looking ahead to PRI’s return in 2014.

“The show has been amazing, much better that what we anticipated,” said Matt Porter of Technical Equipment Sales. “This is our first time to the PRI Show, and we’ve had about five- or six-fold of what we expected. We’re already planning on doubling our booth space for next year.”

This year's Show also played host to a number of the sport’s biggest stars – NHRA Nitro champions John Force, Antron Brown, Shawn Langdon, Larry Dixon and Tony Pedregon, IndyCar champion Scott Dixon, reigning Indianapolis 500 champion Tony Kanaan, World of Outlaws star Steve Kinser, and NASCAR’s Matt Crafton and Kyle Larson were among those taking part in the event.

“The PRI Show is very important for Indianapolis – it’s the home of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and racing in general,” said Chip Ganassi Racing Team member Dixon. “Having all these vendors and manufacturers all under one roof is terrific. It’s really exciting to have so many people come together to celebrate racing. It’s a great sign for the industry to not only see all this innovation that makes us go faster, but witnessing all these companies making deals and growing their businesses in the process.”

Preparation is already under way for the 2014 PRI Trade Show, which will take place Dec. 11-13 at the Indiana Convention Center.

Team Moroso from Eastern Oklahoma County Technology Center defeated 22 other competitors from across the nation to win the Hot Rodders of Tomorrow National Championship today at the PRI Trade Show in Indianapolis.

School instructor Jim LaFevers tutored a six-student group from Chocktaw, Oklahoma, that broke the event’s national record in breaking down and re-assembling a V8 engine in 18 minutes, 43 seconds. The team was composed of Callie Hunter, Ryan Campbell, Alexander Versteeg, Connor Hixenbaugh, Connor Carrizales and Nicholas Brown.

"This is an opportunity of a lifetime for these kids and something they’ll remember for the rest of their lives, to become national champions," said LaFevers, whose school is made up of students from four local feeder high schools. “This is a jump-start for their career in the automotive and high-performance trade. The Hot Rodders of Tomorrow have a terrific program.”

Teams representing schools from around the nation -- from Virginia to California -- qualified for the finals at regional competitions throughout the year.

“We had a really exciting time -- PRI was a perfect host, and we absolutely loved being here,” said Rodney Bingham of Hot Rodders of Tomorrow. “The kids did an amazing job, and our program offers more than $2 million in scholarships. No student here will get less than $15,000 worth of scholarships and some will receive more than $30,000 per student.”

PRI showcased the event during a week-long flurry of activity before and during the Trade Show, which was attended by more than 40,000 motorsports professionals.

“We were excited to have the Hot Rodders of Tomorrow join us at the PRI Trade Show,” said John Kilroy, producer of the Show. “It’s a very powerful program to give young people entrance to the performance and racing world. They are the future of our sport, and I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the companies attending the show had an eye out for their next generation of engine builders.”

There are a lot of orthopedic surgeons who would tell you the best way to avoid racing injuries is not to race, but Dr. Terry Trammell, featured speaker at PRI’s Saturday morning seminar “Racing Safety Today—An Update in Motorsports Science and Medical Research,” wouldn’t be one of them. His philosophy is that racers have to race, but they, the sanctioning bodies, and the race tracks have to find ways to rid the sport of tragic deaths and traumatic injuries, something Trammell has spent much of his professional career pursuing.

“There’s always more that can be done,” he said at the PRI session, where he pointed to such major advancements as the HANS device (whose development actor and racer Paul Newman helped finance), and the Safer Barrier, which research shows have helped immensely in minimizing injuries and preventing fatalities.

A huge race fan and a former motorsports photographer, Trammell is a founding fellow of the FIA Institute for Motorsports Safety and a founding member of the International Council of Motorsport Sciences (ICMS), which held its 25^th annual general meeting at PRI this year, attracting the foremost motorsports medical experts in the world, including Drs. Hugh Scully and Stephen Olvey. Together, Trammell and Olvey have developed what is considered to be the standard of care for trackside medical care.

Trammell got his first-hand introduction to motorsports medicine and safety as a medical student working the tragic Indianapolis 500 of 1973. He returned in 1981 and became the orthopedic consultant to Indianapolis Motor Speedway through 1995. An interesting segment of his presentation highlighted the large number of safety innovations that IMS was the first to institute, including the requirement for helmets way back in 1935, the first permanent medical center in 1948, fire retardant overalls in 1959, fuel cell bladders in 1965, and the installation of Safer Barriers in 2002, whose development was financed by Tony George.

When we spoke with him afterwards, Trammell said that getting spine fractures out of motorsports is still one of the most pressing issues, although dramatic advances have been made. Another priority is finding a solution to what he described as an epidemic of hand and wrist injuries in IRL.

But what’s most important, he stressed, “is getting what we already know down to the grassroots racers. If you look at the injury statistics in Formula 1, they are really good for what they do, but that has been engineered and implemented to the highest level for just 22 guys at a time. They don’t account for even a tenth of a percent of all the racers worldwide.

“What we need to do is get down to the dirt tracks and get them so that they have some improved safety in terms of car retention and cages that absorb the energy when they land upside down on them. Some sanctioning bodies are doing some of that, but it’s not enough until there aren’t any injuries and no fatalities, and that hasn’t been the case lately.”

If there’s anyone who really understands the old racing adage “Win on Sunday, sell on Monday,” it’s Jim Campbell, General Motors’ US  vice president of performance vehicles and motorsports. In a Friday morning seminar titled “Racing Technology Today—NASCAR Gen-6, United Sports Car and IndyCar,” Campbell provided insight into the technology and business strategies that have led to Chevrolet’s return to the top of the racing heap and, as a result, increased car sales.

Campbell devoted a large part of his presentation to Chevrolet’s role in persuading NASCAR to abandon the Car of Tomorrow in favor of the Generation-6 car that provides much greater brand identity, as well as to the fascinating process of using cutting edge technologies such as CFD and wind tunnel testing to design a successful new race car from the ground up—in this case the SS, which debuted at the Daytona 500 and garnered the NASCAR manufacturers’ championship for Chevy this year.

Campbell said that the clear differentiation of brands that has resulted from the Gen-6 car has been good for NASCAR, the fans, and all of the OEMs by putting brand rivalry back into the equation. It has been particularly good for Chevy because of its huge success in racing over the past few years, which Campbell said has a huge impact on consumers’ buying decisions. Not coincidentally, sales of the company’s cars and light trucks increased by more than eight percent in the first 10 months of this year.

“Where we see the benefits of racing for Chevrolet, in a nutshell, is in technology transfer, the ability to develop engineers, and the ability to interact with our current Chevrolet customers and prospective customers in order to sell them a car, truck or part down the road,” said Campbell. “When you win races and championships, your brand opinion is lifted among both face fans and non race fans. We have data that shows that they give you more credit for performance, quality and durability. Good things happen after that because customers put you on their shopping list more quickly when they have a high opinion of your brand.”

Day two is traditionally the biggest sales day of the three-day PRI Trade Show, and that continued in this year’s return to Indianapolis, where sales were robust at the Indiana Convention Center.

Attendees arrived early on Friday morning and came looking to buy.

“It’s been going really well,” said Brian Schnee of Eagle Motorsports, which builds dirt winged sprint cars, dirt midgets and micros. “We’ve seen a lot of folks we haven’t seen in years. There have been a lot of buyers, and I’ve sold probably a dozen cars here since yesterday. This has really been a good deal in coming to Indianapolis."

Numerous exhibitors were equally ecstatic with the day’s results.

“This is definitely the biggest PRI Show we’ve been involved with for a number of years,” offered Kevin Rumley of CV Everything Racing. “Traffic has been huge. It comes in waves. We’ve had 70 percent buyers today. It’s been a quality day.”

Similar refrains were heard throughout the exhibition hall, particularly on the Show’s Machinery Row.

“The show has done very well for us,” Carl Chastain of DynoJet Research. “We’re surprised that we’ve been this busy. We’ve had a lot of foot traffic. We’re featuring our chassis dynamometers. We’ve been able to sell a number of pieces of equipment, and we’ve already paid for the show before noon on Friday. We’ve found buyers. Florida was nice, but we’ve got a lot of people who are looking to build race cars here in Indy.”

Brisk sales meant consumers were just as happy with the technology and product they found on the Show floor.

“The show is a tad overwhelming—it’s really big,” shared Dirt Late Model racer Brady Smith, from Wisconsin. “It’s really great to have everyone in one spot and be able to take care of business. We’re working on things we need to buy, as well as checking out the latest and greatest newest products.

The opening two days have exceeded the high expectations for this year’s Show.

“It was a really good day for the PRI Trade Show and the racing industry as a whole,” said John Kilroy, PRI Trade Show producer. “We've got an extraordinary array of exhibitors that hasn't been experienced all in one place, all at one time in years, and the serious buyers have turned out because of it. There’s business being conducted throughout the Convention Center.

The 26th Annual PRI Trade Show features the latest products and technology from over 1200 manufacturers of racing and high-performance automotive components, as well as precision machining equipment. The show is expected to bring well over 45,000 racing professionals from across the US and 72 countries to the Racing Capital of the World. For more on the 2013 Trade Show, visit PRI's online photo gallery.

Chip Ganassi was feeling pretty lucky this Friday the 13^th as he announced the 2014 IndyCar lineup for his Target and NTT DATA Chevrolet IndyCar teams. “It’s every car owner’s dream to have this kind of talent on his team,” he said as he sat surrounded by the likes of Tony Kanaan, Scott Dixon, Charlie Kimball, and newcomer Ryan Briscoe on the podium in the Chevrolet Performance peninsula at the PRI Trade Show.

It was announced that Briscoe has been signed to a multi-year deal to drive the No. 8 NTT DATA Chevrolet in the IndyCar series. The team had previously announced an agreement with 2004 series champion and 16-time race winner Kanaan to pilot the No. 8 car in 2014. Instead, Kanaan will move into the seat of the No. 10 Target Chevrolet vacated by four-time series champion Dario Franchitti, who announced his retirement from racing last month. Kanaan will run alongside three-time and reigning IndyCar Series Champion and Indianapolis 500 Winner Scott Dixon as part of Team Target.

While he expressed his excitement at the opportunity, Kanaan said the move to the No. 10 car was bittersweet as he had hoped to be a teammate of his friend Franchitti, not replace him.

Briscoe, who has had seven IndyCar wins in 111 starts over eight seasons, drove for Ganassi back in 2005 before moving to Team Penske. He drove again for Ganassi this past May in the Indianapolis 500.

“This is just great news and I can’t wait to get back behind the wheel of the No. 8 car again,” he said. “I think all four drivers can win races next season, and it’s not every day you get to be a part of a team like that.”

Twenty-time World of Outlaws champion Steve Kinser joined World of Outlaws management at the PRI Show on Thursday to discuss the details of Kinser's 2014 season, which will be his final year racing a full schedule with the venerable sprint car organization.

WoO CEO Brian Carter stated that the upcoming season will be designated as a year-long farewell tour called Salute To The King, “allowing the fans to pay tribute to and salute a man who has had a tremendous impact on sprint car racing around the world. To be able to officially coordinate an effort to allow the fans across the country to really give him the honor that he deserves was very important to me personally and to the series. It was a real priority for us to make sure that every place we go, this year and forever, that we recognize the man for his contributions.”

Citing the demands of racing for someone his age (59), Kinser said he feels it is time to give up full-time competition, although he will continue to run a race team that will compete in WoO, and will undoubtedly continue to race in various venues.

An emotional Kinser vowed that his team will compete as hard as ever in 2014. “This year won’t be tough at all,” he said. “It’s the year after that’s going to be tough. Sprint car racing has been a part of my life since I was born. This is a pretty hard situation for me. It’s been my life and my family’s life.”