What do NASCAR, precious metals and cryptocurrency have in common? These days it’s racer Josh Wise, who’s been making headlines in all three communities.
Josh drives for Phil Parsons Racing in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. The team had found it challenging lately to obtain sponsorship revenue for his No. 98 car, but that didn’t stop them from competing – Josh raced at the Food City 500 in Bristol on March 16 in a plain black car.
Following the race, a twitter link was shared with Josh referencing “a group of people that are trying to raise money to sponsor you.” He clicked on the link and it took him to Reddit.
“A 16-year-old named Dennis had written a post after watching the Bristol race, just saying how he thought we really had a strong run at Bristol . . . and how cool it would be to raise money and help us out,” Josh said.
At that moment, a grassroots movement was born, and the No.98 car had a sponsor that caught the entire crew by surprise.
“It was really only a four or five day period from the time someone sent me a link, to the time that enough donors had contributed,” he said. “Most of the donations were actually in Dogecoin. That was cool.”
Josh explains that he knew about Reddit before the sponsorship, but didn’t have much experience with the site, or with digital currency.
“Naturally when it started happening and I began seeing it gain momentum I put some time in to understand what Dogecoin was and learning about the Reddit community, familiarizing myself with everything that was happening.”
The Josh Wise story didn’t stop there, though. Soon he’d picked up another sponsorship, this one a four-race commitment from Provident Precious Metals.
“I was really excited when Phil told me that Provident was interested in being a partner for some races,” he recalls, describing the moment Provident arrived to seal the sponsorship deal loaded down with boxes of Zombucks. “I’d never seen so much precious metal in my life, that’s for sure, and that’s what’s cool. It’s fun creating unique partnerships and doing things like that.”
The ripple effect Josh’s driving is having on so many people definitely isn’t lost on him.
“It’s generated a lot of new fans for NASCAR, and a ton of people for Dogecoin as well,” he says. “It’s so cool to have those two separate worlds, and now three separate worlds, all integrating. We have this digital currency world, and they’re so excited that we have Provident as a sponsor.”
The digital currency world became even more excited when Provident recently announced that they’ll begin accepting Bitcoin, Litecoin and of course, Dogecoin, and Josh is right there with them. “I think it’s really awesome, and I know that the Dogecoin people are going to be so excited.”
“It’s mind-boggling,” he continues. “It’s been one of the hardest things to wrap my mind around – the momentum that Dogecoin has generated in such a short period of time. I know that they’re going to be tickled that Provident is planning to accept Dogecoin. It’s cool to be a part of those types of relationships happening.”
While proponents of precious metals, cryptocurrency and NASCAR may seem like divergent groups, Josh sees an important similarity. “They’re all very passionate,” he says.
Josh and the team at Phil Parsons Racing see great possibilities on the horizon, especially with the addition of Provident as their latest sponsor.
“I’m just really excited about the partnership in general and want to thank the fans for it. Phil took a real leap of faith this year. He hired me and we made the decision to do whatever it takes to race at the highest level we can. We’ve worked really, really hard to build to where we are right now, and to have Provident come on as our first multi-race commitment is something really special for us.”
Josh may not have set out to merge two different worlds when he raced at Bristol that day, but his story is both a testament to the power of perseverance and an inspiration to online communities hoping to have a real influence on the marketplace.
We here at Provident are certainly impressed, and from now on we’ll be watching Josh race not just as sponsors, but as fans.
Follow Josh Wise on Twitter and stay tuned for a sneak peek at his new Provident ride!
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