When NASCAR’s Phil Parsons talks about his team he gets energized, and it’s easy to understand why.
Phil’s crew hasn’t always had the easiest time finding sponsorship dollars, but a dedicated community of Redditors saw Josh Wise driving a plain black car recently and decided to do something about it, internet style. They banded together and created a crowdsourced fundraising campaign unlike anything NASCAR had ever seen. Within weeks, Josh’s sponsorship had been completely covered by Shiba Inu-inspired cryptocurrency Dogecoin and their Reddit community’s donations.
It’s been quite a ride since then, including the most recent development: a four race sponsorship deal with Provident Metals. Phil took some time out of his incredibly busy schedule to talk to us a little more about how this whole thing started.
“It took us by complete surprise,” he says of the campaign that launched his race team to internet and NASCAR notoriety. “We feel so fortunate that the Reddit community has embraced us like this. We feel like they’re part of our team, and we’re part of them.”
“I’ve been around NASCAR my whole life,” Phil explains further. “The coverage has gone from occasional newspaper articles to radio and TV, and now the internet, where the response has been tremendous. We’ve always tried to be innovative in the way we approach fans and sponsors, but the latest way we’re doing it is new to me and most of NASCAR. The Reddit community is so large, and they’ve been so kind to us.”
The Dogecoin sponsorship has been huge for Phil Parsons Racing, and this is only the beginning. Thanks to the groundswell of support from the Reddit community, Phil continues to find new opportunities for his team, including the recent partnership with Provident.
“They called us,” he recounts. “I was at the shop working on a car and the phone rang. One of my guys said ‘there’s a guy who wants to talk about a sponsorship from Provident Metals.’ It was Brice, their Director of Marketing, and he told me they became aware of us because of the Reddit community.”
When talking about the fans, Phil gets even more energized, “I did a radio interview right after the community voted us into the all-star race and I talked about how one of the beautiful parts of the [Reddit] association was getting messages from people saying they didn’t really watch races, but they’d be watching us now! I think we brought some new fans, and it’s my hope that we get them hooked.”
So what’s next for Phil Parsons racing?
“We want to continue to get better,” Phil says. “There’s no secret that in the past we didn’t have funding, but with the progress we’ve made we’ve been able to go in a different direction. We added some people to the team, changed our structure and changed manufacturers.” He goes on, the pride apparent in his voice, “We’ve attempted every lap of every race this year, and we completed 93 or 94% of them. It would be 98% if we hadn’t had the wreck in Charlotte. We’re getting better, our equipment is getting better, and with the influx of funding from folks like Provident we’ve been able to build our team and our cars, and we’re just continually improving.”
Thanks so much for talking with us Phil, and for letting us be a part of the Phil Parson’s racing team!
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