UNION Insurance Group Goes Full-Time In NASCAR’s Whelen Modified Tour
Chicago — You may have noticed the UNION Insurance Group name and logo on the No. 90 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour car driven by Renee Dupuis. But, now they’ve taken a more visible approach to the Series.
You see, when NASCAR announced the schedule and unprecedented television package, UNION Insurance Group decided to step-up involvement – taking the team from a part-time operation to running the full Tour schedule.
In 2010, ten of 14 races will be nationally televised between SPEED and Versus broadcasts. And, for the first time in a decade, a road course – Lime Rock Park – has been added to the schedule. “Financially, we haven’t had the ability to run a full season in several years,” offered driver Renee. “But, the television package really helped our cause. With most of the races scheduled in the Northeast,
traditionally most sponsors in the Series are regionally based. Now, the TV deal really helped to open some doors for us.”
“We’ve been with the team for the past two seasons, but when they came to us with their 2010 proposal we wanted to increase our participation,” explained UNION Insurance Group President Chris DeCaigny. “It really gets people’s attention when they learn we’re racing at big-league facilities like Bristol, Martinsville, New Hampshire and Lime Rock Park Speedways. But, it’s the increased television package that helped finalize our decision.”
Based in Chicago, UNION Insurance Group immediately recognized the increased exposure that will be garnered from the SPEED and Versus coverage. And, with a background in and passion for road racing, they particularly liked the addition of Lime Rock Park to the schedule.
When pressed for why the broadcast scheduled was important, Chris offered: “At Loudon last year, I was pumped up being at the track, but we also had this whole group of people half way across the country that were having just as good a time. See, there were over 100 people in our restaurant [in Chicago] during Oyster Fest. It didn’t take long for the excitement to spread and soon the entire place was rooting Renee on! That’s what this is all about. It really just worked perfectly for us.”
“When we first became involved, we focused strictly on the bigger events – venues like New Hampshire – to entertain our employees and clients,” Chris continued. “Now, this year we’re expanding. For instance, we entertained some clients from an area Teamsters Local at Stafford over the Memorial Day weekend. We’ll continue that throughout the season. It’s great to be able to give fans an experience they’ll never forget.”
“Plus, to be honest, we like supporting the lone female out there. All the women in our agency who were never into racing before have been converted to die hard Renee fans. Right now we’re looking forward to running New Hampshire in a few weeks because we’re well aware of the media hype surrounding Danica’s return to NASCAR and trying to figure out how we can translate an event like that into some attention for our team as well.”
Sources: Team PR