Racing towards a digital revolution

Almost 80 years of speed, competition and race innovation have defined NASCAR as the top motorsport organisation in the United States. But competitiveness—the very nature of NASCAR—is not limited to the tracks. The company has a drive to continuously improve, so when NASCAR and International Speedway Motorsports merged, they began their joint digital revolution that would define the future of the sport.

"In motorsports racing, everybody is moving fast, and everybody wants to win," says Chris Tozier, Managing Director, Enterprise Applications at NASCAR. "The same is true at our corporate office and across our employee base. We're trying to deliver world-class solutions to our employees and to our fans."

While NASCAR is well on its way to achieving this goal, unique nuances of the sport create additional challenges. The competition is on the road 36 weekends a year, and it's not just the cars that move from one race facility to another. It takes thousands of people, including media, production crews, support staff, merchandise and corporate employees among others to make each race happen. NASCAR, and the technology that supports the organisation, must run flawlessly to maintain its success.

While sport innovation and change have been constant throughout its history, NASCAR needed an IT transformation to support its business operations and remain competitive. Therefore, with the goal of being the most innovative and technologically advanced business across the sports entertainment industry within three years, the organisation's vision and the need to automate internal, manual and outdated business processes put it on the path to transformation. It simply needed an IT partner to unify and accelerate that vision. This is why NASCAR partnered with ServiceNow to unify fragmented technology from both companies into a single platform.

Racing with the pros

NASCAR deployed ServiceNow IT Service Management (ITSM) as the first step in its digital revolution, with results clearly visible soon after the implementation. "ITSM brought immediate change," says Tozier. "It allowed our employees to interact with IT in a different way, increasing efficiency. With automation, the IT team can better prioritise, solve and route IT tickets in less time with fewer errors.

This success led NASCAR to expand its ServiceNow portfolio, including Employee Center Pro. This solution was used as the technology foundation for the creation of Inside Track, a unified portal empowering employees to customise their experience, amplifying productivity and engagement.

"Employee Center Pro was key in transforming our platform for everyone, enabling a common language and visibility across our organisation," Tozier emphasises.

But the solution itself was not the end because the way it was implemented also played a huge role in its success. John Ferguson, Chief Human Resources Officer at NASCAR says, "It was crucial for the new platform to work seamlessly on mobile devices. The thousands of deskless workers that support NASCAR operations need instant access to learn about what's going on in the company, get information about HR benefits, payroll etc. Now, they have the information that's important to them at their fingertips."

Handing over the wheel to employees

NASCAR leveraged ServiceNow App Engine to consolidate and streamline outdated and inefficient business processes using low code. It was extremely important for the organisation to have a solution that employees could create with by themselves and then deploy it to the rest of the employee base without having a big IT project associated with it. "App Engine promises unprecedented customisation, propelling NASCAR into uncharted territories of innovation," comments Craig Neeb, EVP and Chief Development Officer, NASCAR.

Tozier adds, "The promise of low code/no code in the technology space has been there for a long time but it's been challenging to deliver results. The ServiceNow AI Platform has really changed that dynamic and it delivers on the promise.

A long-lasting partnership

NASCAR has also deployed ServiceNow ESG solutions, fortifying the organisation's commitment to sustainability and supporting its initiative of achieving net zero emissions by 2035. The ESG solutions are the tool that authenticates how the organisation is performing against its climate-focused goals, improves results, increases efficiency and helps the business to stay on top of regulatory and reporting requirements.

This choice points to the fact that NASCAR is not going to rest on its laurels. To stay in the lead, the organisation will continue to search for improvements and implement new solutions with its partners. "When I think about the future of NASCAR, I want our employees to stay curious about the problems they face and how we can collectively collaborate with our partners, like ServiceNow, to find productive solutions," says Ferguson.

This future also means that, with better solutions, NASCAR will continue building its IT operations while being able to focus on the fans. "ServiceNow technology efficiencies are changing the way employees think of themselves and how they operate," comments Tozier. "The ease of finding the information they want and need quickly allows them to focus on what matters most: the sport and the fan experience."

With grand plans and ideas for continuous improvements, NASCAR and ServiceNow will continue to grow together, fuelling the sport and the fanbase on their way. "It's all about speed and momentum and that's what ServiceNow helps us bring to our workforce day-in and day-out," concludes Ferguson.