DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – A day before christening its first season as title sponsor of a NASCAR national series, Xfinity unveiled a new championship trophy Friday morning in Daytona International Speedway’s victory lane.
The stylish hardware was designed by Jostens, and its design reflects a waving checkered flag and representative of high-performance speed and technology, said Peter Intermaggio, senior vice president of marketing communications at Comcast.
“This is what they’re going to compete for the next 10 years,” Intermaggio told NBC Sports, referencing the length of Xfinity’s title sponsorship. “(The trophy) is really about the excitement of the race, doing something that’s really high-value and a special vision of what the championship can be.”
Defending Xfinity Series champion Chase Elliott and JR Motorsports teammate Regan Smith were on hand for the presentation of the trophy (which stands 27.5 inches high and weighs 65 pounds.
The Xfinity season begins with Saturday’s Alert Today Florida 300.
“It’s been an awful lot of work getting to this point,” Intermaggio said. “We’ve worked all winter and staring last fall to get to this point. A lot of people put a tremendous effort into making sure we launched the right way, and the Xfinity brand came into the sport in the right way.
“Xfinity is now the official entertainment provider of NASCAR, and that’s an important role for us, so we’re focused on that.”
Intermaggio said Xfinity would measure the success of the sponsorship through several categories.
“We’ll look at customer subscriptions and engagement,” he said. “But it’s also about awareness and appreciation for the brand and what the brand is doing with the sport.
“We start with social media. We follow commentary, positive sentiments and things of that sort. We follow it very closely.”
