In 2024, NASCAR significantly increased the scope of its Veterans Support Initiatives, and it hopes to maintain this pace in 2025 and beyond. “Since the beginning, our sport has been rooted in our dedication to the men and women who serve in our armed forces,” stated Eric Nyquist, Chief Impact Officer for NASCAR. “We all agree to support and lean on our military, even though our sport is a confederation of hundreds or even thousands of independent entities coming together.” Supporting the troops, veterans, and their families is ingrained in NASCAR’s culture and isn’t just a fad for its team owners, drivers, and other staff, according to Nyquist.
“We’ve had a partnership with our military forces for decades and decades,” he stated. According to Nyquist, NASCAR has traditionally welcomed military leaders and personnel to the track, using its weekend races to give them much-needed entertainment and a much-needed break. “It also gives service members a chance to be honored and feel that appreciation,” he continued. During the season, NASCAR hosts Gold Star families at racing events in collaboration with Honor and Remember. Every race weekend, we provide Gold Star Families a chance to reflect and pay tribute to the service person they lost, stated Nyquist. Everyone in attendance gives Gold Star Families a standing ovation as they are named during the drivers’ meeting for the race.
“One of the most special things we get to do as a sport is to see the impact that has and that our sport can play a small part in honoring these fallen heroes and their families,” Nyquist added. Additionally, NASCAR revealed a new collaboration with Sound Off, which pairs struggling veterans and service members with peer supports to offer free and anonymous mental health care. “Our job in this is to collaborate with Sound Off to further their goals, increase knowledge of the Sound Off platform and their activities, and assist them in finding veterans who can serve as peer support, where a veteran can call and be connected to an anonymous peer supporter who can speak to them, talk them through it and provide the mental health resources they need to help reduce the rate of veteran suicide,” explained Nyquist.
Through the Department of Defense’s SkillBridge program, NASCAR also offers internships to active duty service members. CJ Tobin, a vehicle system engineer who played a key role in creating the next-generation platform for its electric vehicles, joined NASCAR through the program, which gives transitioning service members the chance to engage in training and development with potential employers. According to Nyquist, NASCAR and American Corporate Partners are partners in a program that offers career mentoring for transitioning service members, wherein NASCAR employees volunteer to act as peer mentors for veterans who have entered the civilian workforce, sharing their knowledge in communication, marketing, financial skills, and career counseling.
Additionally, in support of Vet the Vote, a nationwide initiative to recruit veterans and military families to work as impartial poll workers at polling locations during the previous presidential election, NASCAR partnered with the national nonprofit We the Veterans and Military Families. “We want to serve our service members in a way that they will find meaningful,” Nyquist stated. The Daytona 500, the season-opening event, takes place on February 16 after NASCAR’s 2025 season starts with an exhibition race at Winston Salem, North Carolina, on February 2.
