SPEED Cantina to open next month in Phoenix

Phoenix International Raceway will unveil the first SPEED Cantina next month when NASCAR visits the desert.

The SPEED Cantina, named after the motorsports TV network, is being constructed just outside of the speedway and will feature SPEED's red, black and white branding throughout.

It's part of an overarching strategy, said SPEED president Hunter Nickell, for the network to work more closely with tracks.

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"The more we can connect with fans at the track and offer them more value, that's what we should be doing," Nickell said. "We can bring to them drivers, personalities, crew chiefs, right there at the track. And the more SPEED can connect with the fans at the track, the more they're going to be watching SPEED when they get home from the race."

Costs for the new facility, which are being shared by the network and the racetrack, are expected to be in the low six figures.

Nickell credited Bryan Sperber, the track's president, with the idea to create a branded bar, grill and entertainment center near Turn 2. Menu items will be named after SPEED's on-air talent, and musical acts will keep the joint jumping before and after the racing.

"As we considered some kind of themed food-and-beverage area for fans, we worked with some generic names," Sperber said. "But the more we thought about it, it just made sense to combine the SPEED brand with the track's brand as a way to create a destination."

The SPEED Cantina will open Nov. 7, the night of the Craftsman Truck Series race, which is broadcast by SPEED. The network's personalities will maintain a presence in the facility, which will be indoors, but its sliding glass doors will give it the flexibility to become open-air if weather permits.

AmeriCrown, the food and beverage arm of PIR's parent company, International Speedway Corp., will manage the Cantina.

Nickell said he anticipates SPEED incorporating the Cantina into its programming when it broadcasts from Phoenix through NASCAR's race weekend Nov. 7-9.

"We're going to be looking for ways to grow the exposure for the Cantina for both customers at the track and viewers," he said.

Ever since Nickell joined SPEED in 2005 and took much of the programming around NASCAR from the studio to the track, he has placed a greater emphasis on those speedway relationships. Out of that has evolved the popular RaceDay show that broadcasts beneath a 50-foot-tall rotating SPEED tower with a live audience in the background.

"What we're trying to do, simply, is give the fans more value while they're at the track, and maybe they'll stick around a little longer," Nickell said.