Behind the Scenes at the Brickyard 400

Team Director Jefferson Hodges didn't go looking for Teamworks. His own recruits brought it to him.

"As we started recruiting more athletes straight out of these big D1 schools, they were the ones who came and asked if we knew what Teamworks was," Hodges said. "They were so familiar with it from their athletic background that we looked into it and realized a lot of what we were trying to figure out had already been done."

That familiarity settled the one question that mattered most: could a platform built for elite collegiate sports teams flex into a NASCAR team's travel and communication needs? What it replaced was concrete. Every trip, whether the team flew private or commercial, used to take about 15 separate emails to cover directions, hotel links, FBO details, and everything else a traveling crew needs. Now it's one place.

"They had to see it to believe it. We got the people new to Teamworks to see it once, and they were bought in pretty quickly," he said. Before Teamworks, finding someone meant hunting for a phone number before the real work could start. Now the whole travel group is linked in one company contact list. Hodges can pull out his phone and message anyone, whether it's the athletic department or the road mechanics, and he doesn't just know a message was delivered. He knows it was read. That certainty is what gives him peace of mind: nobody gets left on the ground when the plane takes off.

Hendrick Motorsports came to Hub from a different direction, and on a tighter clock. The push started at the top.

"Our CFO was open to elevating how we communicate and how we operate with team travel," said Ryan Glen, Team Operations Manager at Hendrick Motorsports. "Once he gave me the green light, I knew instantly to reach out to Teamworks."

Glen wasn't starting from scratch. As a former director of football operations at Rutgers, he'd already seen what Teamworks could do, so he knew exactly who to call.

NASCAR's long season leaves almost no off-season, so Hendrick rolled Hub out mid-season instead of waiting for a quieter window. Glen started with the team support department, the group most involved in day-to-day logistics, and had them meet with each team individually to introduce the platform and what it would take off their plate.

"It was a pretty easy sell," Glen said. "It reinforced what we were already telling people: stay on top of it, check Teamworks, everything you need for the weekend is going to be there." Once a few people started using it, he said, adoption spread on its own. "People started to click with it, and now depend on it."

In addition to the teams using Teamworks Hub to manage operations, NASCAR corporate uses it to keep the paddock informed and drivers connected to leadership.

Sara Houston, senior manager of driver and team marketing at NASCAR, is the one who keeps information moving. Her team sits between drivers, teams, and NASCAR's internal and external business units, which makes her something like air traffic control for the sport. "It's kind of a natural fit that we somewhat play air traffic control and are able to help facilitate those discussions," she said.

In a given week, that means event schedules, operational updates, and opportunities for drivers and teams to promote the sport, plus any driver, team, or partner announcement that has to go out. All of it moves through Hub. "It's made our lives so much easier and a lot more streamlined to have different distros. Everything feels very organized, so we use it endlessly."

NASCAR also runs its driver ambassador program through Teamworks Influencer, so it can track driver engagement and keep teams aligned on what drivers are doing publicly.

Jennifer Koppel, managing director of team, driver, and industry communications, is a Hub super user who relies on it heavily for race weekend communications. Before Hub, she had no way to know if anything she sent was being received. "We honestly didn't know if the messages were landing. There was no way to track it. We just hoped and prayed that when we sent a text message out, it just got there."

Beyond race weekend communication, Teamworks is used to connect drivers with NASCAR executives. "The idea is really to give drivers a space where they have secure communication lines that are always open to communicate with our executives, whether that be our race officials or even the president of our company," said Houston. NASCAR uses the same channel to get word out fast when an announcement can't go public yet, so leadership can loop in the right people first.

Teamworks Hub has also become the default place NASCAR keeps everything the paddock needs on hand: PR rep sheets, media guides, information decks. Everything's accurate, organized, and in one place.

Three motorsports organizations, three different reasons for bringing Hub in, one result they each describe the same way. Team Penske stopped hunting for phone numbers. Hendrick Motorsports built a channel of trust and information. NASCAR stopped hoping a text message made it through. What's left is a race weekend where travel, communication, and the driver's direct line to leadership all run through the same place, and everyone on it can see what's been sent, who's seen it, and what still needs an answer.

If your team or league is still running on email chains and hope, connect below to explore how Teamworks Hub can fit your needs.