J.D. McDuffie Day 2022
As the public relations representative for J.D. McDuffie Racing, my biggest project was promoting the J.D. McDuffie Day mural unveiling festival.
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The event was held on Labor Day and several hundred people came to downtown Sanford for fun, food, music, vendors, car show, and mural unveiling.
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The town of Sanford honored McDuffie with a mural on 329 Carthage Street. The project was spearheaded by the McDuffie family and funded by fans around the world. The mural recognized a driver who gave everything to the sport of stock car racing, right up to his untimely death during a race in Watkins Glen, New York in 1991. The mural also honored the close-knit crew who helped keep the No. 70 car and driver on track.
On that day, the City of Sanford and its residents came together once again on J.D. McDuffie Day to celebrate the NASCAR legend. The festivities included the mural unveiling, cruise in, music, face painting, food trucks, raffles, and vendors. All proceeds and donations from the event went towards the J.D. McDuffie scholarship to Central Carolina Community College.
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The mural will be just the latest in a series of efforts that have brought McDuffie's story back into the public consciousness. When author Brock Beard published McDuffie's biography in 2018 the story of the soft-spoken racer rekindled memories of those who knew him and attracted the attention of a new generation of fans. Later that year, the International Motor Racing Research Center inducted McDuffie into their "Walk of Fame," located just down the road from the Watkins Glen International Speedway where his life ended. McDuffie is also a member of the Augusta International Raceway’s Preservation Society Hall of Fame. However, the biggest goal remains, an induction into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte.
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There have also been efforts to honor McDuffie's memory through the vintage racing community. Two of McDuffie’s former race cars have been saved from the scrapyard and are in different phases of restoration. Charles Poindexter obtained the Chevrolet with which McDuffie earned his only pole position at Dover International Speedway in 1978.
In Jackson, Michigan in 2019, the Bailey family who are longtime sponsors of McDuffie, rescued the last car McDuffie ran at Dover in 1991. The Bailey family also owns McDuffie's famous "Ol' Blue" transporter, which made an appearance during the NASCAR throwback weekend at Darlington Raceway during the 2017 season. Front Row Motorsports entered a car in the Southern 500 that resembled McDuffie's No. 70 Chevrolet, complete with sponsorship from the Bailey's company, Bailey Excavating, and longtime sponsor Rumple Furniture of Elkin, North Carolina.
(All advertisements above were designed by me)
My Duties:
For the mural unveiling, I was responsible for promoting the event and planning the car show.
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To promote the event, I utilized every media outlet available in the surrounding area. I reached out to news stations, radio stations, newspapers, Facebook groups, and NASCAR connections.
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For the car show, Hagerty stepped up and wanted to be the main sponsor. I was in constant communication with the Hagerty representative about the event details, and the type of promotional items that the company could give out to those participating in the car show.
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The event ended up being a huge success with several hundred people coming through to take a gander at the mural. One of those guests was 1978 NASCAR Winston Cup Series Rookie of the Year, Ronnie Thomas. Looking back, this is the biggest project in my short career that I am most proud of. With this project, I was able to combine two of passions, racing and communications.