What's new at the Glen for NASCAR weekend? WGI president gives inside scoop.
Michael Printup has been president of Watkins Glen International since the summer of 2009 and is gearing up with the track's staff for NASCAR's annual return to the Schuyler County road course this week.
Printup, 57, talked last week about the track's preparations for its biggest annual event, including additions Watkins Glen has made with designs on adding to its festive atmosphere.
Printup lives in Horseheads with his wife, Stephanie, and they have two sons, Brendan (24) and Matt (18).
Q: How have preparations gone for NASCAR weekend?
Answer: Good. It’s actually a lot better than the past. I’m only saying that because of being pushed back two more weeks and our summer schedule is so busy it’s actually given our track operations team a couple more weeks to seriously get ready. We’re down to really nitty-gritty details, which is nice.
A lot of times fans don’t see it, but of course we do because we’re very critical of ourselves. Preparation is just awesome and obviously the weather has cooperated. All is good aboard the ship.
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Q: What has the track got going this year that's different?
A: We have a dedicated team, not only here at The Glen but also one of our leaders from Michigan, on the event experience side. We have a whole new team called Event Experience. We just really introduced it last year, but it’s going 100 miles an hour this year.
We have entertainment down in Turn 1, we have music, we have games. We have entertainment and a mini-kids area in Gate 5, which is one of our major areas, on the other side of the bridge. Music, games, there’s kids face-painting. We have nine grandstands and then we have four decks here and two berms. The geography of this place and the locale of all our places to watch are really different.
Then you go in the infield and we put a main stage up like we normally do, but now we’re activating that stage all day long. There’s a Q&A up there. I go up there Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I get 30 minutes and I’ll be interviewing drivers, owners, sponsors, giving away swag left and right. Then we have live music there. Then Thursday, Friday and Saturday night on that main stage in the midway we have music. Usually we only do music one night on NASCAR weekend.
We’re programming the heck out of entertainment. When you come here, there’s no way you’re going to be bored for a minute. We have two kids zones. We usually only have one. We have our kids zone located near the Pyramid and then Toyota is bringing another kids zone and they’re doing a movie night and they’re doing s’mores for the campers on the infield.
I’m really excited to see how the fans like what we’re doing this year. Not to mention we’re going to do fireworks again too. Our team, our crowd, our campers love fireworks. We did it last year for the first time since I’ve been here and we’re going to do it again this year.
Q: This year's schedule has six road-course races. Do you think Watkins Glen's success has played a part in the growth of road races in the Cup Series in recent years?
A: I think no question. I’m not on the strategic side of that on the NASCAR planning, competition, but anecdotally you look at the racing that us and Sonoma – the two original road courses that still exist – and the racing style, the excitement that was coming out of us and Sonoma, particularly us, since 2009 is just absolutely incredible.
Now we’re going street racing in Chicago. All this does is lead credence to racing is racing, but it’s awful different when it’s on a road course and now a street course. I think the excitement is really banged up there. You see some of the younger drivers that really have the talent – the Ryan Blaneys of the world, the Chase Elliotts – they can drive anything. You put a motor in a bathtub and these guys would be wheeling it around some dirt track somewhere. I think the fans appreciate all that and I think that’s why road courses have definitely led the growth of that street course/road course.
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Q: What do you enjoy most about your job?
A: Working with the team. This team, with all the sellouts that have been produced and all the changes. We've put $54, $56 million into this in the last 14 years. In '08 we put in the media center and I've got to include that in there.
It's really the development and the fans. We do that coffee and donuts on Saturday morning for all the campers and everything they say is they love the improvements, whether it's a bathroom over here or a shower over there or new signage over there. Nothing is cheap when you work on a facility this big and you have 37 buildings throughout this property, let alone the grandstands and everything else. I think that’s the most rewarding thing is hearing the fans say that.
Kudos to the company for putting together a strategic plan like we did when we first got here and really the company backing us with the capital investment. That’s a lot of money. Fifty-five, 56 million is a lot of dollars over the years. It’s been worth it and I think the fans appreciate that. That’s one of the big reasons why we keep selling out is they know somewhere deep down we’re going to keep making the things better and they come back every year and see something better.
Follow Andrew Legare on Twitter: @SGAndrewLegare. You can also reach him at alegare@gannett.com. To get unlimited access to the latest news, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
This article originally appeared on Elmira Star-Gazette: Watkins Glen International adds music, entertainment for NASCAR weekend
