News & Accolades

Craftsman Sponsors ESPN Tech Garage for 2009 NASCAR Season

BRISTOL, CT AND HOFFMAN ESTATES, IL (Feb. 3, 2009)

Craftsman, the Official Tools of NASCAR, has teamed up with ESPN to present the ESPN Craftsman Tech Garage, an innovative mobile television studio used throughout the network's NASCAR coverage. This mobile studio gives ESPN the ability to originate segments from an enclosed, controlled environment with no external noise interference.

ESPN's Tim Brewer, a two-time NASCAR champion crew chief, and other ESPN analysts report from the unit during race telecasts to teach viewers about the technical and mechanical aspects of NASCAR racing, using the Craftsman tools trusted by NASCAR.

"By working with ESPN on the Craftsman Tech Garage, we are not only enhancing our long relationship with NASCAR, but sharing knowledge from the place we believe champions originate - the garage," said Erik Rosenstrauch, Craftsman Director of Marketing. "Pairing the NASCAR experts at ESPN with America's most trusted brand in tools gives fans a way to experience our brand as if they're on the track."

"Craftsman has had a long and successful association with NASCAR," said Ed Erhardt, President, ESPN Customer Marketing and Sales. "Their involvement with ESPN's NASCAR coverage helps us build that authentic experience we strive to deliver to fans each and every race week. "

The multi-faceted, season-long sponsorship includes extensions in print via ESPN the Magazine and through a weekly Tech Garage feature in the morning race-day show on ESPN Radio.

In addition to ESPN and ESPN on ABC's coverage of the final 17 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races, segments from the ESPN Craftsman Tech Garage will air during ESPN's exclusive, season-long coverage of the NASCAR Nationwide Series. The unit is also used throughout ESPN's leading non-television media platforms.

The enclosed studio contains the ESPN Chevy Cutaway Car used in ESPN's NASCAR coverage. The studio also has room for displays of other racecar elements such as engines, transmissions and shock absorbers.

Elements of the ESPN Craftsman Tech Garage include:

* Two tractor-trailer rigs -- a studio trailer and a support trailer

* An 80,000-pound Featherlite Expandable trailer with dual slide-outs

* Five miles of wiring

* A rear-opening trailer that serves as the entry/exit point for the Chevy Cutaway Cars

* Two Chevy Cutaway Cars -- a NASCAR Sprint Cup car and a NASCAR Nationwide Series car

Only one is in the studio at a time, depending upon which series is being televised, although both could fit

* More than 100 Craftsman products and tool sets

* Removable lights, cameras, props and cars that are torn down and loaded in three hours after every telecast

* A 53-foot, 65,000-lb. support trailer that carries the two Chevy Cutaway Cars and all of the props used in the tech center (parts, pieces, power train unit, Craftsman tools)

* Multiple plasma television monitors