Here Are The Reasons Chevrolet Races

After unveiling the 2013 NASCAR Chevy SS stock car, GM U.S. Vice President, Performance Vehicles and Motorsports Jim Campbell explained the three reasons behind Chevy‘s participation in motorsports.

“We race for three reasons. One is tech transfer. What we learn on the track helps us make better production cars and powertrains. Two, when you win big races and championships, it lifts the image and opinion of the brand, and good things happen. Customers put you on the shopping list faster.

The third is that “customers give you a lot of time in the racing environment. Customers hang out with us and their fellow customers at the racetrack. It gives us a chance to show them our latest products and we can interact with perspective customers who don’t own Chevrolets. The whole focus is to sell a car, truck or part. That’s our focus every week.”

In summary, the three reasons are:

• Tech transfer
• Brand image and opinion
• Opportunity to showcase the latest vehicles to customers

The GM Authority Take

We always had a hunch that there were solid reasons for GM’s motorsports efforts, but it’s nice to see the case made by a GM official. What’s we find interesting about Chevy’s efforts in bringing the SS to NASCAR is that it flies directly in the face of what its competition from Ford and Toyota is doing: while both of the rivals are fielding nameplates that — in the real world — are front wheel-drive high-volume mainstream models with the Fusion and Camry, respectively, Chevy is going with a low-volume model that isn’t likely to be big seller in U.S. dealerships.

However, we imagine that the The Bow Tie brand will have a clear image carryover from NASCAR to the showroom, as it’s the only car in the 2013 NASCAR series that will have any sort of real high-performance street cred… outside the NASCAR Camaro, that is.