For the third year in a row, Daytona International Speedway announced its partnership with Beef. It’s What’s For Dinner to sponsor the 42nd season-opening race for the NASCAR Xfinity Series – The Beef. It’s What’s For Dinner.® 300. The race is scheduled to kick off the season on Saturday, February 18 at Daytona International Speedway.
At the 2023 Cattle Industry Convention, Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster, Ron Hays, got the chance to visit with the director of beef marketing and promotion at the Florida Beef Council, Deanne Maples, about the Beef. It’s What’s For Dinner 300.
The 2023 Cattle Industry Convention coverage is being powered by Performance Ranch, a part of Zoetis, and by Farm Data Services located in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
“It is this huge celebration of beef, and it really stretches out across the country with the broadcast, and the whole nine yards, but it is also really nice just to welcome our colleagues back to town too, that help do this event,” Maples said.
Coming into year three of the Beef. It’s What’s For Dinner 300, Maples said she has learned that the race has proved each year to be a valuable opportunity to engage with beef consumers.
“We still want to have those personal relationships with our beef-loving race friends,” Maples said. “So, continuing to provide spice packets and things like that, shaking their hands, thanking them for eating our product, answering questions, inspiring new meals, providing resources, and of course the fun things like teaching kids of all ages, really, how to rope and some of those things our cowboys and our ranchers can really engage with the consumers.”
The coordination of the Beef. It’s What’s for Dinner 300, has involved many organizations within the beef industry, Maples said, as all hands have been “on deck.”
“I love what we have been able to accomplish for our producers with their checkoff dollars investment in this event, the reach that we saw with consumers across the country and even beyond our borders,” Maples said.
The most special part, Maples said, is the individuals from other states such as Oklahoma, Texas and Colorado coming together to pull the race off.
“We are the boots on the ground for our producers,” Maples said.
The payoff for the race has been billions of impressions for the beef industry each year, Maples said, and those numbers are expected to prevail in the 2023 race as well. Those impressions continue throughout the year as the race is aired a few more times on television.
“It is mind-boggling to think 6.5 billion people see this, but it is also so exciting to think that,” Maples said.
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