Mike Wallace

NASCAR Driver

Mike Wallace, driver of the No. 01 Davis Motorsports Chevrolet in the NASCAR Nationwide Series from St. Louis, Missouri, is the younger brother of Rusty Wallace and older brother of Kenny Wallace. His children, Chrissy Wallace and Matt Wallace are also pursuing their own racing careers.

A restrictor plate specialist, Wallace is known for having great success at superspeedways such as Daytona and Talladega. At Daytona in February 2003, Wallace recorded three top-10’s in three days in three different Series and with three different manufacturers.

Mike is also known for winning the inaugural NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Daytona and went on to record two more wins at the historic 2.5-mile tri-oval, including an ARCA win.

Wallace has over 300 short track wins, while also recording wins in the ARCA Series and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. In Cup, he has eight career top-10 finishes and a career high finish of second at Phoenix.

Mike and daughter Chrissy made NASCAR history at Daytona in Feb. 2010 when they became the father/daughter duo to compete in the Nationwide Series event.

Billy Venturini

General manager of Venturini Motorsport’s ARCA team
that serves as one of the premier NASCAR driver
development teams in the country.

Pat Perkins

Vice president of marketing for Hendrick Motorsports

As Hendrick Motorsports’ vice president of marketing, Patrick Perkins leads sponsorship acquisition and servicing efforts while overseeing a 15-person department responsible for public relations, client services and marketing.

A 1992 graduate of California Lutheran University, Perkins joined Phoenix International Raceway that same year as marketing manager. In 1995, he became vice president and general manager of Phoenix-based Associated Companies, a group of advertising and promotional agencies specializing in the retail automotive industry.

Perkins was successful during his first two stops, developing business and promotional opportunities at each. His experience, combined with lessons learned from watching his father and role model, Jim, ultimately prepared Perkins for joining Hendrick Motorsports in 1999.

When he arrived at Hendrick Motorsports, Perkins quickly transitioned into the role of director of marketing services. In August 2002, he was named the director of marketing, and five years later he became the vice president of marketing.

No matter his title, though, Perkins has surrounded himself with highly talented, quality employees to assist in leading the department’s daily operations. He enjoys a career where he can combine his two passions – racing and the automotive business.

Perkins acknowledges his parents, particularly his father, a former General Motors and Toyota executive, as tremendous influences in his life. He enjoys spending time with his wife, Mary, and daughter, Julia, exercising and being outdoors.

Ryan Wilson

"Top Driver" Winner of Richard Petty's
2010 Driver Search II

Ryan Wilson of Randleman, NC was named “Top Driver” of Richard Petty’s Driver Search II in September 2010, earning the opportunity to compete in the ARCA American 200 at Rockingham Speedway.  Wilson drove the #15 Richard Petty’s Driver Search Dodge to a 14th place finish after starting 19th in the field of 41. 

Wilson started racing go-karts at the age of five and has continued to progress as a competitive driver, most recently competing in Late Model Stock Cars.  His home track is Caraway Speedway in Asheboro, NC. 

Todd Stewart
Co-Founder of Racing 2 Cure

Graduated from Arizona State University in 1995 Majored in International Business. Owned and operated an electronics manufacturing / importing  company for 15 years. Co-Founder of Racing 2 Cure (non-profit, public charity) and four time driver / finisher of the Baja 1000 off road race.

Michael Hargrave

Mike is a senior corporate marketing executive with extensive experience in the field of sports and entertainment. His career is marked by leadership
of business and communication initiatives that delivered significant, measureable improvements
in business and brand development. Hargrave recently served as the SVP of Global Sponsorship Marketing at Bank of America. 

Prior to joining Bank of America he was Vice President of Strategic Alliances for ConAgra Foods, a major US food company, where he led the creation of their sponsorship and licensing department. Hargrave has also held leadership positions at Texaco and Anheuser-Busch, heading up marketing initiatives with teams and leagues including the USOC, NFL, MLB, NBA and a wide variety of motorsports.

During his tenure as the head of Anheuser-Busch’s motorsports department Bud was not only king of beers but king of motorsports. Budweiser held the position of official beer of NASCAR, Indy Car and the NHRA as well as the title sponsor of NASCAR’s Busch Series. He had the privilege of working with NASCAR owners Rick Hendrick and Dale Earnhardt and drivers Kenny Shraeder, Ricky Craven and Dale Earnhardt Jr. driving the red Bud Cup cars. A-B’s Indy program touted some hot shoes as well with Scott Pruett, Paul Tracy and Christian Fittipaldi all bringing home winning programs. In drag racing it was the legendary Bud King with owner/driver Kenny Bernstein winning unprecedented championships for the Bud brand in both Funny Car and Top Fuel. Miss Bud was tops on the water with owner Bernie Little leading the charge.

While leading the sponsorship department at Texaco, Mike and Robert Yates worked together to recruit Ricky Rudd to the  historic #28 Texaco Havoline cup team where he finished 5th, 4th and 10th in the point during his three years with Yates Racing.  The open wheel team had no less impressive credentials with Carl Hass and Paul Newman’s team led by Mario and Michael Andretti.

At ConAgra Foods J.D. Gibbs and Mike worked together on sponsorship which provided funding for their diversity and development team which gave Aric Almirola his entry level opportunity in NASCAR.

In the past three years with Bank of America, Mike led the banks motorsports advisory group to help bring financial services to the NASCAR community.

An effort to support the Charlotte Mecklenburg School System, Mike and his team in collaboration with the school district and the North Carolina Motorsports Association have developed a motorsports themed STEM curriculum that is reaching over 10,000 7th and 8th grade students. This creative approach to science, technology engineering and math has help stimulate scores in the CMS to the highest level in North Carolina’s public school systems.

In addition to his corporate and motorsports experience Hargrave worked on the agency and team side including the director of advertising for the 1987 Western Division Champion Houston Astros.

Hargrave is a graduate of Butler University and earned his master’s degree from Ohio University’s Sports Administration program. Hargrave also served on the Board of Directors for the Omaha Sports Commission, the College World Series and the North Carolina Motorsports Association.

Hargrave and his wife Deborah have lived in Charlotte since 2007 with their two daughters Rachel and Sarah.

Buz McKim

Panel Discussion Moderator

Long-time NASCAR Historian and
NASCAR Hall of Fame Curator

Buz McKim hails from Hackensack, N.J. and was born into the sport of auto racing. His father owned cars which competed in the NASCAR Sportsman and NASCAR Modified Divisions on northeastern race tracks in the early 1950’s. McKim grew up around racing with his father changing roles from car owner to race announcer. Just out of high school McKim attempted a driving career, but found it was more profitable to paint the numbers on the cars instead.

 He pursued a career in commercial art, creating many pieces of work used in Indianapolis 500 yearbooks of the mid-1970s. He also designed many paint schemes for cars in NASCAR’s premier series during the 1970’s including the 1975 and 1976 Daytona 500-winning cars of Benny Parsons and David Pearson, respectively. McKim was commissioned by Anheuser-Busch to paint the official portrait of 1997 NASCAR Busch Series champion Randy Lajoie and 1998 champ Dale Earnhardt Jr. McKim later developed a line of limited-edition racing prints dealing with historical NASCAR moments from the careers of Richard Petty, Mark Martin and NASCAR legend Fireball Roberts.

Always a historian, McKim became Director of Archives for the International Speedway Corporation in January 1999 after leaving the commercial art field, McKim accepted the position of Coordinator of Statistical Services with the NASCAR Public Relations Department in September 2003. In 2004 McKim collaborated with writer and fellow NASCAR employee Herb Branham to create the book, NASCAR Vault. It has become one of the most popular NASCAR-based books ever published. 2005 saw McKim featured in the Speed Channel production entitled Dave Despain: On Assignment, which chronicled beach racing in the days before NASCAR. More recently, McKim appeared in the ESPN series Ultimate NASCAR. Over the past decade he has become one of the foremost authorities on auto racing history. He has written for the monthly publication, Racing Milestones, for the past nine years and has added his expertise to nearly 100 books on auto racing including The History of the 24 Hours of Daytona and the new release NASCAR Families, a companion book to NASCAR Vault.

In March 2007, McKim was named Historian for the new NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte, N.C. The facility opened in May 2010. This opportunity with the Hall of Fame allowed Buz McKim to pursue his first love, preserving NASCAR history. Recently, McKim was seen in the ESPN series Ultimate NASCAR and won a Silver Telly award for his work on the production “Dave Despain, On the road, The Building of the Daytona 500”, and another Telly for a documentary on the building of the Talladega Superspeedway. McKim was also co-host of the weekly radio show, “NASCAR Collector”, on Sirius Satellite Radio for several seasons.

 Buz McKim resides in Rock Hill, S.C. with his wife Gwen. They are parents of two daughters and have five granddaughters.

Annamarie Malfitana-Strawhand
Summit Co-Host

Owner/President; Drive-In Webdesign and Marketing, LLC. and Motorsports Consultant Services. 25 years experience in motorsports marketing, sponsorship, PR, web development and driver and team management on all levels of racing.

Kymberly Brantigan
Summit Host