The world of racing is nothing if not fast-paced. For Germàn Quiroga and the Red Horse Racing team, that means spending a majority of the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season on the road, tearing up the asphalt at tracks around the country and rushing back to their shop to prepare for the next race. To stay connected with the team on race day and with their families every other day, the driver and his team rely on their mobile technology. To keep that technology working in the dusty, greasy, rough-andtumble chaos, they trust OtterBox.

Quiroga broke into racing at the age of 14 in his hometown of Mexico City. His career has taken him from an entry-level series to stock cars to formula racing and back again before deciding to stick with the NASCAR Mexico Series where he became a three-time champion. While the series remained challenging, with new struggles each race weekend, Quiroga was not satisfied to rest on his laurels.

“I decided that I wanted to get even higher in my career. It was not enough,” he said. “I wanted to learn more and to represent my country in the United States.”

Packing all of his belongings into a truck, he drove from Mexico City all the way to Charlotte, N.C., the epicenter of U.S. racing, and started again. Now, as the newest driver for the Red Horse Racing team, he’s looking to not only make a name for himself but also 
represent his country.

“Our goal is to go out and win. It’s very simple,” said Red Horse Racing owner and managing partner Tom DeLoach. “I recognize that we can’t win every week, but our job is to put the right people at the track who can win.” 

That job doesn’t start and stop at the racetrack. DeLoach believes that the races are actually won at the shop as much as anywhere and mobile technology has increasingly become a part of this intricate journey to the winner’s circle.

“In a race team, we’re moving all the time,” DeLoach said. “At the same time, we have to move a lot of data back and forth. We’re very big into mobile technology. It really facilitates what we do. We actually transmit data — such as gas mileage — back and forth down pit row during the race between our three teams just so that we can get a better check to get one more lap before we have to refuel.” 

The Red Horse Racing team consists of more than 50 highly skilled individuals — three drivers, road crews, pit crews, fabricators and more. They are all a piece of the complicated mechanism that results in a winning team, and they are tied together, on and off the track, by mobile technology.

For Katey Hawbaker, director of marketing and media relations for Red Horse Racing, the job requires constant connectivity. Solely responsible for the team’s web presence, media relations for three drivers and a litany of race day tasks, Hawbaker relies on her Apple iPhone. In addition to keeping track of the media and public appearance schedules for three drivers, she is consistently updating the fans.

“Mobile technology in the NASCAR industry is huge,” she explained. “It plays into every minute of every day. If we didn’t have our phones at the racetracks we go to, we’d be very disconnected from the fans. That’s one of the most important things in our industry. Being in the industry that we’re in — it’s so fast paced. I’m running around a lot. I knew as soon as I got the iPhone, I didn’t want to be responsible for replacing it, so I went out and got an OtterBox. It had a great reputation and I wanted to be sure that I was protecting my phone.”

Though his focus is dialed in at the track, Quiroga relies heavily on mobile technology both personally and professionally when he’s away from it. 

“For me, it’s very important to have a phone. I’m always texting, tweeting, on Facebook,” he said. “I really try to manage everything. I can’t be home in front of a computer every day. I’m with my phone every single day, 24/7.”

He keeps up his personal webpage, responds to fans, tracks his physical training regime and is able to stay closely connected to his family back in Mexico using his mobile devices. At odds with the level of concentration and precision Quiroga exhibits on the racetrack, is his seemingly haphazard approach to keeping connected. That’s where OtterBox comes in.

“I drop my phone everyday. When I’m racing, I’m very focused but my life is very, very distracted,” he said. “I don’t text and drive, but when I’m walking I’m texting. When you do that, your phone can and will fall. Before I had OtterBox, I broke a couple of phones. Now, OtterBox protects my phone very well. I don’t feel anything when I drop my phone anymore — I know it’s protected.” 

RELATED MATERIALS:
Red Horse Racing Case Study Video

PDF VERSION OF CASE STUDY