George Silbermann has a passion for the sport of auto racing as a whole and his title at NASCAR allows him to grow the sport at the grassroots level.
Silbermann is the vice president of NASCAR’s regional and touring series. Forget about his title, however, and look to the man himself. Silbermann doesn’t sit in an office in Daytona Beach all week calculating numbers. He visits the tracks, talks to the racers and works to grow short track racing with NASCAR’s brand.
Silbermann takes joy in his job in just the fact that he is able to attend short track racing on a weekly basis. In fact, he says that’s the most fun part of his job.
“As I get around, it doesn’t matter where I’m at, whether it’s an asphalt track, a dirt track, doesn’t matter what the feature division cars are whether they’re Late Models or what have you, there’s two common denominators,” Silbermann said. “One is all these folks in the pits, the passion they have for it and the other common denominator which I think is more important to our sport as a whole is the people up in the grandstands. It’s really the fans that make it happen.
“So, whether I’m in Virginia or up in Quebec, whether they speak French or English or some of our European races where they speak all kinds of languages, a race fan is a race fan and that’s one of the things that I really enjoy is going out and seeing great racing and seeing the race fans.”
When Silbermann attends races, he can be seen in the driver’s meeting and in the pits, talking to fans and competitors. Often times, the names of drivers he meets make their way back to Daytona Beach through award nominations and other recommendations.
While NASCAR is known for the three biggest racing series in the United States, NASCAR is also deeply involved in short track racing in several capacities. Throughout the years, critics of NASCAR have said the sanctioning body has neglected and even gone up against short track racing – a perspective Silbermann disagrees with.
“Come on out to a race and see what’s happening,” Silbermann remarked. “The NASCAR Whelen All-American Series represents about 60 short tracks throughout the United States and Canada and what we try to do is support this area of the sport. It’s everything from a championship point fund, the big banquet we do for these racers at the end of the year at the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte, million-dollar insurance policy we bring to each participant in an event and the national sponsor dollars that get funneled down to this area of the sport through things like the point fund and other things. Those are just a few examples.”
NASCAR was born on short tracks such as Martinsville Speedway and Silbermann says NASCAR has not forgotten that.
“You think about NASCAR, founded by the France family, they cut their teeth promoting short track racing really all up and down the East Coast,” Silbermann explained. “Places like Bowman Gray Stadium, long before there was a Daytona. You flash forward a little bit ahead, you have Bill Jr, before he had Brian become chairman, sent him out to a short track in Tucson to see what this sport is really about.
“As big as NASCAR’s gotten, we’ve never forgotten our roots.”
As Silbermann walked around the pits at South Boston Speedway, he saw competitors such as NASCAR Camping World Truck Series driver Timothy Peters, three-time and defending NASCAR Whelen All-American Series national champion Lee Pulliam and former national champion Peyton Sellers all on the same stage on the same day.
“Looking around the driver’s meeting seeing the icons of LMSC racing, this is great racing,” Silbermann commented. “That’s what it’s all about. Doesn’t matter the level, doesn’t matter the racetrack, that’s the bottom line.”
At the end of the night, that’s what Silbermann sees, great racing. While he has a position at NASCAR, he shares the same passion as the racers in the cockpits and the fans in the stands.
