This week’s NASCAR Behind the Scenes focuses on Kevin Henry, who after running Penn State University’s Beaver Stadium, is bringing his own brand of roar to Pocono Raceway, recently assuming the position of Senior Director of Facility Operations.
“My new job entails the event and lease operations of the track, dealing with security, guest relations, and all the guest management tools that we have to put in place for a big event,” Henry said. “I’m preparing for a three-race summer and trying to get my brain around this thing called auto racing.”
“It’s a lot of fun so far.”
While Henry is thrilled with the new role, he really did not come looking for it. In fact, the leadership at Pocono Raceway came calling on him.
“I was lucky enough that the folks here at Pocono Raceway reached out to me and found me and asked if I would apply and interview,” Henry said. “I made it through the process and was lucky enough to get the job.”
“But they found me; I didn’t really find them,” Henry continued. “So, that was the good part of that whole thing.”
Besides his Penn State roar, why did Henry think that Pocono sought him out?
“I think they wanted somebody more local and also I think they wanted to go outside the box a little bit and not go through the traditional auto sport folks they know,” Henry said. “They wanted to bring in fresh ideas and hopefully I can do that.”
“My background is in college athletics. I was facilities manager, event manager and equipment manager at Penn State University in State College, Pennsylvania. I was on the Beaver Stadium management team doing big, large-scale events on an annual basis there.”
“But also I’ve had the good fortune of working two NCAA Final Fours as a subcontractor for Turner Live events,” Henry continued. “So, big venues, big footprints, big events, they are all the same. It doesn’t matter if they are a football game or an auto race, the principles of access control to protecting the livelihood of the sanctioning body and the people that are there, it’s all the same no matter what.”
“The tools are very, very similar,” Henry said. “It’s just getting used to the circus that is auto racing when it comes to town. That’s the difference. It’s just a different circus than my past role.”
Henry was able to recently check out his first in-person NASCAR race, bundling it with the Final Four in Texas.
“Because I was there for the Final Four, it did line up well with the race in Texas,” Henry said. “I drove over there on Thursday morning just casually and not really with any agenda. I like driving around these large footprints and looking at wayfinding signs, looking at staffing, looking at the logistics that go into it. With a semi-trained eye, you pick out little things that you can apply back.”
“Everybody has a different way of doing things so that is interesting to see,” Henry continued. “To drive the infield and then watch Nationwide and Trucks moving into the garage, which was something I had yet to see.”
“All the parking and the logistics were so interesting,” Henry said. “That’s what I basically learned from Texas was the pre-race logistics that the fans don’t see.”
“I will get to other tracks as the season goes and get around to other venues to see whatever works. We’ll take advantage of that as the opportunities come.”
Henry did not, however get to check out the Pocono Raceway by his usual method of driving around the footprint as he did in Texas.
“I wish I could say that the first thing I did was drive the Pocono footprint but the harshness of the winter kind of prevented me from doing that,” Henry said. “The snow got on the ground early and stayed until a few weeks ago. So, I’ve been driving that footprint every day this week and for the weeks to come to catch up.”
Henry will bring his PSU expertise to tackle any of the challenges at Pocono Raceway, which he feels will be more than applicable to the track known as the ‘Tricky Triangle.’
“I think really the challenges are the same no matter what big venue you’re working with,” Henry said. “It’s dealing with the staff, making sure they’re energized over a long period of time, to greet our guests, greet the sanctioning bodies, and greet anyone that touches this footprint.”
“Making sure that they have the tools to make good decisions and tell us what’s going on out in the world so that we can make good decisions is my number one focus,” Henry continued. “I don’t touch our fans because I’ll be in a room somewhere or going from point A to point B for a meeting so our workforce has that interaction. We have to give them the tools to interact the way we want them to so our guests come back again and again and again.”
“We do have a mix of volunteers, paid hourly staff, contractors and so the challenge is communication, like it is in every workplace,” Henry said. “So, we set up a system as to how we’re going to educate them, like a handbook they can carry in their back pocket or a brief sheet of what’s going on that day or whether it is the production notes of what changes from race weekend to race weekend.”
“We get redundant and go over and over and over the five or six key points,” Henry continued. “We don’t want to overwhelm with information because we want to focus in on the key elements, which are safe, clean and friendly.”
“If you’re safe, they will come back. If it’s clean and they have a good experience, they are going to come back. And if everybody is friendly, smiling and asking how they can help, they are going to come back.”
Henry admitted that one of these elements does indeed worry him enough to disturb his sleep.
“Safety is one of the things that keeps me up at night, wondering if you have enough or if they are going to be where they need to be when the time comes,” Henry said. “But it’s a multi-layered approach. We try to run a unified command program, with State, federal and local authorities with assets in the right place at the right time, whether weather assets, law enforcement assets, or fire and EMS assets.”
“You want to plan for the worst and hope you never use that plan. Plans are for every contingency that we can think of right now.”
Friendliness is another key element that Henry hopes will translate from Penn State University to Pocono Raceway.
“You have to stress that friendliness with your staff, like stressing the little things like making eye contact with the fans,” Henry said. “Once you get within ten feet, you make eye contact with people and within five feet you say ‘hello’ or ‘how may I help you.’ That’s an old, and I might get this wrong but, I found it in an old Marriott handbook of training.”
“Yeah, we’re a sports industry and a racing industry but we are a hospitality industry, which we try to stress and apply.”
“We won’t do anything too much different from Penn State to Pocono,” Henry said. “A lot of things that we do in college football are unique to college football, like the pomp and circumstance of the band or a large video board.”
“So, the entertainment is different here at Pocono,” Henry conclude. “We will integrate as much as we can but it is very much different.”
Henry’s first test of his Penn State roar at Pocono Raceway will come the weekend of June 5th to 8th with the first NASCAR race of the season, the Pocono 400.
