“It was a $4M pitch”: Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s recent guest Zak Brown narrates turning point in his career 

Dale Earnhardt Jr. hosted McLaren Racing's Zak Brown on his podcast, Dale Jr. Download. During their conversation, Brown told Jr. about his transition from being a racecar driver to a management executive.

Zak Brown is currently the CEO of McLaren Racing, an outfit known notably for its involvement in Formula 1 and IndyCar. He has held this position since April 2018, after being promoted from the role of Executive Director, a position he held from November 2016. Brown also notably founded Just Marketing International in 1995, which became a powerhouse in global motorsports marketing.

Before Brown put on an executive's suit, he was a racer, starting his career in karting in 1986 before moving to Europe to race in Formula 1600. Talking about his career trajectory on the Dale Jr. Download, Brown narrated the incident of how he pivoted to the field of marketing after his first NASCAR pitch. He said,

"A lot of people telling me, 'Zak, you're a better sales and marketing guy than driver.' And as a driver that's the last thing you want to hear. And then I got burned out, I was kind of doing the IndyCar sponsorship and I remember the first NASCAR deal I did, it was Columbia House Records. I remember going into the CMO, Sharon, and had a meeting, and made the biggest pitch I'd ever made, the biggest deal I'd ever done at that point was $1 million. This was a $4 million pitch," Brown described.

Recalling his shock after his pitch was accepted, Brown talked about working with Jason Keller and David Green in the Busch Series as he also got into NASCAR.

While correcting Dale Earnhardt Jr., who thought Brown was only involved in deals in IndyCar, the McLaren CEO said:

"No, lot of NASCAR. I probably been to 100 NASCAR races, done deal with Roush, Hendrick, Childress, Gibbs. We were the ones responsible for bringing spirits into NASCAR, which was fasincating, we did a lot of big deals," Brown added.

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Zak Brown tells Dale Earnhardt Jr. about the possibilities for Pato O'Ward in NASCAR Mexico

A few weeks ago, NASCAR confirmed that in 2025, the Cup Series would race in Mexico City. This led to speculation about IndyCar's Mexican-origin driver, Pato O'Ward potentially running a one-off race.

During his conversation with Dale Earnhardt Jr., Zak Brown confirmed that Pato O'Ward would take part in the practice session and also hinted at the possibility of O'Ward running more than a practice session in Mexico.

"If we can get him in the Xfinity race that would be, that would be cool, I love that stuff. So I'd love to see Pato do that. Right now it conflicts. What else can we do with Hendrick Motorsport? Maybe there's something, you know, Pato at the Daytona 500. How cool would that be? That would be cool," Brown said.

If the reports are to be believed, Pato O'Ward could very well be making an FP1 appearance for McLaren at the Mexican GP in October this year.