John Compton, CEO of PepsiCo Americas Foods, University of Tennessee graduate and current Board Member at the school, has been named the Grand Marshal for the Food City 500 on March 16 at Bristol Motor Speedway.
"As a native Tennessean, I'm excited to get back home to serve as Grand Marshal of the Food City 500," said Compton. "And as a PepsiCo executive, I'm especially honored by this invitation because our company has a long tradition of supporting motor sports and our brands enjoy a strong following among race fans."
Compton's participation in the event follows the announcement on Jan. 1 of this year naming Pepsi Bottling Group (PBG) as the exclusive provider of carbonated beverages and select non-carbonated beverages for both the Bristol Motor Speedway and Bristol Dragway.
"Food City enjoys a great relationship with PepsiCo through their local PBG bottler, and we're excited that they have teamed with Bristol Motor Speedway as the official soft drink provider. We're honored to have John Compton serve as the Grand Marshal of the Food City 500," said Steven C. Smith, Food City president and chief executive officer.
Food City is Bristol Motor Speedway's longest running sponsor and the second longest in NASCAR motor sports. The company recently signed a contract extension with the speedway to take their sponsorship through 2010. For more than 20 years, Food City has also hosted their hugely popular Family Race Night events held each Spring and Fall in conjunction with BMS NASCAR weekends. Since their inception, Food City's Race Night events have contributed over $500,000 to numerous non-profit organizations.
PepsiCo Americas Foods has a food and snack portfolio which includes: Frito Lay North America, Quaker, Sabritas, Gamesa, PepsiCo's Latin American food businesses and the North American Power of One Retail Sales teams.
The Food City 500 gets under way at 2 p.m. on March 16. Qualifying for both the Food City 500 Spring Cup event and the Sharpie MINI 300 Nationwide Series race will take place on Friday, March 14. The Sharpie MINI 300 revs up at 2:30 on Saturday, March 15.
Tickets are available for Pole Day ($15) and for the Sharpie MINI 300 (starting at $45) and may be purchased at www.bristoltix.com or by calling the BMS ticket office at 423.989.6900.
Headquartered in Abingdon, Virginia, K-VA-T Food Stores operates 96 retail food outlets throughout the tri-state regions of Southeast Kentucky, Southwest Virginia and Northeast Tennessee.
