This institution’s commitment to racing ranges from backing several teams to providing a suite of services that benefit motorsports businesses, all enhanced by its newly acquired status as a PRI Founding Member.

Business—any kind of business—is all about building alliances with prospective partners and securing the resources to meet laid-out goals. Nothing happens in racing, or anything else, without a proper foundation of financial strength. More than most lending and financial institutions, Fifth Third Bank, headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, has a deep grounding in providing fiscal guidance not only to business partners in motorsports, but also to everyday customers who just happen to really like racing. At this bank, motorsports is more than just a marketing tool. 

“Because of the nature of our business, originating in the Midwest and being more than 160 years old, we’ve been assisting automotive or racing businesses for a long time, starting in Ohio and now in the Carolinas where a lot of NASCAR is rooted,” Fifth Third Senior Vice President David Morton said. “But we didn’t have a real focus around it with a motorsport practice like we do today until about 2010, when we started a banking relationship with what was then Roush Fenway. They ultimately moved their banking to us.”

It was the first step in a process that led to Fifth Third Bank becoming a lead sponsor on the No. 17 Ford Mustang driven by Chris Buescher of Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing in the NASCAR Cup series. Fifth Third is now in its 11th year as a partner of RFK Racing. Based on that success, Fifth Third has since landed as a sponsor of Rahal Letterman Lanigan’s IndyCar program, and also backs the NHRA Top Fuel dragsters of Doug Kalitta and Shawn Langdon at Kalitta Motorsports. “It’s a business-development platform that’s unlike any I’ve seen,” said Morton. “It accelerates the sales cycle, and it makes us an authentic part of the motorsports community.”

Gaining that level of credibility and public acceptance in the racing world is what compelled Fifth Third—the name comes from the two predecessor banks that merged in 1871 to form it—to join forces with PRI and achieve Founding Member status.

“We’ve been involved with PRI for at least eight years now, and as far as being a Founding Member, it provides a meaningful platform for building meaningful relationships with key companies and decisionmakers outside of the PRI Show, including drivers, because the best way to help the industry is by building these relationships,” Morton explained. “Beyond that, we view it as a badge of relevancy and authenticity, which we’ve stepped up by being a Founding Member in support of racing.”

Motorsports is much more than advertising to Fifth Third Bank. It offers banking services directly aimed at racers, as Morton described: “Helping companies gain access to capital with financing or other means to grow their business is an important and valuable service. We also provide a range of solutions that enable companies to improve their efficiency and cashflow through better, smarter accounts payable and accounts receivable processes, including business credit cards and automated AP/AR systems. For businesses looking to expand their business through acquisitions or perhaps sell their business, we have robust capital-markets expertise, including access to our complimentary business transition advisory team to ensure business owners maximize their personal wealth upon the sale of their business.”

With a pandemic-upended global economy and the related, chronic supply issues, racing executives need partners to help them navigate the undulating fiscal landscape, something else Morton said is a Fifth Third specialty. “It all comes back to advice,” he said. “Over the past several years, we certainly helped thousands and thousands of small businesses survive by helping them navigate the Paycheck Protection Plan loan process. More recently, higher interest rates, supply-chain issues, rising costs, and labor shortages have been top of mind for most businesses, including racers. We are addressing this for our clients with creative solutions from asset-based lending to offset higher inventory levels, to supply-chain financing to ease cashflow, and to interest-rate hedging to better manage risks during a rising rate environment.”

Morton said that some Fifth Third customers are pulling back on borrowing, but he added that this offers opportunities in areas such as foreign exchange and commodity hedging as buffers against rising interest rates. “We also believe that now is the time to invest in ourselves to benefit our clients long term, including being well-capitalized while also making smart investments in technology to provide an even better customer experience.”

Fifth Third has given back to motorsports consistently, through philanthropic giving including Speedway Children’s Charities, the NASCAR Foundation, Jeff Gordon Children’s Foundation, Motor Racing Outreach, and the North Carolina Motorsports Association, on whose board it has served for 10 years. Fifth Third also regularly provides complimentary financial education courses for racers. Mergers and acquisitions are expected to remain strong as aging business owners cash out, and outsiders represent today’s new infusions of capital. The trend toward electrification will benefit racers who move first to embrace it, he predicted. 

All of this leads Morton to express confidence that despite some current rockiness, racing will ultimately thrive. “During COVID-19, racing thrived, bringing new fans into our sport,” he said. 

“NASCAR, with the Next Gen car and new tracks, has had some of its best racing ever. Fueled by Roger Penske’s vision and passion, IndyCar is poised to reach a new high,” Morton predicted. “New teams in NHRA are bringing excitement to the series, challenging the proven titans of the sport. And the heart and soul of motorsports, grassroots/short-track racing, has been amazing with great racing and fan enthusiasm.”