SuperMega Races Into NASCAR
YouTube comedy group ‘SuperMega’ partners with Martins Motorsports for a beautifully comedic sponsorship.
Over the years, a lot of YouTubers and online influencers have taken steps to set them apart from other similar personalities, but on Saturday, May 29th, the YouTube comedy group ‘SuperMega’ plans to break new grounds with a partnership between them and Martins Motorsports.
I had the absolute honor to not only sit down with SuperMega members Matt Watson, Ryan Magee, and Jackson Tucker, but also talk to racer Tommy Joe Martins and Martin Motorsports’ media/marketing member Matt Wishart.
Getting to know NASCAR
Before even contacting anyone or reaching out about this, was this, or something similar, on your radar of SuperMega projects? Did you ever in a million years imagine having your YouTube channel and faces put on a vehicle in a NASCAR race?
Matt: “No, I never imagined that [laughs]. Basically, moving forward we want to do stuff that’s just ridiculously stupid — stuff that people look at and go ‘are they seriously doing that? That’s real?’ […] and I think just taking a joke, just something stupid like this, and making it real is a very fun way of making people laugh. But yeah, we kind of just joked about this for a while, in fact, I think it’s in some old videos of ours a while back, like, ‘Imagine if we sponsored a car in a NASCAR race, that’d be ridiculous, though that could never happen obviously,’ but lo and behold!”
Ryan: “I think both of us growing up in the South, we’ve always taken a swing at that type of culture in a way, so I think it’s really good to still take a swing but also join in on the fun of the whole NASCAR culture in the south.”
I then asked Matt and Ryan about their history with NASCAR and if they were familiar with anything NASCAR-related prior to their partnership with Martins Motorsports.
Ryan: “Well, my stepdad worked races pointing people to parking spots back in the day, but Jeff Gordon is #1 — he won his first race at the Coca Cola 600 — which is the race right after the one we’re participating in. Jeff Gordon is a huge inspiration for me doing this honestly.”
Matt: “I had about zero knowledge, but then once we got this rolling, Ryan and I both sat down and read a couple of books about NASCAR — we read a brief history book that was about 600 pages, and really studied up on the past of the sport and its influences on today’s culture.”
The Greatest Collaboration of all time
Driver Tommy Joe Martins discussed his willingness and eagerness to work with a YouTube group such as SuperMega, and how this type of collaboration can actually be very exciting and engaging.
“It’s huge for us. SuperMega has such an awesome, diehard following & the guys have been so cool about the whole deal. We’re a small team. This type of publicity & engagement is really great for us, and we’re gonna be able to provide them with some great access to the garage & the racetrack to hopefully produce some great content.”
“Charlotte is a home race for all the NASCAR teams — most of us are based here in the Charlotte area. It’s a big one. One of the crown jewels of our season. To do it with a new sponsor just makes it even more exciting for us.”
“The car looks great, the fans have been super supportive, & we just want to go do a good job Saturday & let everyone have some fun with it. Really looking forward to it.”
Martins Motorsports member Matt Wishart was the whole brains behind the operation and he discussed with me the collaboration with SuperMega and how this crazy, surreal dream came to reality.
“I have been watching/following the boys for years now, and an idea like this has crossed my mind before kind of as a joke, but one day in early April, Jackson put a tweet out on the SuperMega account asking if anyone knew how they could get on a NASCAR car. I’ve been working with Martins Motorsports in the NASCAR Xfinity Series since they started their program back up at the beginning of 2020, so I knew I could make this happen.”
“There’s a lot that goes into making a sponsorship happen in NASCAR, the sponsors we have for each weekend effectively cover our costs to show up to the track and be as competitive as possible. But once we got to talking about specifics and they were still interested I knew for sure this was going to be a done deal.”
Jackson also talked a bit about how he was able to get this project successfully off the ground, and what all it took to make SuperMega become the newest NASCAR sponsor.
“I got into NASCAR at the beginning of COVID. I got into it right when they were doing all of the e-racing stuff […] and I saw all the drama going along with that. Being from the south, I always wanted to be into NASCAR, but I also hated NASCAR […] and long story short, I watched a Michael Waltrip compilation and became obsessed with NASCAR.”
“I thought, ‘I don’t think a YouTuber has ever sponsored a NASCAR, and SuperMega is in the position to do this.’ One thing led to another, and Matt [Wishart] came to me and said, ‘Hey, if you’re serious, this is my job and we could do this.’”
“Even still, I just think, ‘is this really happening?’”
Matt and Ryan jumped in to explain how this was Jackson’s crowning achievement.
Matt: “Jackson, this is going to be great for your resume when we let you go, cause this will definitely let you get hired somewhere else for this achievement.”
Jackson: “That’s only if I stick around long enough to be let go.”
The Design
SuperMega worked with designer Ryan Pistana on conceiving, designing, and making real the beautiful look of the №44 Camaro.
The comedy group and Matt Wishart weighed in about their thoughts on the design:
Matt Wishart: “I think it’s phenomenal. Ryan Pistana did a fantastic job on this design and the idea from Matt/Ryan to put themselves looking smug on the back bumper with a sassy phrase is priceless. Everything about the car is very on brand for SuperMega.”
Matt Watson: “If I was in this race and I was passed by this car, I would feel more blessed to be behind it than in front of it, because I would be able to see the quote and the pictures of these two YouTubers, and it might brighten my day and inspire me.”
Ryan: “The best part of the car is the inspirational quote. That’s definitely my favorite part, and it’s the one part where we got to insert our humor into the actual design. That’s why I think it’s super cool that we actually got to do the design.”
Breaking New Ground
SuperMega is by far one of the most ambitious channels on YouTube right now when it comes to their ridiculously hilarious ideas and content, and I can only imagine that will continue to be the case moving forward with any similar projects like their upcoming album or book. But in terms of their partnership with Martins Motorsports, SuperMega became the first YouTube channel to sponsor a NASCAR vehicle.
Matt discussed a bit about the meaning of being involved in projects such as this, and how that not only benefits the channel, but it benefits the audience and allows everyone to be a part of the memories made.
“Ya know, Guillermo, we’ve always been trend-setters; we’ve always been at the forefront of groundbreaking events culture-wise and setting the stage for the people to follow us. I do think after this, a lot of copycat YouTubers will try to do the same thing, without the same amount of success of course.”
“Probably, people will do this, and jokes aside, I think it’s cool if they do — it is a very hilarious thing to do. We wanted to do an idea that no other YouTubers had done, and that was so preposterous, that other people would look at it and think it’s a joke at first.”
“A lot of the stuff we do for the channel, it’s not really like for views or publicity, but rather, ‘what would be an awesome memory? What can we have a lot of fun doing, but also let our viewers enjoy and be a part of that memory too?’”
Ryan also weighed in with his tease of future travel vlogs, the connection to making memories, and whether or not he thinks NASCAR viewers will become fans of the channel.
“We always like to poke fun, ya know? We did Japan vlogs, and we want to do more travel vlogs, and this is just another thing that looking back when we’re in our 90s and in the same nursing home, we can have a laugh at.”
“I don’t know how many people will legitimately see our car and go check out the channel — hope they do, but I have a feeling if they do go check the channel, it would be a quick, click-off. The first video we have is me in a cowboy hat, laughing at one of the greatest jokes of all time — it’s from Kangaroo Jack.”
[Matt wanted to make sure I put the link to the Kangaroo Jack video in the article.]
“I definitely think we’re doing NASCAR a bigger favor — we’re giving them more advertisement than they’re giving us advertisement. As far as new fans go, I think the same fans that enjoy watching cars go around in a circle for a ton of time would probably have the same attention span to watch a 40-minute let’s play from us.”
Matt jumped in and gave his final thoughts of the ever-increasing fanbase of SuperMega x NASCAR:
“We’re giving NASCAR a couple of million new fans, so like I said before, I think they should be paying us, but that’s a conversation for another day.”
Final Thoughts & Moving Forward
What are you looking forward to the most about the SuperMega car and the race on Saturday, and what are you hoping for (vlog material, a win, the trip, etc.)?
Jackson: “I’m looking forward to that first place medal that we paid for. Jokes aside, I think I’m excited to seeing this worlds colliding event, […] and I know that NASCAR viewership is waivering a lot because younger audiences aren’t getting into it. Who the hell knows? Maybe this is the first step to getting younger people into NASCAR.”
Matt: “I’m looking forward to watching Tommy Joe Martins speed past the finish line, laps ahead of every other puny car on that track.”
The group then gave their plans moving forward, and if they’re looking for a potential 2nd race in the future.
Matt: “We have a lot of things planned, but I don’t want to leak any of the juicy details, but we’ve got some more stuff that we want to get done, and I think that this whole thing is a good stepping stone into getting some of those other ideas into life. We’re sponsoring this one race, but we do have the option to sponsor future races around the country.”
Jackson: “Two weeks ago, who would’ve thought that a YouTube group would sponsor a NASCAR? And not to do it just for the shock factor, but I think there is that mixture of the shock and the fun that makes this thing so exciting to do.”
Matt gave some beautiful final thoughts of SuperMega’s community support and their justification for doing these large-scale projects.
“I want to bring our style of comedy and content off of the YouTube videos and do some real-life stuff as well. We couldn’t have done this without the support of our fans through avenues like Patreon or our merchandise, because that allows us to financially do these kinds of things. Instead of lining our pockets with some fat cheddar, we’re blowing it on things like NASCAR — which is the way I think our viewers would want us to spend our money.”
[Afterwards, we proceeded to talk about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict]
Extremely huge shoutout to Martins Motorsports, including Tommy Joe Martins and Matt Wishart. Thanks again to the boys Matt, Ryan, and Jackson for setting something up and sitting down with me.
Update: driver Tommy Joe Martins unofficially finishes 29th after a wreck on the restart. Martins held the top 20 the entirety of the race, including reaching top 15 for a few short periods.
