Jill Gregory to replace outgoing marketing head Kim Brink

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) NASCAR has promoted Jill Gregory to lead the sport's marketing efforts. She'll replace Kim Brink, who is leaving NASCAR to join a group of

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) NASCAR has promoted Jill Gregory to lead the sport's marketing efforts. She'll replace Kim Brink, who is leaving NASCAR to join a group of agencies dedicated to Ford.

Brink will become chief operating officer of Global Team Ford, the WPP-owned group of agencies dedicated to Ford. She led all NASCAR marketing initiatives since 2011 and launched NASCAR's current Hispanic outreach efforts, along with the development of the youth marketing platform, Acceleration Nation.

Gregory, a senior vice president, will take over the marketing piece in addition to her current role as head of the Industry Services department. Gregory's current position handles driver, team, event and marketing services and industry operations.

''Jill is an extraordinary leader with world-class marketing experience from the client, agency and sports property perspective who also has deep relationships across NASCAR and keen understanding of the needs of all our stakeholders,'' NASCAR chief marketing officer Steve Phelps said Thursday. ''Her combined skills, experience and ability to integrate make her a perfect choice to lead this critical discipline into the future. We can't thank Kim enough for what she has built over the last four years and her new opportunity certainly reflects her immeasurable contributions at NASCAR.''

Gregory will report to Phelps on marketing and will continue to report to chief racing development officer Steve O'Donnell on industry services.

Gregory joined NASCAR in 2007 from Bank of America, where she was senior vice president of Motorsports Marketing. She was previously director of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series marketing at Sprint NEXTEL and worked earlier in her career in-house at Texaco, and with sports marketing agencies GMR and Wunderman.

She was among the inaugural class of ''Game Changers: Women in Sports Business'' by SportsBusiness Journal and SportsBusiness Daily.

''NASCAR is a globally recognized brand and this is an important moment in our history so I'm thrilled to have this opportunity to lead marketing,'' Gregory said. ''We have many strong assets in the sport right now and I look forward to integrating Industry Services and Marketing as we work across the industry to build our brand and the profile of our drivers, tracks and events to grow NASCAR.''