Velocity Sports & Entertainment has opened an office in Charlotte, NC, in a bid to aggressively expand its NASCAR business. The sports and entertainment marketing agency has hired Trip Wheeler to head operations there.

Wheeler, 38, has been named VP and general manger of the office. He will be responsible for building Velocity's motorsports business and providing services to existing clients. The office opens May 22.

"We've been involved with NASCAR for a couple of decades," Dave Grant, principal at Velocity Sports & Entertainment, said yesterday. "We thought this was the logical next step, to open up right in the center of the community."

For the last five years, he worked for Omnicom Cos. GMR and Radiate divisions. Most recently at Radiate, Wheeler helped clients enter NASCAR and generate incremental business. His client responsibilities during his four years with GMR included Visa, Gillette and Con Agra.

Prior to Omnicom, Wheeler worked for World Sports Enterprises where he helped build the market for in-car cameras. While at WSE, the cameras became a major part of NASCAR broadcasts and revenue for the company, Velocity said.

On a personal note, Wheeler's roots with NASCAR go back to the days as a youngster watching his father, H.A. "Humpy" Wheeler (president and COO of Speedway Motorsports, Inc.) help fuel NASCAR's rise, Velocity said.

Velocity's history with NASCAR dates back to the 1980's with such sponsors as Amoco, Nestle and Quaker State. For eight years, Velocity was the promotional activation agency for NASCAR's New York office. In recent years, Velocity has worked on sponsorship deals with NASCAR for FedEx, Vitaminwater and ConAgra Foods.

Velocity, headquartered in Norwalk, CT, also has offices in Atlanta, Washington, DC, San Francisco and London.

Velocity ranked No. 2 in the 2005 PROMO 100 with estimated net revenues of $13.7 million for 2004.

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