After 11 years of racing for all three NASCAR National Series, Ryan Truex is still searching for his elusive first victory to go with his 11 top-five finishes. But after three years in the hot tub industry, the 29-year-old has quickly won the hearts of most everyone at Marquis.
What began as a sponsorship of his 2019 NASCAR Xfinity Series No. 8 car has grown into the foremost sponsorship for his #40 Chevrolet Silverado for Niece Motorsports in the Camping World Truck Series. A brand ambassadorship, which started with appearances at Marquis dealer meetings and authoring some blogs, has morphed into a popular podcast called The Hot Seat.
Truex interviews his racing colleagues from the comfort of the starship-inspired Marquis Vector21 V94L, a 7-foot lounger with 44 jet pods. In addition to the obvious shop talk, Truex delves into hot topics such as the best burger joint, lawn-care tips and memories of roaming around Miami.
“Being able to sit in your hot tub as part of your job, you can’t really beat that,” Truex says in episode 63 of The SpaRetailer Podcast. “It’s a good way to get to know people because people relax so much in there, and you don’t even realize the camera is on you.”
Truex says he’s always been a big fan of hot tubs, but his Marquis spa is the first he’s owned. He wanted to partner with a hot tub company because he says the relationship goes hand in racing glove.
“It’s hard for people to understand what a race car driver’s body goes through,” he says. “I don’t think people realize our cars and trucks are above 100 degrees on a cold day (average 125 degrees inside), so your body temperature is so much higher, and your heart rate is elevated. My average [sustained heartrate] is 160 over three hours.”
If you’re keeping score at home, an adult’s resting heart rate should be 60 to100 beats per minute. In addition, Truex says he can easily burn 3,000 calories in a three-hour race. Considering the G-forces that toss around race car drivers’ shoulders, compress their spines and induce as many as 30 adrenaline spikes in a race, jumping into his Marquis spa has become Truex’s preferred way to relax.
“It’s hard to stand up after a race,” Truex says, adding that he suffers from nagging collar bone and wrist injuries that bother him during races. “To get into a hot tub after a race weekend has been huge for me. Anything you can do to soothe that pain and recover is going to make you better for the next weekend.”
Several parallels bring the three-year Truex-Marquis partnership together. Noble Hibbs, corporate communications manager at Marquis, says the partnership with Truex has grown because of his “willingness to go the extra mile for his sponsors” and calls working with Ryan a “great fit for our brand.”
Never was that more evident than this past April at the Richmond Raceway in Richmond, Virginia, when Marquis celebrated granting its 900th wish for the Make-A-Wish organization by emblazoning all 900 names the company has helped on Truex’s Marquis No. 40 Chevrolet truck bed.
LuAnn Bott, vice president of corporate partnerships and revenue services at Make-A-Wish America, thanks Truex and Marquis for paying tribute to the 900 children who, since 2000, have had wishes granted thanks to the sponsorship. “We hope the No. 40 truck will inspire fans to learn how they can join Ryan, Niece Motorsports and Marquis in helping make wishes come true,” she says.
The friends and podcast interviewees Truex invites to his house have wishes too: the Marquis spa hookup.
“Everyone that comes over wants one, and everybody that does the podcast wants to get one,” he says. “I feel like every time I go in there, I rotate [seats] four times because I can’t pick the one I like the most. If I had a dollar for every person that asked if I can get them a deal on a hot tub, I’d be pretty rich.”