Fast Cars and Superstars: The Gillette Young Guns Celebrity Race (2007)

Overview

Fast Cars & Superstars: Gillette Young Guns Celebrity Race was an ABC reality television series featuring twelve celebrities in a stock car auto racing competition. Directed by Michael John Warren, the branded series was a coproduction between television commercial production company @radical.media, television producer Michael Davies, advertising agency BBDO and Gillette. The series debuted on June 7, 2007 and aired on the same night as a game in the 2007 NBA Finals. It aired at 8 p.m. Eastern time, 7 p.m. Central time, and postgame in the Mountain and Pacific time zones. The June 24 finale aired at 8 ET/PT and 7 CT/MT as the finals had ended by this time, with the San Antonio Spurs being crowned champions. The event was taped at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina, using cars provided by the Jeff Gordon racing school. Kenny Mayne and Brad Daugherty were the hosts. Corey LaCosta from the racing school was the celebrities' driving instructor and head official for the competition. In an interesting sidelight, the promos that aired in the Mountain and Pacific zones mention the show aired after the "basketball finals," not giving the NBA's name or initials. This was because, despite the exclusive rights to air the finals, ABC could not mention the NBA in connection to this show's leadout. A possible reason was that Gillette is the title sponsor of this series; it is a competing product to Schick, a NBA sponsor at that time.