NASCAR Hires 14-Year-Old Director For New Ad Featuring Austin Dillon

We know there’s a youth movement currently taking place in NASCAR, but it might be getting a little out of hand.

The series released a new 30-second TV spot Tuesday that promotes its mobile app targeted at youth, NASCAR Acceleration Nation. Titled “Tutelage,” the ad features kids dressed as professors lecturing a classroom full of Richard Childress Racing personnel, including driver Austin Dillon.

The teachers weren’t the only children involved in the project, either, as the commercial was directed by 14-year-old Amelia Conway from Temecula, Calif., according to a NASCAR press release. Conway praised the series for trying to expose kids to the academic side of stock car racing, something Team Penske’s Joey Logano also has been doing recently.

“I really appreciate how NASCAR is including kids like me in the sport,” Conway said, via NASCAR. “I’ve always liked working with kid actors, but working with Austin Dillion was an awesome experience. Being on the set and learning about how race teams use STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) technologies to help their drivers was fascinating, and I think NASCAR Acceleration Nation will inspire other young people like me to do what they love.”

For NASCAR, enlisting Conway’s help was more than a publicity stunt. The budding director as been working for Adolescent Content, a youth-oriented advertising agency, since 2014.

“As a filmmaker, Amelia is a special talent and we loved her vision for this project,” Jill Gregory, NASCAR senior vice president and chief marketing officer, said in a statement. “She represents the youth audience that is important to our sport, so having that unique perspective guide the creative process for us was invaluable.”

Dillon clearly is working hard to help NASCAR reach new audiences. “Tutelage” was released the same day we learned he would appear on FOX’s “Rosewood.”