BASF, a leading global chemistry company, and Charlotte Motor Speedway’s STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math) program announced today the extension of a partnership will continue STEAM’s mission to enhance and educate children K-12 about STEAM initiatives in and around motorsports. The partnership, which supported programs for more than 30,000 students last year, continues to open the doors to possibilities for children in the greater Charlotte area, surrounding communities and neighboring states.
The Charlotte Motor Speedway STEAM program is the only year-round STEAM program within motorsports in the country. In 2025, the program hosted 30,394 people across 280 daily programs, five special events and summer camps, and its largest STEAM Expo at Charlotte Motor Speedway to date, with 19 participating schools. Five additional schools took part in the inaugural North Wilkesboro Speedway STEAM Expo.
This year, the program has already hosted 257 daily programs with schools coming from across North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, Florida and Virginia.
“The impact of Charlotte Motor Speedway’s STEAM program is measured not only in the thousands of students who walk through our doors, but in the curiosity, confidence and possibilities they take with them when they leave,” said Melissa Stirewalt, STEAM manager. “What began with just 579 children in 2011 has grown into the only year-round STEAM program in motorsports, reaching students from across the Southeast and beyond. Every year, we see more schools, more students and more opportunities to show young people that the skills they’re learning in the classroom can open doors to careers and possibilities they may have never imagined both inside and outside of motorsports.”
Through this extended partnership with BASF, Charlotte Motor Speedway’s STEAM program will receive $50,000 for its year-round programming. This partnership will continue the mission of providing hands-on learning to help students connect real-world applications during its year-round programming. Students engage through several interactive STEAM stations focusing on topics such as forces and motion, push and pull, physics and engineering as it relates to Motorsports.
The partnership will also help with the relaunch of the STEAM mobile program, Mobile Pit Stop, that allows CMS to have a further impact in our community. The mobile unit will focus primarily on the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school district and surrounding counties, targeting fourth through sixth grade students. Students will participate in hands-on experiments to discover the fascinating world of polymers, test how materials respond to different forces, and uncover the science behind race car tires. The program will conduct up to two site visits per week with a maximum of 60 students each visit.
“BASF is dedicated to enhancing the pathway to STEAM careers by emphasizing science education from an early age,” said Denise Hartmann, BASF Senior Vice President – Dispersions & Resins Division, Americas. “We are excited to deepen our engagement with the Charlotte community by introducing young minds to the world of chemistry through our expanded partnership with the Charlotte Motor Speedway. Our interactive Kids’ Lab experiments and educational programs through this collaboration aim to ignite a passion for scientific exploration and highlight the vast opportunities in STEAM-related fields.”
In addition to STEAM’s Mobile Pit Stop program and daily program at Charlotte Motor Speedway, students are able to attend the annual STEAM Expo, held during the Bank of America 400 race weekend, and other special events.
The STEAM Expo was first featured in 2018, with more than 1,200 students from Virginia and the Carolinas learning through interactive displays. It has continued to grow over the last eight years, welcoming as many as 4,000 children annually with a variety of educational booths highlighting a range of Speedway partners such as the local colleges and branches of the United States Armed Forces.
