Aaron Zeigler grants a Wish| Ugly Sweater & Food Drive Winners| EP151

I'm gonna take my name off the door plate, and I'm gonna put your name so we could see there and it could be on the car. You guys do that?

Welcome everyone to the driving vision podcast brought to you by the Zigler Auto Group. I'm your host, Sam Dark. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast. Like it if you do, and leave a comment.

Coming up this episode, a winner for the Ziegler Auto Group's 7th annual ugly sweater contest and food drive. Plus, Aaron Ziegler makes an announcement, a NASCAR announcement, and surprise gift during a press conference this month. Happy New Year's team Ziegler. We'll bring this back up. It's our 6th annual ugly sweater holiday food drive.

And with us, we actually have a lot of cool guests to kick off and announce our results for this year. Araya Daniels, what do we have?

Yeah. Thanks, Sam. So I'm so excited. Our 6th annual holiday food drive, ugly sweater component is always a fun time during the year where we get back to our communities. But we've got some special guests here with us today.

So, Mike, you wanna introduce our special guest?

Yeah. We had another, great year, and we're a competitive group, and we love giving back. And I gotta say, thanks across the Zag to our z Force teams because the z Force teams have done an incredible job driving this thing. And one of them here on my left is CJ Lindquist from team Ziegler Granville. CJ has just done an incredible job giving back to the community in many ways.

And, CJ, you have a guest you wanna introduce too.

I do. So this has been my partner in crime for many, many years. In a recent ad to team Ziegler about four and a half months ago or so

How about that?

This is Bee Shepherds. Hi. So

Hey, Bee.

Bee Bee Bee does parades. She does Christmas decorating. She does the holiday party and but she killed it with me on the food drive. And we're so lucky to have her as part of the team.

Absolutely.

Yeah. So we're really excited to announce, of course, this year's winner for the challenge was our Ziegler Chrysler of Granville team. So congratulations Granville. They donated over 14,000 food items.

Oh my goodness.

Holy cow. It's a it's a actual record. They beat out our Mercedes Benz of Hoffman Estates team, which had 10,488.

So Which is a lot at 2. Think about that. 24,000, 24,000 food items between. That's insane.

24. Yeah. Super high. What was our total number?

So yep. In total, we donate over 40,818 items. And so this was food items, and the new element this year was to get items for, pet donations. So food or treats or any kind of toys for, pets of our communities as well. So really cool.

I'd love to hear from CJ and, be really kind of what where your guys' donations went off to and what was this, like being able to collect all these items and donate them to your charity?

So we've always used the West Michigan Veterans Assistance Program as our food pantry charity. It provides registered veterans with the program the opportunity to come in once a week and get food for their families for absolutely zero cost to them. So that's very near and dear to our heart, and it actually encompasses a number of the counties. So as a matter of fact, they threw out a challenge to us because when we loaded up their trailer this year, we told them how many items we had, and they said, well, next year, why don't you double it? And Bee's reply was, bring it on.

And in fact, to your point, let's just show a couple of these pictures. I mean, these are the food items. Incredible. You you imagine the gigantic and enormous showroom floor there just stocked and stuffed. Great to see the team members there.

Everybody's smiling, happy faces at giving back. So to to both of you, what does it mean to you? It's it so I actually have 2 questions here that are kind of interesting. So number 1 to Mike, why the heck does an auto dealership spend time at the holiday seasons when it's super busy trying to sell cars focused on giving back in this way? And then I'll ask the second question.

Well, you just feel a difference with our culture. Right? As you walk into all of our stores for our team members and the culture we build and but also for our customers. And and we're just passionate about, being others oriented and giving back to our community. So so so proud of these ladies and all of our stores across the Zag.

So this great job with us. And, and the veterans, I mean, I was able to be there and shake their hand, thank them for their service, and see how special it was to them to receive this gift. And I wanna thank our veterans across the Zag as well because we have a lot.

What was the reaction in team Ziegler at Granville among those in the store when that gift was given just to see the sheer quantity of food and to know the impact that that had on the lives of the people that were receiving that in the holiday.

We saw a lot of smiles. The vets that picked up were super happy, said it was just in time. They weren't getting their usual stuff for 2 weeks, so our timing was perfect to help them keep their entry stopped.

And Araya, you travel all across the auto group as do I's do does Mike. And it wasn't just at Granville where this giving happened. I think of Honda Racine, you know, Matt Devikas gave dinners to families. He actually went to grocery stores and bought dinners. And then on that Friday night before thing, before Christmas, the families came in and were were given these things that meant a ton of food to them.

What does it mean to you to to work for an auto group where giving back is such a focus? Again, at a time when traditionally we'd be so focused on retailing and servicing and delivering that extraordinary customer service to customers.

Yeah. You know, I I look at the list of the places that all of these items were donated to. And just to think about being able to make that impact across 4 states and and all of our stores participating and really pulling together to do that and make that happen for our communities, it's just so incredible. You know, what we do is, you know, sell sell and service cars. Right?

But in a whole, like, we are here to help others and to serve others and we do that in so many different ways throughout the year. So to to see that come together during the holidays is just something so special I think to, to give back to our communities. And I wanted to mention a couple of the other spots that Yeah. Did receive some of these donations throughout our community. So the Schaumburg Township Food Pantry out in Schaumburg, Illinois, Mount Zion Church Food Pantry of Racine County.

So that's where Ziegler Honda Racine actually donated all of their items, which they took 3rd place. So they donated 4,000 items. The Kenosha County Sharing Center, ICNA Relief Center.

But there was a long list of people that benefited, right, from this. Give us the last 2, Araya. You're right. Because I think you might have froze. We might have lost you.

So sorry. Yeah. So the Harvard Humane Society and then Food Finders Food Bank in Lafayette. So along with a ton more, where everyone was just able to drop off their donations was just really incredible to see that come together. And just to know the impact that we can help make on our communities is huge.

Yeah. That is cool.

Sam, we we had a really cool, just challenge we put out to all of Granville, team. We said, hey. Let's work on this as a team. Right? All departments, everybody get involved, but also, the gals here did a great job.

We don't wanna give all of our secrets away, but we had some vendors that stepped up and we're very cool. We wanna recognize just a couple of them. Real quick. Okay.

This auto body, the body shop we use for any of our service work made every year that we've had this they've donated the big add on this year was crystal clean Kevin from crystal clean actually went shopping with us. He went with him.

Yeah. Yeah. That's pretty cool.

Yeah and they love that and he survived

Yeah.

Then we have Chris Wawe, who we do a lot of business with and also the dent vendor. And all of them stepped up, and definitely donated and wanted to be part of the cause, which is awesome. It certainly helped us.

Yeah. Which is actually pretty cool too. What a great strategy. Like, you know, we stand side by side with our, partners for Drive for Life and giving money to charities. Pretty cool that you can do the same for the food drive and, help help other people, inspire other people to help and give back, in that way as well.

So congrats to those vendors for, joining team Ziggler over the holiday season and giving back. That is pretty cool. So next year, the goal is to double it. Is that what I'm hearing? That's crazy.

We're gonna try. We're on the gelatinous mountain.

Wow. Yeah. I think that's,

Very funny.

You know, I will say this last year as a whole, Sam and Mike and CJ and Bea, we had 34,000, entire food items. So now that we've got to 40,000, I think it's we should at least hit 50. Right?

Yes, sir.

I think it's easy. Well,

it's our it's our 50th anniversary next year too. Right?

That's right.

That's right.

That's right. That's what we're

gonna do.

50,000, we got it next year.

Alright. Well, team Granville, you get the last word today. Any thoughts you had or any stories of what it meant to people to get these donations? And then, and then again, congratulations as we wrap up this year's contest. This is a fun tradition we do across the Ziegler Auto Group.

So last word.

So when we talked to the veteran's facility when they picked up, the cool thing they said is they typically get shipments from Feeding America, and that's what supplies their pantry. Well, Feeding America is currently relocating, so they weren't gonna have any deliveries for 2 weeks.

Yeah. Mhmm.

And

mentioned. So the timing of them coming to pick up from us was perfect because that will fill that gap. So it was just really cool. They're super excited every year when we do this, I call and I say we're on are you ready and she's always like. Oh we're ready.

Come here. Oh absolutely. So it's just really cool to get back in our veterans are so important to us.

That and I wanted to mention while we're loading their truck up, we had 2 customers that were sitting with one of our sales people get up and help us load.

Oh, that's that's even better.

Yeah. Yes.

Both those ladies were awesome. I'm not sure if they ended up buying a vehicle or not, but they definitely helped us load. They were right there.

That's very cool. Well, to all of you and and to everybody across team Ziegler in all 4 of our states, all 41 of the stores, thanks for participating this season. Thanks for giving back. And, Araya, thanks for organizing this. Mike and Araya for, executing this and making sure this thing went off as well as it did to next year as we think about doubling or at least getting to 50 k.

We invite all our partners to join us as we kick off this annual tradition. So thanks everybody for being here. Appreciate y'all.

Thanks, Sam. Good try.

Alright, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome, everyone, to Ziegler Motorsports here in Kalamazoo, Michigan. My name is Sam Dark, CEO of Ziegler Auto Group. We're thrilled to have you here at our house here at Ziegler Motorsports. And for this special, press conference, this special announcement to all those guests who have come for today's p three, to members of press and media, and then other ex distinguished guests, we're grateful and appreciative that you're here.

Without further ado, I'm gonna turn the time over to president and CEO of Ziegler Auto Group, Aaron Ziegler.

Thanks, Sam, and, thanks so much for, being here, tonight. Before we get, to, our, our special announcement, I wanna start out and, kind of tell you about my day today. So, this morning, I got a, a text message from, my son, Avery. He's a senior at Michigan State, and he graduated from Gull Lake High School. And he sent me an article that went live earlier this morning.

It was an article about an incredible young man from, Gull Lake. His name's Dawson. And Dawson, unfortunately, has a heart condition, and he's had 8 surgeries, and he can't have any more. Dawson's a NASCAR fan, and his family is a NASCAR fan. We wanna help them to make some memories.

So, Dawson, can you come up here real quick? So the biggest race in the world is the Daytona 500. Yeah. We're gonna kick off the season with Daytona 500, and we wanted to see if, you'd like to come be part of our NASCAR team for the day and bring 3 guests with you. What do you think about that?

Yeah. That sound like fun? Yeah. And so is what is what we're gonna do is we're gonna, we're gonna fly to Kalamazoo. We're gonna fly directly to the track and then they're going to pick us up in a go kart or golf cart and they're going to take us over to the, the hauler.

And you get, a tour of the hauler and we'll hang out with the team and we'll get to see them prep the car and then they're going to take the car to the grid and you get to stand out there. And Carson will stand right next to the car for the national anthem, and you'll be standing right next to him. And then during the race, you get to go up on the pit box, and you can listen to him talk and, watch the race from the pit box. How does that sound? Yeah.

Hey, Carson. Come on up here a sec. So Carson last year finished. He he qualified 4th at the Daytona 500. He had a little bit of bad luck.

Somebody somebody took him out early on.

Not very fun.

So, we we also thought Carson, he needs a little bit of good luck this year. You think you could bring him that luck? Yeah. So so is what Carson Carson wants to do something to help help bring him some luck, and you're gonna help him do that. Okay?

Well, I've done this for now a year, and everybody knows my name. So I'm gonna take my name off the door plate, and I'm gonna put your name so we could see there, and it could be on the car. You guys with that?

Dustin, I I heard you you love to fish and hunt. Right? And, we saw online that there's this GoFundMe page and and, they're raising money to get you a side by side so you can go out and and make some really good memories with your friends and families. And and I I found out there's one you actually already picked out here. And, well, I own a motorsports dealership so we figured we could we could help you out a little more.

So they've raised $12,750 in your GoFundMe page already. I don't want you to spend that on a side by side. Because what I want you to do is take that money with your family and you guys go have some fun because I got you an early Christmas gift. So right over right over here is your early Christmas gift. You wanna go check it out?

Carson wants to know if you're gonna take him for a ride in that later. We don't let him drive him anymore because he rolled one last time he was here.

It's actually true.

I gotta I gotta take a picture because I got the best angle and you look really, really good sitting in there. Awesome. And, when Carson wins, Daytona 500, we'll we'll be in the winner's circle with him too. Sound good? Alright.

Yeah. Yeah. There you go. Alright. So, a year ago, almost a year ago to the day, we were here in this exact spot and we announced our partnership with Carson Hostovart.

He was gonna be a rookie in, the highest level of racing in, in NASCAR and, Carson, is from Portage. We're we have a local driver, local sponsor and when we look back on last year, to say we had a successful season would be a huge understatement. It was by far our most successful season that we've had in NASCAR. Carson got 686 points last year. He won rookie of the year, but he didn't just win rookie of the year.

He won it by a 106 points. So he absolutely dominated that. He finished 1st on his team. He had 6 top ten finishes. He also had the fastest pit stop in the history of NASCAR at Homestead.

So teams teams really dialed in, as well. He qualified on the front row at Darlington. He finished 3rd at, Watkins Glen, and he won at, Berlin this year. So we all know Carson's an incredible talent, incredibly fast race car driver, but, what I really love about Carson is is his heart. And, earlier this year, Kalamazoo got hit by some tornadoes.

And it wasn't an hour after they got hit by tornadoes. Carson was on the phone with me and said, hey. I see the devastation. I see what's happening on TV. How can I help?

What do I gotta do? I'll drop everything. I'll come up. Let's do a fundraiser. Let's raise some money for, for people that need it.

And that's what makes Carson so special is his view of giving back and doing things. He's helped us out with our Drive for Life Foundation the last couple of years, raising a bunch of money. And that's why he's such a, incredible young man. So we have, once again signed with, with Carson and with Spyro Motorsports a, a multi year deal to be the primary sponsor for, Carson House of Aard. And we're gonna kick it off as the primary sponsor of the Daytona 500 this year.

We're also gonna, be the primary sponsor at Nashville, our home track here in Michigan, our other home track in Chicago, Indianapolis, St. Louis, and Darlington. With that said, I'm going to, unveil the new car. Right, Carson? Yeah.

Let's let's see what the new car is gonna look like. This is a, a new design for, this year. That thing looks fast. And now I'm gonna bring, Carson Hocevart, everybody. Come on up, Carson.

Say a few things.

Thank you. I appreciate it.

You're back in your 2nd year with Ziegler Auto Group. What does it mean to be associated with Team Ziegler and, the Auto Group this coming year?

Well, for me, it's fun that I get to, you know, be 10 minutes from my home, literally childhood house, and be able to come here. And, you know, it's the only place in the country I don't need a GPS that I'm really proud of to and it's so fun and to have so many people show up here means a lot. It's it's tough for me to realize it because I just come home and I just connect back to, you know, my childhood days and I'm shocked that anybody even knows me or knows my name. So for me it's super cool and it's super fun to to race for Aaron and everybody that does awesome things like they just did for Dawson and his family and great great family they have and it's just awesome to race for such great people and folks and and get to represent Portage really well.

So, NASCAR is a team sport though it seems like an individual sport. You're the driver. You broke a record that has never been beat to this moment in the history of NASCAR, fastest pit stop ever at Homestead with the Ziggler car. How did your your team accomplish that? What does that mean to you and what expectations or hopes do you have this coming year for new records

and achievements? It worked out really well that Aaron was on the pit box when it happened. So it worked out really well that that was a perfect time to do it. But, and and 2, we're running really well. Normally, those type of stops happen when you're not running good and you don't really need them.

You know, same way with mechanical issues. Sometimes you have mechanical issues when you're running good, never when you're running bad. So it's fun to to have a full day. Like, Homestead, it happened. But for me, I wasn't the one running around the car, but, you know, it's me all year figuring out how to position the car in the box and everything.

And we have such good crew guys and pit crew guys at Spire that we get our pit crews through Hendrick Motorsports, and they're racing for a championship. So we were a little nervous that we got the record, and then I was like, oh, man. They're gonna take our guys now. And but, no, they didn't. So luckily, you know, mister h and Jeff Dickerson, they're they're they laugh at each other.

Jeff's, basically a son of mister h or Addition's son, but that was the first thing me and Luke and our team lobbied for was, you know, mister h don't steal our guys and Jeff had kinda done the same. But, mister h and Hendrick Motorsports have done a great job helping us and on Aspire's side and, you know, hopefully, we can outrun them. And he's used to seeing this 77 yellow car. It's bright enough that they'll be able to tell when it's coming up right behind them or coming around them.

So the season ends and you, a Portage Kalamazoo native, end up in the NASCAR banquet winning rookie of the year. What did it mean to you to represent this community there in that national spotlight?

Yeah. I mean it's super fun for me to go to the banquet. I've never gone before. The trophy was a lot bigger than I thought. I I gotta work out alone holding that thing for as long as I did for the pictures, but it was fun to have Aaron and his family and my family come out and and do that.

I think we had the 2nd biggest table, besides the championship because we had so many people there, which is is fun for us. You know, normally, race teams, you know, you go 38 weeks and I wanna say everybody doesn't everybody gets tired of each other and looking at each other for after a while. But on our team, we it's like buddies doing a science project that we know are probably gonna fail, but we're doing it correctly and somehow hitting on it. So it's it's a lot of fun for us to really just love each other and love working for each other. I think we have the closest group from over the wall to the back of the shop and everything.

So I think that fits well. And like Aaron says all the time, it it fits, you know, Ziegler's core values. And every time I go to the Christmas party or company events or come here or dealerships and everything, it's really similar to how it is walking into the Spire Motorsports shop. Everybody's happy to be there and smiling and, sometimes for a racing, that's not normal. Sometimes, you know, there's long hours and long hours away from your families and everything and high emotions and everybody's right type of deal, that it could really clash but inspire and and especially in the Ziggo Auto Group that everybody's just one goal.

K. So last question. This year before MIS, you came here to motorsports the last time you were here, except for I guess the tornado fundraiser, And you actually went out on our motorsports track and did something not a lot of people know, so this has to be kept secret. But what what happened out there?

It's on social media.

Okay. Alright. So that's fair game.

Secret. So me and Aaron had the brightest idea to take side by sides out on the dirt bike track, which is a perfect size for a Can Am, apparently. And it had just rained and everything, and it was all muddy and whatnot. And, I was following Aaron and and as some of you might or might not know, I thought the silliest thing I'd ever thought was Aaron Ziegler was gonna just work up into something and take it easy for one time. So I followed him on a jump and he cleared about 10 feet underneath and I was like, luckily, I lifted last second because I remembered who Aaron Ziegler is and how aggressive he is.

And it was a lot of fun when we're racing, and he drove away from me because I was like, man, I gotta race Sunday. And, but sure enough, I took the corners faster because I was putting around the jumps. I'm having Aaron outdo me by a lot. I didn't wanna be, you know, competitive in some nature. There's not even a checkered flag, and I still wanna go faster than him.

And I went through the corner sideways, hit a rut, and went right over. So, I think Aaron was pumped because it ended the day and it wasn't ended because of him. So that was probably the first time for him that a day ended. It wasn't for him. But we took a bunch of pictures on the on the side by side and it was fun and right there I knew I had a friend because we took pictures standing on top of the thing we just flipped and I was like, alright.

This guy's just like me. He's crazy enough to do this. So it's a lot of fun.

A shared core value of competition. So well, Carson Hostemar, we appreciate you being here. Congratulations on another year. It's gonna be exciting to be with you at the ziegler.com car. So thank you.

Thank you. Thanks everybody for coming out. Appreciate it.

And to everyone here, we appreciate your attendance And, again, welcome. Thank you for being here. We'll actually continue with Carson and the meet and greet here. You've got a long line of fans.

That's awesome.

We appreciate your commitment to, continuing and, meeting everybody here. So thank you.

Thanks, Sam. Alright. Appreciate it. Thanks, everybody.

A special thanks to all who contributed to this week's episode. See you next year. Until then, how are you driving vision

today?