BROOKLYN, NEW YORK – MAY 05: Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood pose backstage during the exclusive launch event of The Rolling Stones new album “Foreign Tongues” at Weylin on May 5, 2026 in Brooklyn, NY. (Photo by Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for UMG)
Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for UMG
“You can’t always get what you want.” Unless, apparently, what you want is to combine America’s most road-tested racing series with one of rock’s most road-tested bands.
NASCAR and The Rolling Stones announced Wednesday a first-of-its-kind collaboration built around a shared idea: performance, travel and life on the road.
Timed ahead of the July 10 release of the Stones’ Foreign Tongues, their latest studio album, the partnership brings together two brands that, despite arriving from opposite corners of entertainment, have spent decades doing remarkably similar things. The collaboration includes officially licensed merchandise, special-edition collector vinyl, original content and a fan activation in Chicago leading into NASCAR’s July race weekend.
For generations, NASCAR and The Rolling Stones have built audiences the same way: by showing up. One unloads haulers and race cars. The other unloads amplifiers and stage rigs. Then both spend a weekend trying to convince thousands of people that nowhere else on Earth is where they should be.
According to Megan Malayter, NASCAR Vice President of Licensing and Consumer Products, that connection centers on shared live experiences and a common spirit of performance.
“For generations, NASCAR and The Rolling Stones have captivated fans through unforgettable live experiences and a shared spirit of performance,” Malayter said. “While one takes place on the racetrack and the other on the stage, both are fueled by passion, energy and life on the road.”
So obviously at some point, somebody must have looked at stock car racing and rock and roll and reached the entirely reasonable conclusion that both involve noise, travel and devoted fans willing to stand in line for merchandise.
The activation will travel to key Chicago locations leading into NASCAR’s Chicagoland race weekend.
NASCAR
At the center of the campaign is perhaps its most unusual element: a NASCAR show car transformed into a Rolling Stones listening lounge. The custom activation blends racing cues with the band’s unmistakable visual identity and will travel through Chicago with appearances planned at Navy Pier, Plaza of the Americas and the Chicagoland Speedway Fan Zone.
The theme running through all of it is movement.
The Stones formed in 1962 and launched their first major concert tour in 1963. Across nearly 64 years, they’ve played more than 2,000 concerts and become one of the most successful touring acts in music history. NASCAR’s first sanctioned season was held in 1949, and for 77 years the sport has been taking its own traveling show from city to city.
Between them, NASCAR and The Rolling Stones have spent more than 140 combined years taking their acts on the road. Long before “creator economy,” “brand activation,” and “influencers” became permanent fixtures of corporate presentations, these two institutions were already doing the same thing: loading up, moving out and turning motion into business.
The campaign was launched with a film featuring NASCAR drivers Jesse Love, Connor Zilisch and Carson Hocevar alongside creator and driver Cleetus McFarland, reimagining them as a touring rock band set to music from Foreign Tongues.
Because after all these years, both NASCAR and The Rolling Stones still seem to believe the same thing: it’s only rock ’n’ roll… but they like it.
Foreign Tongues arrives Friday, July 10 via Capitol Records and follows the band’s Grammy Award-winning album Hackney Diamonds.