The Trackhouse Racing Points Playbook: Bidding Choice Privileges on NASCAR VIP
Choice Privileges doesn't get the attention Marriott Bonvoy or Hilton Honors does, but the program has quietly built one of the most distinctive experiential partnerships in hotel loyalty: Choice sponsors Trackhouse Racing, a partnership now in its third NASCAR Cup Series season.
That partnership directly feeds into the Choice Privileges auction platform. Ross Chastain's #1 car and Connor Zilisch's #88 car both carry Choice branding on select 2026 races, and the program routinely surfaces pit-box access, transporter tours, and crew-chief experiences. No other hotel program offers packages like these.
Here's what's in it.
Trackhouse Racing in 2026
First, a roster note, because the lineup changed over the winter: Daniel Suárez is no longer at Trackhouse. He and the team parted ways after the 2025 Cup Series season, and he's driving for Spire Motorsports in 2026. Connor Zilisch, the team's standout Xfinity prospect, was promoted to the Cup Series to take the seat.
So the 2026 Trackhouse driver lineup:
• Ross Chastain, #1 Chevrolet (established Cup Series veteran)
• Connor Zilisch, #88 Chevrolet (rookie, promoted from Xfinity)
Choice Privileges is a race-primary sponsor on select races for each driver in 2026, and the partnership is now in its third season. It kicked off the year on Chastain's #1 at the Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium, scheduled for February 1 and run February 4 after a snow delay.
What lands on the Choice auction platform
Choice's auction platform surfaces a mix of Trackhouse packages throughout the NASCAR season. Observed categories:
• Pit-box experiences: access to the pit crew area during a race weekend, including race day pit access at some tracks
• Transporter tours: walking through the team hauler, seeing the cars staged for the weekend
• Crew chief and driver meet-and-greets: dedicated time with Chastain, Zilisch, or crew leadership
• Garage access: pre-race garage walk-throughs at select tracks
• Shop tours: full-day visits to Trackhouse's Concord, NC headquarters
• Simulator sessions: occasional access to the team's driver simulator
• Full race weekend VIP packages bundling multiple elements with hotel stays at Choice-brand properties
Starting bid floors run as low as around 5,000 Choice points for the cheapest experiences (the shop tour), while the VIP racing packages typically open higher, frequently around 40,000 points, and clear anywhere from 50,000 into the six figures depending on scope. Choice typically keeps a handful of these auctions live at any given time, which is normal for the program's scale.
Point cost ranges by package tier
Based on observed listings:
• Shop tour at Trackhouse HQ: from around 5,000 points (the 2026 shop-tour auctions I have on file closed between 5,000 and 15,000 points, the cheapest entry point in the whole Choice and Trackhouse lineup)
• Transporter tour + race tickets: 20,000 to 50,000 points
• Pit-box experience for one race weekend: roughly 50,000 to 130,000+ points
• Crew chief dinner or driver meet-and-greet + full weekend: 80,000 to 180,000 points
These are observed ranges. The highest-demand race weekends have cleared well past the top of these bands (I have seen VIP racing packages go past 200,000 points). Grandstand seats are a separate lane: they tend to be instant fixed-price redemptions rather than auctions, often the cheapest way to use Choice points on a race. You can see what past Trackhouse lots actually cleared at in the closed-auction archive.
Choice points carry a baseline valuation around 0.6 cents per point (TPG, Upgraded Points, and The Points Party all land near 0.6, though valuations like these are directional, not gospel). Put a roughly $1,500 cash value on a pit-box experience that clears at 80,000 points and you are getting close to 1.9 cents per point, meaningfully above baseline. Our guide to calculating cents per point on points auctions walks through the full framework.
Why this is genuinely Choice-only
No other major hotel loyalty program sponsors a NASCAR Cup Series team at this level. Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt, IHG: none of them have team sponsorship roles in NASCAR. A handful have ancillary involvement through track sponsorships, but nothing comparable to Choice's Trackhouse partnership.
Which means: for points-based NASCAR VIP access, Choice Privileges is effectively the only meaningful hotel program in the category.
Auction mechanics to know
Choice's auction platform runs on the same engine as several other hotel auction sites (Hilton and IHG use it too), so the basics carry over: proxy max bids and soft closes work the same way across these platforms. Your points are held while you're the high bidder and released if you're outbid, and the close extends when bids land in the final minutes.
The practical tip from tracking these auctions: don't count on email alerts to save you. Check the lots you care about as the close approaches, or watch them on PointAuctions.com, where every Choice auction is listed with its closing time.
2026 race calendar: when the big auctions hit
NASCAR Cup Series runs February through November. Choice's race-specific auction windows typically list 4 to 8 weeks before each featured race. For 2026, Choice Privileges primary-sponsor races (two per car) are the obvious peaks.
Key windows to watch:
• February: Clash at Bowman Gray, then the Daytona 500 window
• May: Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte (hometown race for Trackhouse)
• July and August: summer swing (Richmond, Michigan, Watkins Glen)
• October and November: playoff season, championship push
Shop tours at Trackhouse HQ in Concord, NC surface more consistently throughout the year since they're not tied to a specific race weekend. For how Choice's closing prices stack up against the bigger hotel programs, see our breakdown of closed-auction data by program.
For non-NASCAR fans: the other Choice auction category
If NASCAR isn't your thing, Choice runs a second major experiential category on the same platform: College Football Gameday Experiences (covered separately). Between Trackhouse and college football, Choice's experiential sponsorship stack is more differentiated than most hotel programs at its mid-tier scale.
The bottom line
Choice Privileges is genuinely underrated for experiential redemption. The Trackhouse Racing partnership delivers NASCAR VIP access no other hotel program touches, the point costs are reasonable relative to the experience tiers, and the auction mechanics reward members who actually pay attention as the close approaches.
If you're a NASCAR fan with any loyalty balance, Choice is a real play. Browse active Choice Privileges listings on PointAuctions.com to catch the next Trackhouse drop.