This is the second year for Red Line’s Women of Motorsports/Women of Powersports social media campaign on Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn. This year, Red Line features more than 20 women. What are the opportunities for women in the sport of racing?

The opportunities for women in motorsports and powersports are unlimited. In every form of racing, the sanctioning bodies offer classes for people at every level, from beginners to experts.

Don’t get me wrong, a person is not going to just jump right into an Indy car or ride a motorcycle during a Supercross event. But there are feeder opportunities into every type of racing. All you need is the desire and the commitment to make it happen.

How important is it for Red Line to shine a light on underrepresented populations in a sport like racing?

Red Line is a smaller voice in the racing and performance oil category. So that is one of the driving forces behind everything we do as far as marketing. We don’t have the funds to buy our way into shops, trailers and title rights of races.

We focus on our customers and the people who support Red Line. They are #teamredlineoil. Word-of-mouth advertising and recommendations from friends or competitors are the best endorsement any brand could ask for. So we always try to focus on customers and racers. We let them tell our story. Women are a major part of the story in the sports we love.

How did Red Line select the women you featured?

Each year, we look back at what our customers have done or are doing. We look at new customers and new teams that have joined us. We ask the teams if there are women they would like us to recognize. This year, the response doubled, and our hope is for it to keep growing.

How have people reacted to the campaign?

The reaction has been amazing. Teams share our posts on their channels, racers and their friends and families share our posts, and they are all thankful — thankful that we are giving them a platform and honoring them the best way we can. Most are amazed that a brand would do this for its customers. And that’s what sets us apart.

Any plans for other campaigns we should be on the lookout for?

This year, we’ll follow up the #WomenOfMotorSports campaign with our #WhenYouKnowYouKnow campaign, where we showcase builders and shops that stock and sell Red Line. Once again, we put the focus on them. It’s a winning combination for all.

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Mecum, the world’s largest collector-car auctioneer, brought its display of classic cars back to the building last month for the first time since 2019. The crowd-pleaser, which was put on hold because of COVID restrictions, took place thanks to Mecum’s longtime partnership with Kendall^® Motor Oil.  

“I’ve never been in a car that old before,” said Midstream Engineer Kristen Peck, who got to ride in a classically restored ivory and white 1969 Pontiac Trans Am. “My parents were born in the ’50s and always talk about restored cars, so it was a neat experience.”

Mecum employees invited Peck to take her short and memorable ride when the skies turned blue after a light rain, and they moved the cars from the parking garage to the sunny oval in front of headquarters. Janet Chen, also a Midstream engineer, rode in a shiny red, custom-restored 1966 Ford Mustang GT with Shelby-style stripes.

Kendall is the official motor oil of Mecum Auctions. The partnership is a “natural fit” as both companies share a passion and love for automobiles and a pride in their work, said John Kraman, star announcer for Mecum Auctions who was on hand to chat with Phillips 66 employees. Some pulled out their phones to proudly show Kraman photos of their own classic cars and works in progress.

Mecum Auctions draw thousands of car and motorcycle enthusiasts and are broadcast by NBC Sports Network. The 1969 Trans-Am and the 1966 Mustang were part of a private collection of 170 cars for sale at Mecum’s Houston auction. The Houston event is one of Mecum’s largest, featuring more than 1,000 cars that fetched a record tally of $34.5 million.  

Phillips 66 is one of the largest finished lubricants suppliers in the United States, marketing under the Kendall and Phillips 66^® brands as well as supplying several North American private labels and original-equipment manufacturers.

Kendall Brand Director Jessica Goodman said the six-year sponsorship and collaboration with Mecum Auctions has been a great success, helping to build nationwide brand awareness with a key audience.

“We are thrilled that so many Phillips 66 employees were able to witness this collaboration first-hand as they checked out these beautiful classic cars,” she said.

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That’s why the Phillips 66 Lubricants brand’s recent debut as the title sponsor of the NMCA Muscle Car Nationals makes sense. Hard-core racers, street-performance enthusiasts and fans alike instantly recognize the series’ place in the motorsports landscape – and why Red Line Oil stands with it.

“Real racers know real racers – you can’t fake your way in or buy your way into the backdoor of that racer’s trailer,” said Mark Beatty, Red Line Oil Brand Director. “NMCA’s whole focus is on the racer, and our customers are those racers.”

The NMCA Muscle Car Nationals is home to thousands of participants, with vintage and modern vehicles competing across championship drag racing, street-legal competition and car shows. Its 2022 calendar kicked off mid-March in Bradenton, Florida, with five more national events scheduled through September.

Red Line Oil’s sponsorship is one of about two dozen across the motorsports and powersports landscapes, where superior quality and proven performance are key to earning lifelong customers.

“Red Line Oil prides itself in producing a superior product for the best performance possible for our racers, partners and customers,” Red Line Oil Sales Director Justin Johnson said. “Red Line Oil doesn’t buy championships; we empower our sponsored racers and customers to push their performance to the limit.”

Red Line Oil also prides itself in meeting its customers’ needs in the garage and on the track.  Its product portfolio includes fully synthetic motor oils, gear oils, transmission fluids, coolant additives, fuel additives and greases. Red Line products are found in everything from dragsters and monster trucks to motocross bikes, watercraft and even drones and remote-controlled planes.

The brand sponsors driver Steve Torrence, a four-time defending Top Fuel champion in the National Hot Rod Association, and the Bimmerworld Racing SRO team – think insanely fast BMWs – among others. On the powersports side, Red Line sponsors the Hoosier Arenacross Outlaws series and an endurance dirt bike series.

“14,000-horsepower motors run Red Line Oil,” said Beatty, referencing Top Fuel dragsters. “If we can make an oil that protects that, it doesn’t matter what you race or ride or what you build – we can protect it.”

Red Line Oil traces its roots to the San Francisco Bay Area, where it started in 1979. Part of the Phillips 66 Lubricants family since 2014, Red Line Oil today is known as a performance and lubricants brand with enviable name recognition at tracks the world over.

“Real knows real,” Beatty said. “And it starts with quality – it’s a tight family, and word gets around.”

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The Kendall Custom, as it is known, was auctioned off on Jan. 15 at the Mecum Auction Kissimmee, the world’s largest car auction, to promote awareness for the Phillips 66 Lubricants brand and support a worthy cause. And it excelled on both fronts.  

Every dollar from the $450,000 vehicle auction benefited Curing Kids Cancer, a nonprofit that raises money to fund research and find cures for pediatric cancers.  

“When this project started, it was a chance for us to show what Kendall was all about,” said Julie Wright, Director of Brand Management at Phillips 66 Lubricants. “And we did. We gave the audience a really great car, while also giving a big lift to an organization that’s making a difference in many lives.”  

More than 20 automotive industry leaders came together to build the car’s state-of-the-art custom exterior and interior with high-quality parts and modernized technology. The metal masterpiece includes a twin turbocharged Ford Coyote engine that runs on Kendall GT-1^® Max oil.  

The Kendall Custom was documented on Kendall Motor Oil’s TitaniumGarage.com, Facebook and Instagram.  

Mecum showed the car to hundreds of thousands of potential bidders in a nationwide tour over the past year before the auction in Kissimmee, Fla. The winning bidder at the Mecum auction, auto enthusiast Jim Walker, said the charity gave the purchase special meaning.  

“Some of these families are stricken with a terrible situation, and they are financially strapped. Their focus should be on taking care of their families and not on worrying about the financial side of it,” said Walker, who owns a collection of about 80 cars.  

Walker plans to proudly display The Kendall Custom in his automobile collection. “It is a car we will preserve because it deserves to be preserved,” he said.  

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These lubricants use modern proprietary formulations to enable extended driving range. Excellent thermal and conductive properties keep electric vehicles protected while running cooler and longer per charge.

“Years of development and testing resulted in the technology behind the e-Shield products that deliver optimal performance for electric vehicles,” said Chundi Cao, Phillips 66 Senior Engineer. “We are constantly working to develop products that will meet the needs of an evolving market, and our new e-Shield line is no exception.”

The e-Shield line is another example of the company's ongoing commitment to develop the latest technology that reduces emissions and improves energy conservation while ensuring that the equipment people depend on worldwide operates efficiently and reliably.

The e-Shield EV system fluid is proven technology currently used in the factory-fill of electric vehicles for several major Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM). "Through OEMs-independent evaluations, the Phillips 66 e-Shield EV system fluid outperformed other fluids by extending the driving range of vehicles," said Scott McQueen, Phillips 66 Manager, Lubricants Research & Product Management. “The e-Shield product line demonstrates the continued innovation of Phillips 66 and our dedication to providing energy for the future.”

e-Shield is one of many ways Phillips 66 products support the energy transition. Phillips 66 is a major supplier of the proprietary graphite needle coke employed in the manufacturing of lithium ion batteries that power electric vehicles across the globe. The company recently announced a technical collaboration with Faradion to develop anode materials for sodium-ion batteries, a next-generation energy storage technology.

To view more information about the e-Shield line and Phillips 66 sustainability work, please visit Phillips66Lubricants.com/Sustainability.

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It’s polypropylene, one of the world’s most versatile plastics. And Phillips 66 makes it.

The company operates a 775 million pounds/year (350,000 metric tons/year) capacity plant at the Bayway Refinery in Linden, New Jersey, and markets the resin under the COPYLENE® brand and through unbranded channels. Recent improvements and increased feedstock supply from Bayway and the Sweeny Refinery in Texas are keeping the plant competitive in an evolving market.

“We’ve spent a lot of money improving the reliability and utilization of the plant because we’ve built a viable business,” said Greg Osterholt, Manager of Polypropylene for Phillips 66. “We went from being a way to clear propylene from the refinery to building a true business.”

Small producer, but mighty

The Specialties business underscores the value of a diversified portfolio and of vertical integration between refining and petrochemical processes. Phillips 66 makes the resin from propylene monomer, a gas, effectively upgrading a byproduct of the refining process into an in-demand, higher-value polymer.

Phillips 66 is the smallest polypropylene producer by capacity in a 16 billion pounds/year U.S. market, but what it lacks in size it more than makes up for it in terms of location, reputation and portfolio. It makes 30 grades of the resin for multiple applications, but its sweet spot is in food packaging — think ketchup bottle caps, cereal liners, potato chip bags and microwave-safe food containers.

It is one of only two producers in the Northeast. This gives Phillips 66 a logistical advantage because the Northeast and Midwest house the bulk of U.S. converter demand, while much of the production capacity is 1,000 miles or more away in the Gulf Coast region.

“We are close to the demand and away from the storm-prone Gulf Coast,” Osterholt said. “That’s why a lot of companies buy at least a portion of their product from us — as an insurance policy.”

Discovered by Phillips Petroleum

Polymers are in Phillips 66’s DNA. Both polypropylene and high-density polyethylene, another highly versatile plastic resin, were discovered by Phillips Petroleum researchers Paul Hogan and Robert Banks in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, in 1951. CPChem, the petrochemical joint venture with Chevron, carries on much of that legacy as a global player in the polyethylene market.

Polypropylene enjoys excellent chemical-, fatigue- and heat-resistance properties. It is also highly recyclable. Industrial and consumer applications also include automotive components, appliances, fibers for carpeting, health care and hygiene, including baby diapers. It has been at the forefront of the fight against COVID-19 because it is in the N-95 masks and face shields used by first responders and health care workers.

An expanding market

The U.S. polypropylene market is undergoing major capacity expansions for the first time in two decades thanks to the shale revolution. Most of these expansions will take place in the Gulf Coast and rely on technologies that convert propane into propylene, solving the type of feedstock-supply constraints that previously hindered production growth.

Osterholt is unfazed. Phillips 66, he said, sees the opportunity where others might see a threat.

“The opportunity for us is that because we are the smallest producer, we can create more of a boutique business,” he said. “We are willing to do smaller campaigns of product that the bigger producers aren’t willing to do.

“It’s a balance of being able to pursue higher-value opportunities without upsetting the plant’s complexity or sacrificing its efficiency.”

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