NASCAR star Chase Elliot and Hooters launched a virtual concept specializing in chicken tenders, boneless wings and chicken sandwiches.
“I’m excited to launch a menu that fuels fans’ love for delicious Hooters chicken, starters and sides,” Elliott said. “I have the best fans in the world, so I know they will enjoy trying this cool new concept and make an order for race day or during the week like I do.”
“As the most popular driver in racing today, Chase has a fantastic connection with our restaurant clientele no matter where they are ordering our famous foods, so it’s a natural we’d create a line extension together,” said Hooters CMO Bruce Skala.
“We’re launching the virtual concept out of 196 of our restaurants, so check your apps to see if Chase Elliott’s Chicken Tenders delivery is now available in your hometown.”
Chase Elliot’s Chicken Tenders will operate out of nearly 200 Hooters restaurants throughout the U.S. Chicken tenders offered with a choice of 14 craveable sauces and other menu items will be delivered by Grubhub, DoorDash and Uber Eats.
Virtual kitchens operate within actual restaurants but cook food that may be sold under a different name on third-party delivery platforms. In a sense, virtual kitchens help restaurants optimize search engine optimization, or SEO, online. Consumers ordering food delivery tend to search for a particular menu item, like wings or Chinese food, rather than by a restaurant name.
“Virtual concepts have been an important part of our off-premises growth strategy since 2019,” explained Marc Butler, SVP, Strategic Planning / Off Premise for Hooters of America.
“Hooters is very well known for our great wings, but awareness is lower for other menu segments such as tenders, burgers and seafood. Incorporating Chase into this virtual concept will help us create greater awareness, attract a new audience and grow our business with racing aficionados who can share in food and fandom.”
Hooters also operates the fast casual brand, Hoots Wings. The brand’s menu offers breaded bone-in, naked bone-in, boneless, smoked and roasted wings that can be combined with a dozen sauce and rub options to form over 100,000 different combinations. The offshoot expects to have 100 units in operation by 2023.
