NASCAR Team Co-Owner Felix Sabates Invited to Superbowl 50
Carolina Panthers head coach Ron Rivera (R) has invited Chip Ganassi Co-Owner Felix Sabates to sit on the 50 yard line of this Sunday's Superbowl. Rivera and Sabates have been longtime friends.
It helps to have a longtime friend, coach and business partner that just happens to be the head coach of a Superbowl bound football team. Especially when he invites you and a few of your drivers to sit on the 50 yard line.
That's just what happened when Ron Rivera, head coach for the Carolina Panthers, asked Chip Ganassi Co-Owner Felix Sabates, to come to Superbowl 50 at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California. Rivera offered Sabates a suite, but he says he's rather be on the field with the fans and enjoy the atmosphere.
“Nowhere else I’d be,” Sabates told USA TODAY Sports. “I was offered tickets in a suite, but that’s not what I want. I want to be out there in the stadium, experiencing it all.”
Sabates, who is of Cuban descent, and Rivera, who is both Puerto Rican and Mexican, are long time friends and business partners. Rivera does commercials for Felix's dealership - but their relationship goes far beyond the workplace.
“If he wasn’t working for the Panthers, he’d still be my friend,” Sabates said. “If he was working at the 7-Eleven and selling Slurpees, he’d still be my friend.
Sprint Cup drivers Jamie McMurray and Kyle Larson have also benefited from the Rivera connection with principal owner Chip Ganassi.
On July 21, before the start of what became a magical season for the once-beaten Panthers, Rivera visited Ganassi’s Concord, N.C.,-based shop to give a motivational speech to team employees, including Larson and McMurray.
Rivera urged team members to “Control your APE” as part of his talk. In Rivera-speak, APE is Attitude, Preparation and Effort. The team embraced the phrase on the way to putting McMurray into the Chase for the Sprint Cup for the first time.
He later invited the pit crew members to a Panthers team meeting at Bank of America Stadium and showed a video of the pit stop to his players to emphasize the importance of teamwork.
Coach Ron Rivera will be attempting to win his first Super Bowl ring in his fifth year as Panthers head coach.
