A Thematic Experience: Bennett Awards x Tombras for Arby’s “Race for the Cheesesteak”

2025 NASCAR Chicago Street Race “Race for the Cheesesteak” Trophy Designed by Bennett Awards

3D printed, hand-painted with antique silver finish

Bennett Awards partnered with The Tombas Group marketing agency and their client, Arby’s, for the 2025 NASCAR Chicago Street Race “Race for the Cheesesteak” campaign, held on July 5th-6th. The goal was to highlight a new sandwich by the fast food chain.

Arby’s was one of the Chicago Street Race’s founding sponsors, and Tombras wanted to deliver a high energy, unforgettable weekend. Tombras worked with our trophy design team to come up with a trophy that would be a bold statement.

After finding Bennett Awards in a ChatGPT search, Tombras reached out to collaborate in mid-May, giving us six weeks to bring the vision to life.

Despite the tight timeline, our team quickly aligned with the client to kick off the project efficiently. During this initial meeting, Tombras shared their vision: a hand-shaped trophy that could physically hold a real sandwich, with a metallic silver finish, and heavily weighted at the base. 

The challenge? The featured Limited Time Arby’s Angus Cheesesteak Sandwich was still in development. The logistical hurdle was designing the award based on hypothetical mathematical calculations from a single photo. 

In order to get the sandwich to be held by the hand-shaped award, several ideas were explored, including:

1) a flat hand platform,

2) a stint (or skewer) that could go through the sandwich, and

3) (selected) a hand that could wrap around the sandwich.

Our designer considered everything from meat density to moisture content that could impact the mechanics of the trophy to ensure both form and function.

The result was a show-stopping 3D printed, handpainted hand two feet in height with an antique silver finish and weighted base. This playful and majestically thematic design immortalized the weekend’s theme reinforcing the “Race for the Cheesesteak” campaign messaging. 

As a result, the award transformed an ordinary sandwich sponsorship into a viral, PR moment. Having been aired on a national TNT broadcast and featured in reels by NASCAR teams/drivers, influencers, and UGC fans with over 40K views, it shows how our awards can be the visual anchor turning a weekend from fun to unforgettable.