How Raceway Car Wash is maintaining superior guest experiences amid geographic growth

There’s nothing better than a clean and shiny car, especially when the cleaning process is quick, convenient, and affordable. Raceway Car Wash (Raceway) is a group of express car washes across Arizona, Nevada, California, and Texas, offering one-time washes and value-added memberships. At Raceway, guest experience is key, so we speak with Josh Perrault, Vice President of Maintenance and Facilities to learn more about the business.

“Raceway was originally started by a private equity company, Clear Sky Capital, which recognized the value in buying depressed assets during the 2008 housing crisis,” Josh opens. “As multifamily assets became more expensive, the group looked for alternative investments and began exploring the potential returns from car washes. In 2014, the group purchased the first car wash site in Scottsdale, Arizona, shortly followed by additional sites in Mesa and Phoenix.

“The growth was phenomenal from day one; fast-forward from 2014 to 2025 and we’re at 45 locations with a very recently purchased site in Southern California, and ongoing conversations about more acquisitions. We’re certainly not slowing down, but we want to grow at a sustainable rate that allows us to continue to deliver high-quality services and exceed our guests’ expectations.”

Having also acquired Marvel Car Wash (Marvel) in December 2024, we ask Josh to share more details on how this acquisition has impacted overall operations. “There’s a lot of potential for us to grow our footprint in Texas, and we’ve grown by around 200 percent in Texas over the last year alone,” he says. “Marvel was part of this strategy, as the demographics are perfect with plenty of cars in the area. We always look for sites that supplement existing locations and drive scale in an area in which we’re already operating.

“Ideally, we want our car washes to be easily visible and accessible so that we can effectively manage traffic throughput. We also look to support the community and enhance our value proposition, especially for members. Memberships can be redeemed at any location, so by adding more stores in one geography, we can provide greater value and flexibility for our members.”

From guests to members

When it comes to services, Raceway emphasizes quality, care, and guest experience. “I guess we’re sort of a one-trick pony,” Josh laughs. “We offer four different packages from a base wash up to a premium wash with waxes and other features to make the cars pop and shine. We also provide free vacuum services and some of our locations offer a full service where our employees also do interior cleaning work and detailed services.

“Our priority is providing best-in-class services that leave guests feeling happy and ideally, they then take out a membership with us. Membership is a key element of our sustainable growth strategy, and it also offers great value for our guests. We began focusing on memberships in 2019, which was an inflection point for us, as we had really bad rain in the Southwest, and no one wanted to get their cars washed. It was a good time to focus on membership because we then thrived through the Covid-19 pandemic when people wanted to get out of their house and get their car washed.”

Considering Raceway’s most consumed product is water, the company is taking action to reduce its consumption and protect the environment. “The biggest thing I look at when we acquire a new site is how we can optimize our water usage by evaluating the pumps, chemical applicators, and nozzles being used,” Josh states. “However, we must carefully balance reducing water and chemical consumption with maintaining our service standards to provide a clean, dry, and shiny car for our guests.”

Value-driven growth

As our conversation closes, Josh turns his attention to what’s next for Raceway. “2025 will be more of the same as we’re looking to aggressively grow through strategic acquisitions, and we have a few in the pipeline as we speak,” he explains. “Our overarching strategy is always to convert our guests to members, so we’re looking to invest in enhancing our guest experience and keeping our team members safe on site. We’ve made the transition to being cashless to increase both safety and throughput, and we’re exploring a large investment in license plate recognition technology, which would further increase throughput and enable us to get specific information about a guest’s car.

“Overall, it’s all about driving value for our guests and expanding our services to a wider geography. In our company-wide meeting at the end of 2024, we shared our big hairy audacious goal, or BHAG, which is to reach 200 stores in the next five years. We’d like to grow our membership to around 5000 people per store and we’re currently on a great trajectory to reach these goals.

“However, to do so, we need great people to foster a culture of trust and build long-term relationships with guests,” Josh concludes. “We believe that by looking after our employees and providing opportunities for growth, they will in turn take care of our guests and the financial returns will come naturally over time.”

www.racewaycarwash.com