NASCAR digs up old roots in a new way

Stock car racing has always been a fan’s sport. At local tracks, fans interact with their favorite drivers as they work on their cars. After the races, when the gates under the flag stand opens, the fans flood in to congratulate the winners and console the ones further down in the pack. It used to be that way with the pros, but the sport outgrew itself.

“As the sport’s grown, that’s become more difficult,“ Director of Business Communications for NASCAR Andrew Giangola said. “You still can get access … We still have the only locker room in sports that’s an open locker room. You can go into the garage area and watch the cars being worked on and sometimes nab an autograph, but the level of access, because the sport’s gotten bigger, that one-to-one personal access has been cut back a little bit just because of the size of the event.“

But all facets of NASCAR have found new ways to let the fans back in. They’re reaching into the Twitter-sphere and putting themselves out there to give the people that inside look they crave.

“[Social media] is very much a tool we use to connect with fans and give them inside perspective about our racing program,“ Mark Dickens of United Parcel Service public relations said. “The fans [of NASCAR] are unique in the sporting world in that they really appreciate and covet information that they can get about their favorite drivers, and if you’re not providing that in some way, you’re potentially alienating an entirely new group of fans … It’s been very effective in our opinion in reaching out to people who were already fans of UPS racing that might not have necessarily known anything about David Ragan … We’re reaching out to those old fans but also cultivating a new group of fans.“

UPS Racing, sponsor of the No. 6 Ford Sprint Cup series car piloted by Ragan used the opportunity of a new driver to start some fresh programs this season, including the use of social media. Formerly the sponsor of Dale Jarrett, UPS used the off-season to introduce people both internally and externally to their new driver. UPS Racing redesigned its Web site to include blogs and video blogs by Ragan and they launched both Twitter and Facebook pages.

“We’re looking for meaningful ways to use these tools,“ Dickens said. “We’re not just doing them for the sake of doing them. We’ve seen a lot of companies and other organizations that said ‘Well, we need to be out on Twitter,’ but if you’re not doing something meaningful with it, you’re not giving people a reason to come back. That’s what this is all about. Once you connect with them, you want them to keep coming back and getting updates on your program or your business or whatever your objective may be.“

That said, since the main objective is to connect with fans on a personal level, many of the drivers’ personal Twitter pages dip into the mundane and off-the-cuff. According to Kevin Harvick’s personal page, he slept on the bus heading to Richmond before the Sept. 11-12 doubleheader weekend, but not before he took the time to take care of his dogs.

“Acres of grass and the dogs have to pee on the garage floor. I think they just like watching me mop it up,“ he posted Thursday evening.

Still, it’s that kind of thing that the fans are eating up. Harvick has over 15,000 followers on Twitter. Ragan has around 1,400, but his posts tend toward the more functional, letting fans know about appearances and asking fans for their pictures from his personal appearances. Still, the reality is that all of those fans and followers are getting more from their online interactions than from simply watching, listening and reading through traditional outlets.

“The types of exchanges that you see on social media are much more of a personal nature,“ Dickens said. “They really put a human touch to these types of communications because they are truly conversations as opposed to just someone going to our press site, reading a press release about David and our racing team. Here they can actually converse with him and other members of his team.“

Another benefit for fans is that social media sites are allowing the sport to come to them using just one or two venues.

Tracks are now organizing entire events through social media. Earlier this year Richmond International Raceway held a special event on Aug. 28 with racing personality Hermie Sadler. The track promoted the doubleheader weekend and gave away tickets. The catch? In order to know about the event, you had to be a fan on the track’s Facebook page or a follower of the track’s Twitter page.

“We do many, many updates and reaching out to our fans just to let them know what’s going on out here,“ Manager of Community and Public Relations for Richmond International Raceway Richie Denzler said. “There are so many ways to get the word out about promoting your events and one great way is to have such an intimate connection with our fans.“

Beyond social networking, NASCAR is also giving fans the chance to be the journalists following the sport.

Beginning in mid-July, NASCAR performed a review of independent Web sites and blogs following the sport. The sites that they felt provided the best, most comprehensive, and most professional coverage received an invitation to become part of the “citizen journalist corps.“ That means the people representing the independent sites were granted credentials to races including access to the press boxes and media centers and access to NASCARmedia.com, which is the sport’s password protected Web site.

“It’s part of this new media space and finding ways to make the most of it,“ Giangola said. “Certainly we’ve seen budgets being cut back, and a lot of newspapers that traditionally were sending reporters to races are unable to do so. Some have scaled down and even laid off some motor sports reporters, so this whole citizen journalist corps is a way to supplement the traditional coverage.“

The spread of fans that NASCAR, drivers, tracks and sponsors are reaching through their social media efforts is wide and varied. Fans and followers of all sites have grown exponentially since the beginning of the season and vary in age and gender.

Though it is difficult to say if social media efforts are growing the sport or increasing attendance at events, it is easy to say that they have renewed a feeling of intimacy in the sport.

“I think if you want to keep your fans into it and engaged, you’re going to have to do [social media]. It’s something very valuable - a great tool that, if you use it correctly, you can keep your fans entertained and try to cultivate some new fans through there as well,“ Denzler said.