Motor Racing Digest

Posted by: Candice Corrigan, follow @candicecorrigan

May 19, 2012

NASCAR and the social media platform Twitter announced Friday that they will partner to bring fans a live event experience during future NASCAR races. The new amenity will give fans an insider’s view of the NASCAR race day and main events from the perspective of industry notables, drivers, crew members, media and other fans.

Fans will be able to access this feature beginning with the Pocono Raceway race weekend with its main event on Sunday, June 10. Fans can search and click #NASCAR to view a list of Tweets from a variety of personalities in the racing community.

“Twitter amplifies the excitement of live sporting events and gives NASCAR fans insider access to the drivers and teams they love,” said Dick Costolo, chief executive officer of Twitter Inc. “When sports fans around the world see a hashtag displayed on the air during a game or race, that’s a signal to them that there is a bigger conversation happening on Twitter.”

The NASCAR community may be the most active sports community on Twitter, giving fans a chance to interact with drivers, teams and others who are essential to the sport. Many cite Brad Keselowski’s Tweeting from inside his car during the red flag at this year’s Daytona 500 as the ultimate example of fan engagement on Twitter.

“So I love that the opportunity to really connect with a larger fan base than what I can meet in one day,” Brad Keselowski said. “It’s amazing the type of connections that you can have.  It’s just such a positive thing for the sport, and really, the key thing that I think of it as, is an opportunity, not just for myself, but for all of the key partners within the sport to really engage our fans.”

NASCAR partners and sponsors have benefitted tremendously from NASCAR’s prevalence on Twitter. Drivers frequently mention their sponsors on Twitter and link to the sponsor’s Twitter account. Sponsors are then able to communicate with potential customers through the driver’s Twitter followers and fans. The accessibility to these customers through the platform may even bring new sponsors into the sport at a time when financial conditions have discouraged sponsorship in the sport.

“Twitter has been an important piece of our effort the last several years to further engage our fan base and help grow the sport,” said Steve Phelps, senior vice president and chief marketing officer of NASCAR.

This growth is surely to extend to the stakeholders that ensure race teams can operate on a weekly basis – the sponsors.

Twitter.com/#NASCAR will use different analytical processes to determine which Tweets will be featured. Twitter and NASCAR have agreed to include Tweets with a negative connotation in the list to fully capture the opinions of the NASCAR community.  Twitter currently has 40 million active users that generate over 340 million Tweets a day.

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