February 20, 2010
By Ron Felix
At a press conference at Auto Club Speedway on Friday morning, Dale Earnhardt Jr. explained why he doesn't use the social networking tools that are gaining popularity with some of the other NASCAR drivers.
Despite his army of fans clamoring for him to do so, the most popular driver in NASCAR says he won't be Tweeting anytime soon.
"I've never enjoyed doing it on a personal level like some people do," Earnhardt said. "When you start something or create something like that, people (could just quit) -- If you ever got tired of doing it, you could just turn and shut it off.
Actually Mike Davis (communications manager for JR Motorsports) enjoys that. He keeps the fans pretty aware of what we are doing, where we are going, what is happening."
Pointing to one of the writers in the room, Jeff Gluck, Earnhardt said, "If Jeff wanted to shut his Twitter account down, people would be upset, but that's his prerogative.
"But if I start something like that, it just steam rolls and it is out of my control, so I don't think it's productive, really to have a personal social networking account.
"I had Facebook and My Space way back in the day and I'd get burned out, having that responsibility of keeping it updated -- it's like, what for? You have to get out of the house once in a while.
"I just had to cut it all out because I just got tired. I was like a parent, always having to take care of this thing."
Earnhardt has a valid point.
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