April 8, 2011
By Rebecca Gladden
A few years ago, most NASCAR drivers avoided Twitter like a fresh oil slick on a hot race track.
They said they didn't have time for social media and weren't interested in sharing their private lives with the world.
Now, even elite NASCAR stars like current five-time Cup champion Jimmie Johnson and four-time champ Jeff Gordon have joined the ranks of sports celebrities who've learned to embrace the close connection with fans that Twitter affords. Other well-known NASCAR tweeters include Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch, Danica Patrick, Denny Hamlin, Kenny Wallace, Michael Waltrip, Juan Pablo Montoya, Darrell Waltrip, and numerous others.
Though all the NASCAR stars I spoke with about Twitter were quick to sing its praises, they acknowledged that there can be a downside to social networking.
NASCAR Nationwide driver Danica Patrick, who boasts more than 300,000 followers on Twitter, said she does all her own tweeting, but had to cut back on the number of replies she reads to avoid messages that are discouraging, if not disturbing. “I used to read (replies) more often. It's a lot easier to read them when good things are going on, but, if there isn't, there's a lot of negativity there. You're already in an environment where people speak their mind and can say whatever. To then read all of those tweets where people might not have something good to say, I don't think that anybody should really have to subject themselves to that.”
Patrick actually received a tweet from someone who said he wanted her to die in a wreck on the race track. “That's when I stopped reading," she told me. “Overall, I try not to read too much because it's not healthy to see that stuff. I think definitely more positives (come) out of social media, but, unfortunately, there are people that ruin it - people telling you, 'I wish you died in that crash.' I don't really think I need to read that.”
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series driver Max Papis has also received unfriendly replies, noting his harshest rebuke came last year when he tweeted something about another driver.
“When I criticized (Dale Earnhardt) Junior, I got a few hundred tweets about how you can't talk bad about him and stuff like that. I always speak the truth and I say exactly what I think. I remember saying that I thought he did something wrong or he made a mistake and it was like, 'Oh, he doesn't - he never makes a mistake,'” Papis recalled.
Perhaps no one had a more eye-opening experience on Twitter than Darrell Waltrip, who says he got involved with social media last year after seeing how viewers watching televised NASCAR races were using it to communicate with each other. Ironically, his first problem on Twitter also involved Dale Earnhardt Jr., who is not on Twitter himself and says he has no plans to be.
Waltrip was embroiled in controversy last season when he tweeted the news that Earnhardt Jr. intended to race a No. 3 Wrangler paint scheme in the Nationwide Series at Daytona in July as a tribute to his late father, who made that number and sponsor famous. DW broke the story on Twitter prior to its official announcement, which had been scheduled but had not yet occurred.
"When I first starting doing Twitter, I thought it was like an email or like a text. I didn't realize that millions of people might actually end up reading that," he said. “I didn't have any idea that that (tweet) would upset anyone. That morning, I had gotten a (press) release. I read the release, but what I didn't read was, 'Don't release until 3 p.m.' That was on the bottom and I didn't read it. I just read all the information and I said, 'Well, that's just super duper,' because I've been a big proponent of Junior running the 3 and I was excited about it. So, I tweeted something about it.”
Waltrip became aware of the mistake almost immediately when he was contacted by an angry Dale Jr. “Man, that lit him up. He was not happy about that and he let me know it. We're buds - I mean, I talk to him all the time. But they felt like it took some of the air out of the release, and it did, but I didn't mean to. I wasn't trying to upstage anybody or be the first one to say something about it.
“I told him, 'Listen, they sent out a release a week before saying they were going to have a press conference with Teresa (Earnhardt), Dale Junior, Kelley (Earnhardt), Richard Childress, and all of them were going to have a press conference. And I said, that, in and of itself, if you have a curious mind, you say, 'Well, what's that all about?' He'd run the 3 before, so I didn't know it was that big of a deal. But, we got it resolved and we're okay now. He got mad at me and we got over it. But, you can get in trouble (on Twitter), particularly when you’re learning the ropes.”
Waltrip also mentioned the monetary fines that two well-known Cup drivers received last year for things they’d posted on Twitter. “Denny Hamlin got fined fifty-grand and Ryan Newman got fined fifty-grand by NASCAR for tweeting derogatory things about the sport. That's the one thing you have to be careful of. When I tweet now, unless it's just some silly things, I read it more than once before I send it.”
While the sanctioning body did issue the fines that Waltrip referred to, NASCAR Senior Director of Competition Communications Kerry Tharp told me that officials do not have a formal process for monitoring what drivers say on social media. "We encourage the drivers to be themselves and show their personalities. And, if they disagree over something we did or a call we made, it's okay for them to express their opinions and voice their displeasure,” said Tharp. “However, when they make comments that are damaging to the sport and make comments that attack the integrity of the sport, then that will warrant a reaction from us."
Tharp added that members of the NASCAR media are usually the first ones to shine a spotlight on the things drivers say on Twitter, good or bad.
NASCAR star Jeff Gordon said that discerning whether a driver has crossed the line on social media really comes down to common sense. “I have opinions on things and I like sharing those opinions, and those aren't always going to be positive. I think the thing I have to be careful of is, there are times that I may want to put something controversial out there because I have a strong opinion on it. But we represent our sponsors as well when we're on (Twitter), because they look at it as a pretty powerful tool. So, sometimes I'm going to be a little cautious with what I put out there, but other times, when I feel like it's something I'm passionate about and I see that maybe it's something that's a buzz at the moment, then I'm going to put it out there - that could be NASCAR race-related, it could be political, it could be a lot of things. I think you have to use your best judgment when it comes to those things.”
Like Danica and others, Gordon said he’s received his share of derogatory tweets from fans, but, as a public sports figures, feels it comes with the territory. “You have to be careful with what you read, but it's no different than any other media. That's how I am with the media as well, reading the newspaper or watching on TV. If you believe all the good stuff, then you have to believe some of the negative stuff, too, so you have to be careful with that. But, you know what? Everybody's entitled to their opinion and you have to respect and appreciate that, and it's not always going to be positive.”
Driver Kenny Wallace knows a thing or two about Twitter disagreements as well, particularly when he brings up the topic of American Ethanol, the primary sponsor of his Nationwide race car this year. The production and use of ethanol, a biofuel made from crops like corn, is not entirely without controversy. “I create debate, but it's me against 70,000 people on social networks,” Wallace said. “I can't argue with 70,000 people. It's easy for 70,000 people to take a poke at me, but for me to debate with 70,000 people is just overwhelming. I can't do it. So what I do is I put true knowledge out there.”
Wallace said he also receives criticism when he tweets about his car manufacturer, Toyota, which some fans perceive as a foreign automaker in an American sport. “You open yourself up for criticism because I might say, 'My Toyota is really fast today,' and then I've got people blasting me. And I'm like, wait, wait a minute, Toyota employs 60,000 Americans. So I get into debates any way I turn. I'm pretty strong psychologically. I'm a strong-minded person and I don't get my feelings hurt that easy. That's the only downside I see is when I say, 'My Toyota Camry is really fast today,' you'll have some hardcore people (complain). That's still their prerogative, but it's great also because I get to remind them how good Toyota is because they employ so many Americans.”
Several drivers told me they’d taken measures to ensure that Twitter was not becoming a distraction in their daily lives, particularly Wallace, who said he was forced to self-limit his social media time. “I took a lot of functions off my cell phone because my cell phone was actually obsessing my life. I've read stories where people in Europe were texting and walking, and walking into oncoming traffic and walking into poles. What I did is I took Twitter and Facebook off my phone. So, when you follow me on my social networking, you'll see me going in ‘gamuts,’ like you'll see no twittering for eight hours and then you'll see an hour of it and that's because I'm on my iPad. I don't carry my iPad with me. If I get back to my hotel and I'm in a comfortable environment and I'm sitting in my bed, I'll get on it and I'll have what I call a twitter session where I'll answer all the fans’ questions.”
He continued, “I had to take it off my phone. I was taking pictures of my food - 'here's the food I'm eating,' 'I'm going to the bathroom.' It was just getting overly obsessive. You really have to control it. I've seen people twittering in the garage area and about running into trash cans. It's funny, but it's almost pretty bad.”
Wallace said he tries to limit his sponsor-related tweets to about 10 percent of his overall messages, noting, “You cannot use social networking as a billboard. The fans want to know about Kenny Wallace and his wife and his kids and what you think about this and that.”
When it comes to tweets of a personal nature, Darrell Waltrip said he likes to share Bible verses, though he admits it’s not always well-received. “I’ve had a handful of people that have said, 'This is not a place for that kind of (thing). We don't need a Bible lesson on Twitter.’ But, for the most part, people say, 'I needed that,’ ‘That's my favorite verse,’ ‘I was having a bad day until I read that.’”
All the drivers I spoke with insisted that they do their own tweeting, with occasional help from someone on their staff. Most make it a point to use a twitter “hashtag” - the # symbol - followed by their initials to indicate that they personally sent the tweet. For example, an authentic Jeff Gordon tweet will contain the hashtag #JG to differentiate it from tweets by his PR team.
NASCAR rookie Trevor Bayne, who saw his Twitter following explode after his surprising win in this year’s Daytona 500, said he finds social networking a positive experience overall, but notes that it has changed the dynamic between fans and drivers, probably forever.
“It takes away the wonder of the fan,” Bayne told me. “I remember as a kid growing up (drivers were) like these big icons and I wanted to go meet them and just see them and see what they were like. That was a big deal. Now, people kind of have that inside look without being there to meet you.”
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