NASCAR “stepped firmly into a strange new cyberworld filled with hashtags and acronyms” when driver Brad Keselowski tweeted during the red-flag delay in this year’s Daytona 500, according to Cary Estes of SI.com. Keselowski's use of social media while the race was stopped “sent the sport roaring into a future,” as Twitter offers NASCAR an “excellent way to connect to a fan base that has been dwindling in recent years, a development that can be only good news for the sport.” NASCAR has “definitely been slow to embrace the social media trend, but that seems to be changing, and Keselowski has suddenly become the face of that change.” His stream of tweets during the red-flag delay was “one of the most talked about moments of the race.” People in their 20s have “grown up in a time where technology has broken down barriers and enabled more direct communication.” If you make this age group “wait or deny them direct access, there is a good chance they will simply turn their attention elsewhere” (SI.com, 3/8). In Charlotte, Ron Green Jr. wonders if Keselowski’s use of Twitter during Daytona "offered a glimpse into the future of social media in NASCAR" or whether it was “just a fluke occurrence that allowed Keselowski to become a sudden Twitter sensation.” The answer may lie “somewhere in between.” Driver Carl Edwards said, "I am not going to jump on board the Twitter train, but I think that anything that gets the fans excited is good." He added, “If it gets the fans excited, if it's something they enjoy, then more power to the guys that are doing it. I think that is cool." Driver Denny Hamlin “doesn't see it becoming a trend.” Hamlin: "Where does it end? What do you do? Do you then text or Tweet during cautions and then you look up and run into the guy behind you? I don't know" (CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, 3/9).
