NASCAR VP & Chief Communications Officer BRETT JEWKES during this weekend's Daytona 500 festivities "will be behind the scenes ready to respond quickly and openly to any potential controversies or celebrations that arise," according to Joseph Person of the CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, who profiles Jewkes under the header, "NASCAR's Invisible Man." Jewkes said, "People don’t want to hear from a PR guy, especially on a competition matter. They want to hear from the officials. They want to hear from the guys that do it. The more invisible the (communications) group can be, the better job we’re doing." Person writes Jewkes by all accounts has "done a good job making drivers and officials more accessible since he was hired three years ago to lead the newly created Integrated Marketing Communications department." When he arrived in '11, Jewkes said there were "people in the industry saying, ‘I’m never doing that Twitter thing.'" But Person notes by the following year, driver BRAD KESELOWSKI "was tweeting from his No. 2 car during a stoppage at the Daytona 500 as jet fuel burned on the track." NASCAR President MIKE HELTON said that Jewkes has helped NASCAR "get more in sync and engaged with its drivers, sponsors and fans, as well as reporters who cover the sport." Helton: "What Brett has developed inside NASCAR and reminds us routinely is that being more accessible and going ahead and putting the facts out sooner rather than later is part of our responsibility." Jewkes said that some of the "old-school members of the NASCAR community were skeptical at first, but, as Keselowski alluded to last week, most have embraced the change" (CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, 2/20).
