NASCAR, IndyCar Quickly Begin Courting Fernando Alonso

NASCAR and IndyCar have been engaging with soon-to-be-former F1 driver Fernando Alonso on social media since his announcement on Tuesday, as both used their feeds to playfully try to convince Alonso to race in their series. While IndyCar is seen as his most likely destination, NASCAR struck first with a graphic that looks like an invitation and shows Alonso plus the date of next year’s Daytona 500. Alonso responded with a GIF of Jack Nicholson nodding wildly. Meanwhile, the official IndyCar feed on Wednesday showed highlights of Alonso’s run in the ’17 Indy 500, and the driver responded with another comical GIF of an animal raising his eyebrows. NASCAR’s invitation was picked up by several media outlets in European countries. IndyCar also sent a tweet to Alonso the day before his announcement, jokingly asking if they were “still on for lunch tomorrow.” That tweet garnered 435 retweets and more than 1,500 likes.