Faster. Louder. The weekly column on SPEEDtv.com by Jade Gurss. (Harold Hinson Photo)
There has been a lot of NASCAR media hoopla in recent weeks concerning team radio conversations – mostly between Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his cousin/crew chief Tony Eury Jr. and a curt conversation between Kurt Busch and Roger Penske during the race at Martinsville.
Busch was seemingly irritated or embarrassed that the conversation had made news, and said last weekend the radio communications should be private and not available to the media or the fans. His reasoning? “Because we can’t listen in to coaches or players in other major sports.” I think that’s a weak and false argument – and luckily NASCAR isn’t buying it. It was actually a mild conversation compared to some obscenity-laced outbursts I’ve previously heard from the elder Busch brother – other than facetiously calling Penske “dude.” And, the over-analysis of the duo of Juniors’ chatter is tedious: it has been the same since the two came into Cup together full-time in the year 2000.
Unlike other sports, NASCAR built its 60-year-old empire on the illusion of access to the drivers for the fans. We hear epic tales of Richard Petty staying hours after a race to sign autographs for everyone who wanted one. But those days are long gone, and the sport has grown so the drivers are increasingly isolated from the fans by necessity. So, how does NASCAR further the illusion of access? Even in an era of 24-hour media coverage, one of the key methods is by allowing fans and media to listen to a team’s radio communication on site or online.
At the race track, using a scanner to listen to a team or teams offers a fan much more enjoyment and understanding of the events as they unfold. A race is a constantly changing and fluid event, without pauses between plays for the fan to ‘catch up’ with the action. A race without a scanner is less engaging without knowing the strategies or conversations of your favorite drivers.
I learned first-hand the power of good chatter when, following Dale Jr’s first career Cup win at Texas in 2000, we began including the best and most entertaining of the radio traffic from each race into the Budweiser post-race media reports. A few years later, we began editing and posting the best of the race day chatter online in uncensored podcast form. With both efforts, the results and feedback were immediate: the fans like to have what they perceive to be “inside” information and certainly appreciate getting more insight about their driver than can be covered on the television broadcast or in a sterilized, publicist-generated post-race quote. It helped fulfill the goal of any publicist: to build a fan base that feels personally connected with their hero. That approach wouldn’t work with every driver: luckily, Dale Jr. just happens to be entertaining during a race whether he’s angry, motivated or bored.
