At a press conference Friday outside the House of Blues in Chicago, NASCAR announced the launch of the inaugural interactive fan event: NASCAR Contenders Live. The event will allow fans to interact directly with the 12 Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup contenders at the House of Blues on Wednesday, Sept.12 at 1:30 p.m.
Present at the announcement of the launch were Joe Gibbs Racing driver of the No. 18 Toyota Camry Kyle Busch; Toyota National Manager Keith Dahl; NASCAR Senior Director Lou Garate; Chicagoland Speedway President Scott Paddock and 2012 Miss Sprint Cup Jaclyn Roney.
NASCAR Contenders Live signifies the start of the most competitive portion of the NASCAR season, the Chase for the Cup. The 12 contenders will interact onstage with NASCAR fans.
“I don’t think there’s anything off limits, any time you get questions from the fans, your subject to any topic, it’s always fun,” said Busch who’s known to interact well with fans, even the most hostile and negative sort.
The event will be the first time the top 12 drivers will be in one room at the same time answering fan questions. NCL will have the same spirit of accessibility to drivers and feedback that fans currently have through social media.
“Some {fans} are antagonizing, they want to see us make some smart remarks and what have you about what we’re going to do to one another, but that’s what makes the Sprint Cup so exciting,” he continued.
“I think social media is a huge part of our sport now. People my age, or even a little younger, say 18-24, it’s hard to get them to sit down for a couple hours and keep them interested in a race or what have you,” Busch said.
“But they follow a lot on Twitter whether they are out on the lake, or having fun with their friends out on the weekends- they always have the access through Twitter, so it’s kind of hard to stay away for too long.
Busch talked about how much Twitter and Facebook have played a role in the developed coverage of the sport.
“You just have the interaction part, being able to stay up and keeping information going to the fanbase and having them understand what we’re doing or where we’re going on a daily basis, the access point to NASCAR driver is much more in depth than any other sport figure there is out there.”
Busch took a break this year and gave up racing trucks and is only part-time on the Nationwide circuit.
Fans can visit NASCAR.com/ContendersLive to enter the “Contenders Live” Sweepstakes until August 30th at 3:00 p.m. ET.
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