Speaking to Kevin Harvick on the ‘Happy Hour’ show, veteran NASCAR on FOX television play-by-play anchor Mike Joy says there is one thing preventing driver personalities from shining in the public spotlight.
“I think that maturing process is hindered by what is permanently attached to our pocket, and that’s the cellphone,” Joy said. “A lot of these younger drivers, and I’ll even put Larson and Bell into that category, their social skills have pretty much been determined by their cellphones. That’s their interaction with their peers, and people skills and media skills take a while to develop.
“And Christopher Bell’s a great example. He wasn’t even on our radar the first couple of years in Cup because he wasn’t out with the media, you know?
“His personality, his external personality, took a while to develop. And like I say, now, he’s a spokesman, he’s a leader in our sport. So is Kyle Larson. But these younger drivers, it’s really taking a while, maybe longer than it should, to bring it out of them and try to make them into stars. We have stars, we have great drivers in this series, and I guess it’s up to you and me and the people that will follow us this season, to make heroes out of them.”
The answer was spurned on by Harvick saying he believed the Cup Series has starts waiting to emerge in a big way.
“When I started, I remember going out to the media and drinking beer with the media, all the things we used to do and interactions, all that changed,” Harvick said.
And he blamed social media for how driver interactions with the public changed.
“The way the media works, those people don’t even come to the race track anymore,” Harvick said.
Joy said there are increasingly more outlets from other countries just doing click bait. Harvick added that the condensed weekend schedule has also made it more of a challenge for media and fans to interact with drivers and build larger than life personalities.
“It used to be in the 80s, 90s and early 2000s, there used to be local newspapers that would cover the sport and travel and go to every race and write their stories and columns,” Joy said. “For us regular media, I could go in the infield press room and grab Al Pearce or Mike Hembree, Mike Harris from the AP, and say ‘did you talk to this guy or get a quote from this guy, what’s going with that,’ and we’d trade story ideas.
“Not only do we not do that, Darlington closed its press box, they sold it as a suite, there was no press box and just an infield media center so you’re right,” Joy said. “There are less people generating stories. There is less time and less opportunity to get with the drivers. I was able to at Darlington, race day morning, saw a few drivers standing at their haulers and had a great chat with Todd Gilliland and Zane Smith, and found a few other people, but by in large, those opportunities to chat just don’t exist anymore.”
Harvick added that drivers are trying to figure out how to build their brands in this new climate.
“That self-motivation of wanting to build your brand is not because the drivers don’t want to, it’s because the drivers don’t know how,” Harvick said.
Joy’s possible solution?
“My first thing would be to energize the teams, the PR people, the sponsors to get out there and activate,” Joy responded.
