Fire on Fridays: An Open Letter to NASCAR Teams’ Public Relations

Dear hard workers of the NASCAR public relations community,

I want to clear the air about us at Frontstretch.

Over the last couple of years, in my travels to NASCAR race weekends, I’ve gotten to know many of you and vice versa. Around 95% of the time, interactions are positive and professional. It can range from scheduling a driver for an interview, grabbing background for a story idea or simply saying hello and catching up in the NASCAR garage in between practice sessions. I like those interactions. For those of you who have worked with me and know me, I genuinely appreciate the hard work you put into every weekend and helping us in telling your story.

In my public relations courses in college, I always learned the No. 1 rule of the PR/media relationship is for it to be just that: a relationship. Public relations and communications teams’ job isn’t to push away media coverage, but to act as a bridge between the team and the reporter. In exchange, the media can’t be treated like the enemy. After all, they are a gateway to a bigger audience and, more often than not, just want to tell a good story that grows your driver’s fan base.

So, what’s the problem? The other 5% of interactions.

Now, don’t get me wrong — 5% is pretty rare. However, there have been times when I have been confronted about something that might be on Frontstretch and have been told to “show some professionalism” over a column a PR person simply doesn’t agree with. Commentary from the media turns to criticism, which then turns to retribution from PR toward anyone from that media outlet.

With that, I want to make something clear; not everyone at Frontstretch has the same opinion, and not everyone is going to agree with yours.

We are a big website with over 50 employees spanning across multiple racing disciplines and media backgrounds. The words of one person do not represent the entire website.

That said, those people are still entitled to their own opinions, and it really shouldn’t come as a surprise when it’s not always in your favor. To think that everyone is going to only write good things about your organization, especially in an opinion-based column like this one, is not only preposterous but also naive. That’s especially the case when those opinions are well-founded and legitimate arguments. There isn’t a race team on the planet that hasn’t had a rough weekend.

In one specific instance, I was confronted by someone from a NASCAR Cup Series team asking about a column that wasn’t written by me and saying it was “bullshit clickbait.” In this same interaction, the person compared Frontstretch to AI-generated slop websites and was even told they were considering cutting off anyone from Frontstretch in gathering any future interviews.

Whoa. OK.

I was taken aback further when I read this supposed clickbait article, only to find it wasn’t clickbait at all but rather a real, in-depth discussion about an event that took place on the track the weekend before. It wasn’t even negative, making me wonder if this person even read the article at all.

And that’s the problem. It seems nowadays people are so caught up in headlines they are not actually looking into the body of the column itself. If they did, they’d realize that, most of the time, we try to paint each side of the argument. That’s what good journalism does.

I won’t act as if we get it right all the time. There have definitely been times when I’ll see a headline of ours that will make me wince. There have been others where we’ll get a less-than-happy phone call or an email asking for clarification or to discuss a piece of content we publish.

And we appreciate those who do that. It offers us a chance to have a dialogue and build a relationship with you. Also, it allows Frontstretch to better ourselves. It’s how the relationship with the media and PR used to be.

What we don’t like is being shut out entirely.

If you take every article with a negative-sounding headline so personally that you want to ban the outlet from any content gathering, you might as well shut out every single reporter in the media center from ever talking to you and your drivers ever again. And yes, that includes the very highly respected Bob Pockrass, who shares his own opinions from time to time.

Good luck with that approach. I’m sure your fans and sponsors will be very happy not seeing any stories about your team being released.

But that feeling of paranoia isn’t necessary. At the end of the day, we’re all on the same side of the coin. People covering this sport want race teams and their drivers to succeed. We want to tell those stories. A rising tide lifts all ships, and NASCAR as a whole needs those drivers and team personalities to be introduced to a wider swath of fans.

We like working in this sport. We don’t want to see it suffer.

But we’re not going to lie, either. That’s not fair to the readers or the fans. If Frontstretch only sat around writing about how good everything is, that’s not the definition of journalism.

It also wouldn’t be the type of reporting that can lead to positive change for the sport.

Imagine if nobody had written anything critical about the previous playoff format or the 550-horsepower package. Chances are we’d still have the Gen-6 car with the same playoff format and the same low-horsepower monotony, which would remain unpopular with many fans.

It also builds trust that when we do say good things, we’re being sincere. When I said on the Frontstretch Happy Hour podcast Tuesday (June 23) that the Naval Base Coronado race this past weekend was a success, you know I genuinely believe that.

Just like how you know I sincerely want us to work together better and show that we’re not attempting to be clickbait.

So, make those 95% of interactions 100%. Help us tell your story and don’t think every opinion, every column needs to be controlled by you.

Sincerely, Dalton Hopkins