Over the last season, Twitter has exploded as a way for many racing personalities to deliver messages directly to both their fan base and the media. Saturday afternoon, Danica Patrick did just that.
"I am heading off to New York for an announcement about next years plans! I will be on GMA Monday morning!" twittered Patrick.
This left the question of whether or not NASCAR would be included in her announcement still unanswered. Good Morning America is on ABC. That network carries a handful of IRL races, including the Indy 500. Sister network ESPN also carries the entire NASCAR Nationwide Series schedule.
This is the series in which Patrick was reportedly seeking a part-time ride. Visits by Patrick to JR Motorsports, Stewart-Haas Racing and Michael Waltrip Racing were widely reported. Randy LaJoie offered on Twitter that his company, the Joie of Seating, had built and delivered a NASCAR racing seat for Patrick.
Minutes after Patrick offered her Twitter comments, a response came from Michael Waltrip. "And the 1st runner-up was?" asked Waltrip. This seems to suggest that Waltrip knows MWR is not going to host Patrick's NASCAR debut, but is curious about just who is.
USA Today's Nate Ryan followed with his Twitter comments. "My understanding: Only Indycar plans...NASCAR still not finalized/signed."
It was November 6th when ESPN the Magazine's Ryan McGee reported "Sources: Danica Near NASCAR Deal" on the ESPN.com website. Click on the headline to read the entire story. McGee suggested Patrick was on the verge of a two-year deal with JR Motorsports for select Nationwide Series races.
What made this story so interesting were the quotes from Dale Earnhardt Jr. directly. ""She's really serious about coming to NASCAR. A lot of people, I guess, thought that it was just a media hoax or her kind of blowing smoke," Earnhardt Jr. said. "She's really serious about it, and she's going to do it with somebody."
We look at things from a NASCAR TV and media perspective here at TDP. Patrick again is going to capture a significant audience on Monday. NASCAR fans are just looking for the first sign that she will be bringing her unique presence and personal brand to the sport.
Love her or hate her, Patrick knows how to work the media.
Comments on this post should be related to the TV issues in this story. To add your opinion, just click on the comments button below. This is a family-friendly website, please keep that in mind when posting. Thanks for stopping by.
33 comments:
Odd Platform for a racing announcement. If she does announce NASCAR plans, instead of a great follow up on Nascar Now, it will just be one line on the scroll at the bottom of whatever ESPN is playing.
Maybe we need an RPM 2night type show in the off season?
Agreed boyd. I thought she might try to catch one of the final Race Hub shows on SPEED this week.
Even for an IRL-only announcement, GMA is an odd program.
JD
Who is to say she won't be on Sportscenter or ESPN News later in the day though talking about it?
Remember when she won in Japan, that Monday morning she was on GMA, CNBC, CNN and ESPN2's First Take, just to name a few.
I wouldn't be surprised if she also mentioned she'll be shooting a couple new commercials soon for the Super Bowl.
Damon, usually the media herd gets a heads-up on that stuff in advance.
Looking more and more like IRL only at this point.
JD
No, no, you said that her being on GMA is odd to make an annoucement, which is fine, but I'm saying that she could also be on their to mention that she'll be taking part in another Super Bowl commerical.
Plus, just because she'll annouce it on GMA doesn't mean she won't be on other shows later in the day to talk about her plans, IRL only or Nascar related.
Also, Nate Ryan's tweet about this was telling: ...#nascar still not finalized/signed.
He could've easily said, IRL only, won't be doing Nascar in 2010, but said that the deal wasn't finalized/signed, which makes sense when you consider the talk/rumors that she was asked by Michael Andretti to wait until the IRL stuff got done (Andretti team restructing/waiting for her Motorola sponsor contract to run out/annouce new primary sponsor) first before she could finalize/sign the Nascar deal.
And just to add one more thing, on Terry Blount's Tuesday chat last week after Homestead, he mentioned how she would be in Las Vegas this coming up week, so stay tuned, this isn't over yet from a Nascar standpoint.
Well, we know the IRL contract is done, but if the Super Bowl was not on ABC it would not happen.
The Super Bowl's on CBS this year, but she could causally mention it.
be still, my heart! Danica is going to speak. I'lll be at work on Monday by the time GMA gets to that portion of the programming and I won't waste any digital space on Danica's news. I really hope she says she's got this great Indy gig and is going to STAY there.
I agree you guys that if she was coming to NASCAR making the announcement on Speed would make sense, but then again, ABC does carry the Indy races .
Makes no sense if it's NASCAR related & it does seem odd.
Then again if it helps IRL in the least, I hope the show goes well.
You know, I saw a body language expert last night say, if "you know" was used a lot during a brief interview, it shows vulnerability. Watch for DP to use that term on GMA. But lately she's tried to substitute "um". :-)
I believe it does demonstrate her media and crossover "power" and I suspect GMA has a bigger morning audience than any of the EESPN channels - and of course EESPN is part of the ABC complex.
I'm sick of the Danica mania. She has shrewly taken her driving skills and turned herself into a celebrity. If she races in NA$CAR, I expect we will be forced to watch a mid to back pack driver in everyh race she is in. We have experienced enough of that with Jr.in the cup series.
Either do it or don't do it and shut up.
I don't think she will be talking NASCAR. Has she even been in a stock car? If she has, it's been the best kept secret. We've already read about some F1 guys just messing around in them.
I think this is Danica's ploy of building excitement for herself. She is a brand you know. Since GMA is an ABC product as is BSPN, it's just their way to get people to tune in or record on DVR.
I'll read about it or Twitter.
Danica is becoming as bad as the gopher with media overkill. She will drive more people away than she will draw in because the media (especially TV) will focus only on her. Have you already forgot about nothing but Johnson?
JD, thanks for the info.
E-mail sux because there is no emotion. That part of it is bad. I am sincere in that.
I say that because I am interested that she will be on NATIONAL TV to tell us of her future, but seriously, does she deserve NATIONAL attention?
It's amazing to me that any racecar driver would use that platform to announce their future plans.
I can't imagine any NASCAR driver (or any popular racecar driver, other than her) going on a national morning show to announce anything.
I wish her the best, as I would anyone, but she is taking things a little to far. (imho)
I'm sure driving in the INDY CAR Series, as any professional series, is a tough gig, but why would you use a daily morning show "to announce your plans" unless you were just trying to pad your wallet?
To Glenn,
It's a SPONSOR generated announcement designed to get the most media coverage possible for the product.
I can't see her talking about Super Bowl commercials on an ABC show since the SB is being covered by CBS. Danica is very calculated with her "brand", so she can show up anywhere to make her "newsworthy" announcements.
Of course, her decisions will make the news, and since the morning shows have become nothing more than entertainment venues rather than hard news programs, it's not surprising no matter where she shows up. GMA, Today Show, CBS Morning are nothing more than electronic versions of People and US magazines. While most would think that an announcement from a sports figure is more suited to ESPN, Danica is not one for going the usual route. Her announcement will cause a few ripples, unless she says she's signed and sealed for JR Motorsports, the interest in this will be a very small blip. If she decides to stick only with IRL, and God knows why anyone would want to continue to go down with that ship, no one will really care.
@ Glenn, I'm with you.
I don't know what it is about Danica that just rubs me the wrong way. I just don't think she's all that.
I don't think she will do NASCAR. I think everyone has gotten into her head that she can't do both at the same time. And I think she has real concerns about the possibility of running in the NASCAR B-circuit and not being able to break the Top 25.
She has a great thing going in Indy, with plenty of money and a decent chance to win. Is there that much more money in NASCAR for her? Not enough to risk looking like a chump, I say.
Why GMA?? Millions of viewers vs maybe 100,000 on 1st week Dec. racing show!!
Nothing surprises me about Danica, but I can't imagine her making an announcement in regards to 2010 on GMA. I like her and think it's good for racing that she's in it. Guess we'll have to wait and see what it's all about.
She's looking for a big morning nat'l audience and I guess her PR thinks GMA is it. I won't be watching. Her driving and media prowess doesn't impress me at all, I don't care one whit whether or not she comes to NASCAR.
I think I have figured out why I don't like Danica. IMO she's more about the BRAND than she is about the racing and that's a problem for me. Say what you will about Michael Waltrip and his sponser shilling, his passion for racing is obvious I just don't see that passion in Danica. It may be there and probably is but it's buried in those godaddy commercials so if she decides to dig it up I might change my mind.
@osburnk -- laughing over the Freudian slip -- "shrewly"!
First, it should be mandatory that ALL drivers get at least 1 yr of experience in N'wide series before moving to Cup. Second, it drives me insane when anyone tries to make a statement by being a "female driver" or an "African-American driver." It doesn't matter where you come from or what gender you are, all I care about is that you're a "good driver." If you can qualify a car and race in a pack, the only thing that matters at that point is talent.
Race or dont race already, real fans just dont wanna hear the talk we're counting the SECONDS till the 24 hours in Jan
Also Jayski says its an ARCA announcement, maybe theyre going to debut the car and as someone else said, max TV coverage for the new sponsor (i got a dollar says GoDaddy)
Jayski didn't say it would be an ARCA announcement tomorrow, he wrote that he's hearing she's entered in the ARCA race at Daytona in February.
That was a mention from Mr. Starr on the Racing West forum. No added details.
JD, the fact no one has a huge leak on the story by now surprises me. Everyone seems to be reporting whispers....but I imagine someone will have a full scoop by sundown tonight.
Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving weekend by the way.
If the GoDaddy website was planning to have her, and she is on GMA instead, one can assume this is a GoDaddy/Danica announcement. Jayski reports she's entered for the ARCA race, so in turn wouldn't one just reason to guess this would be Danica putting about 8 or so races together with JRM and GoDaddy sponsoring those races? That's my guess. Details as of what races are probably going to be omited as will car number since JRM really has no idea exactly what their plans are. Eury Sr has said it could be a single full time car, single part time or two part time cars. They just don't know yet.
I find it interesting she has chosen GMA for it though. Maybe GoDaddy is expanding their involvement with Danica on both the IRL/NASCAR sides. GoDaddy car for the Indy 500...?
This is a huge red flag though to SPEED AND ESPN that there NEEDS to be a racing show, even it is only once a week, in the offseason no matter what! NFL Live runs year round, you get NBA and MLB updates from time to time, so why can't ESPN put together a weekly midweek edition of NN to recap what is going on during the offseason? SPEED too.
Confuses me how they do this since RPM used to run year round too.
GMA might get some great "casual" viewers but in terms of its relevance to "race people" if it is a major announcement of her plans with a team and all, it seems to be the wrong audience for such a presser.
David, a ride in ARCA or even the Nationwide Series does not get you on GMA in between hard news and Tiger Wood gossip.
Go Daddy does not get you on national TV unless they are going to talk about Super Bowl commercials.
There is no leak because nothing except open wheel stuff is going on.
Even GMA is mum.
The stars are aligning for Danica and Nascar and the clues are just too hard to ignore.
(1) The timing: first thing Monday morning of the Nascar Champions Week activities is not just coincidental, it's a PR person's dream come true. Now, for the next five days at least, an eternity on 24/7 news cycles, every time a Nascar related item is broadcast on any media, the question, "What about Danica?" will be raised . . . again and again and again.
(2) The setting: ABC's Good Morning America, owned by Disney, who also owns ESPN. Disney will pay Nascar close to a billion (with a B) dollars for the rights to broadcast roughly 275 Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Camping World Truck races through the end of their contract in 2014. With over 2000 hours of programming, equaling approximately 30,000 minutes of ad time, their investment potential is huge. Good Morning America is the #2 rated weekday morning show with an average audience of 4 million, and is the perfectly logical place for Disney to announce Danica's Nascar debut.
(3) Michael Waltrip's coy twitter about being a runner-up in the contest for Danica's services is almost a spoiler, given the fact that it was posted just minutes after Danica's. That also was not just coincidental.
(4) Randy LaJoie's Nascar driver's seat with Danica's name on it. Guess we'll find out tomorrow where it will be installed.
Welcome to Nascar Danica. Hope you enjoy the ride.
Danica and Nascar clue #5: It's all about the Benjamins.
Just read your note about Danica's scheduled appearances on Fox, owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. who also owns Speed. Another one of the big players in the Nascar TV contract trifecta other than Disney and Time Warner, who owns TNT and Sports Illustrated.
Two of the three media companies involved in the $4.48 billion contract with Nascar just happen to have Danica on their networks for her big announcement on Monday morning. Interesting.
People talk about Danica as a brand, well now she is Disney's, the News Corp. and Time Warner's hot, new item and they will do whatever it takes to make their product: Nascar TV programming, print and online content, have more value to their advertisers, who in turn will pay more for ads, which will earn them bigger returns.
Again, welcome to Nascar, Danica.
Damon, I appreciate Mr. Moody and used to contribute to his show on a regular basis.
He has a NASCAR blog that updates information he has offered on his show. That kind of information is his and should be kept there.
We are looking for reader opinions on Ms. Patrick and her TV activities, but I appreciate the info.
JD
Not sure how this works with Thanksgiving, but is Monday still part of November sweeps?
Post a Comment