The Beat Report

This week we’re going to take a look at NASCAR’s short track troubles, excitement around The Double and some notes. But first, I’m going to be open about the conflict of using social media without enjoying it.

1) A Shift in the Balancing Act

What do journalists, YouTubers, TikTokers and Instagram models all have in common?

They’re all fighting for your attention on social media. And lately, at least for me, the juice hasn’t felt worth the squeeze.

Social media has been the great equalizer for many hoping to get their feet in the door of their favorite niche. A consistent presence on Twitter (now X) was what helped me gain the opportunity to cover races all across the United States. Others have made their mark in tech, fashion and cuisine. They’ve created documentaries, shared photography or hit it big with their humor.

In that sense, it has been a net positive for those that know how to play the game. Talented creators have been able to cast a wide net and build a support system that can keep them afloat in tough times and carry them on to greater opportunities. Take NASCAR journalist Jeff Gluck, for example – because of his success at building an audience on social media (namely Twitter), Gluck was able to leverage his followers, launch his own website and cover racing through a crowd-funded Patreon before transitioning to The Athletic.

At the time, most social mediums were focused on ‘following’ feeds with a reverse-chronological order. You would enter a platform with a blank slate, follow who you’d like and only see their posts in the order they’d shared them (along with advertisements, of course). This established a sense of community on the platforms and allowed users to curate their own feeds.

Over time, that model has shifted. Fueled primarily by the success of TikTok and its attention-sucking “For You” page, platforms have altered their focus from creators to consumers. Each platform now leads with an algorithmic feed (though most retain an option to see a following feed with a little effort). They focus more on virality than timeliness and emphasize content that will keep users scrolling for as long as possible.

This urge to maximize time spent on the platform has led each to emphasize video at the expense of text, audio and photography. It also means posts that link to outside sources – say, a blog post – are typically down-ranked by the algorithm. Those that create outside of any given platform have had to get creative to encourage their supporters to view the content elsewhere, or pay the platforms for the privilege of reaching a few more eyeballs.

Platforms have swelled with different options to create and consume. Instagram once had a simple feed of pictures. It’s now filled with all manner of content and arguably the least relevant of the platform’s options, behind Reels and Stories. TikTok is reportedly planning an Instagram-like “TikTok Notes” platform. YouTube is emphasizing “Shorts,” its own short-form option.

Just as the platforms have learned how to maximize engagement, creators have learned how to game the systems. Most emphasize one platform while leveraging their followers to others – or things like merchandise shops where they can actually make money. Rage bait, pornography and hate speech fill every platform. Look under any post on X with traction and you’ll see at least one reply stating “Pussy In Bio.”

Political grifters are using the platforms as an opportunity to polarize their audience and build staunch support they can leverage financially. Rival countries are working to add to that polarization with misinformation to steer sentiments and elections toward people and causes they prefer. The platforms themselves are taking as much data as possible to curate focused advertising, while also steadily increasing the level of advertisement.

There’s also the erosion of trustworthiness with the pay-to-play authentication system. The bots. The diminishing moderation. The platforming of unscrupulous figures. The general enshittification.

Social media isn’t all bad, of course. These platforms can still be life-changing for those in minority groups or enthusiasts of niche hobbies. Finding others going through similar experiences can be life-affirming. It also remains the quickest way to access live news and best option to discuss live sports. That’s what makes staying on them so intriguing as someone writing about motorsports – it’s both niche and a live sport.

But over time, as the platforms have shifted from community focus to complete consumerism, the value of remaining on the platforms has diminished – at least for me. It takes twice as much effort to delve through the mud in order to see the things I want. That makes following series, journalists and outlets tricky, both as a reporter and a fan. Meanwhile the things I post are reaching fewer people because the companies don’t want me to lead my audience off their platform to this website – unless I pay extra for them to see it, at least.

I imagine many people are still enjoying social media. But given the diminishing returns to anyone not wanting to be a serious content creator, I’m finding myself shifting away from the platforms and toward trying to curate my own smaller, racing-centric community.

It’s why you’re likely seeing less of me and others online. But I hope the times you do see me will be of a higher quality because of it.

2) NASCAR’s short track troubles require true efforts for a solution

Two years ago William Byron won an awful Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway that proved NASCAR had work to do to make the Next Gen car competitive on short tracks.

On Sunday, Byron did it again. Another spring Martinsville win. Another subpar race.

The difference between then and now is the patience we all have for things to improve.

When the Next Gen car didn’t immediately deliver positive results on flat, short tracks, it was understandable. This was a new car and had shown promising signs elsewhere – namely on intermediates, the main circuits of NASCAR’s modern era. The pros largely outweighed the cons.

But over the past two years, the disappointment has turned bitter. Hope has slowly been replaced with dejected pessimism. Calls for patience have turned to pleas for urgency.

Here’s the thing – they’re right.

NASCAR knows the current package isn’t delivering on short tracks. It’s made tweaks along the way to try to fix it, too. Aerodynamic changes. Body adjustments. Tire changes.  But nothing has worked to this point, at least not significantly.

As a result, short tracks known for action-packed races have become good for three-hour naps. Martinsville’s spring race wasn’t always the most dramatic, but the facility consistently delivered contact, action and close racing. The only memorable thing to happen Sunday was Hendrick Motorsports winning as it celebrated its 40th anniversary.

That NASCAR’s bread-and-butter tracks are still failing to deliver quality racing three years into the Next Gen era should be a major concern. An all-hands-on-deck situation. No potential solution should be considered too outlandish to at least consider. Yes, that includes adding horsepower.

Don’t get me wrong, I know NASCAR has an impossible task here. A one-size-fits-all car was never going to be perfect at all tracks. And the level of action fans desire might be impossible to provide given what teams know about aerodynamics in the modern era.

But short tracks are the soul of America motorsport. They’re the breeding ground of drivers, teams and fans across the country.

NASCAR needs to compete at them and do it well. Soon.

3) The Greatest Day in Racing is a greater with a double-duty driver

I hoped that I would be writing this column with the sound of Indy cars echoing around Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the background. Unfortunately, Mother Nature had other ideas, but that hasn’t dulled the excitement that comes with this year’s Greatest Spectacle in Racing.

The Indianapolis 500 is always special. There’s no other event like it in all of motorsport. But it’s even more exciting when there’s a special entrant in the field – particularly when it involves them running ‘The Double,’ when they compete in both Indy and NASCAR’s Coca-Cola 600 on the same day.

NASCAR Cup Series champion and general racing prodigy Kyle Larson is giving the feat a go this year. He’ll attempt to make his Indy 500 debut in an Arrow McLaren-Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet next month before flying to Charlotte to contest an additional 600 miles of racing in a NASCAR stock car.

Having already cleared the Rookie Orientation Program, Larson was free to run with the IndyCar regulars in Wednesday’s open testing at the Brickyard. The Californian set the second-quickest time of the day, trailing only defending winner Josef Newgarden.

“It felt good,” he said of the day. “Just good to get laps and get in some traffic, and to visually see what that looked like, to feel the runs and the dirty air a little bit. I feel like I learned quite a bit there and still have a lot to learn. It’s been a good morning so far.

“By yourself, (the car) has a lot of grip. In traffic, it was good. The first time I got in traffic, the balance felt normal. I didn’t feel like I went into a big transition from clean air to dirty air, but the last time, I was super tight. It was good to experience to feel what that felt like.

“The packs I’ve been in have only had two or three cars, but it’ll be way different when the field is out there. I’ve just got to keep getting laps, and as the packs keep getting bigger, I think I’ll learn a lot more.”

Should he be successful, Larson will be the fifth driver to participate in The Double. John Andretti was the first to give it a try it in 1994. Tony Stewart and Robby Gordon each attempted it multiple times from 1999 through 2004, with Stewart becoming the only one to complete all 1,100 miles in 2001. Kurt Busch was the most recent driver to attempt the feat in 2014.

In the years since there have been intriguing storylines. Formula 1 star Fernando Alonso flew across the pond for a shock Indy run in 2017, failed to qualify in 2019 and gave it one final go in 2020. Ex-F1 driver Alexander Rossi surprised the field to win the race’s 100th running on a fuel strategy play in 2016. Helio Castroneves tied the all-time Indy 500 win record with his fourth triumph in 2021. Dirt track ace Bryan Clauson pulled off a ‘Hoosier Double,’ running Indy and winning a sprint car race up the road at Kokomo Speedway on the same day in 2016.

 

Those stories were all fun. But there’s just something special about a driver attempting The Double. It’s a rare showcase of talent, endurance and passion that links together two of the year’s biggest races with a unique, entertaining thread.

It’s good to have that story back for the first time in a decade.

Notes

  • After all the short track discourse of recent weeks, NASCAR is off to… Texas Motor Speedway. One of the least-liked tracks since its 2017 reconfiguration. Given Denny Hamlin’s recent criticism of Speedway Motorsports’ moves (and alleged low spending) under the leadership of Marcus Smith, a bad race weekend at the track could stir up some trouble. The Next Gen car generally excels on intermediates, though, so maybe the weekend will go off without a hitch.

  • Formula E was set to have a support series for the first time since 2020 starting at this weekend’s Misano E-Prix. But the planned NXT Gen Cup series has been called off at the eleventh hour. It’s a shame to see, given that the tour would have provided young drivers (aged 15-25) an avenue into electric motorsport.
  • There’ve been a few NASCAR figures giving credit to YouTuber Eric Estepp this week. It’s been wonderful to see. Estepp deserves to get his flowers, because he’s one of the best examples of the new types of valuable, independent content that can be made in the current era. Here’s an example from today:

That’s it for this week. See you next Wednesday. 

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(Top photo credit: Nigel Kinrade Photography)

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Kyle Larson Martinsville Speedway