DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — The first prime-time Daytona 500 in NASCAR history was a win for Fox — its highest-rated Monday night audience since Game 5 of the 2010 World Series — with 36.5 million viewers, up 22 percent from 30 million last year.
And NASCAR surprisingly continued its momentum from last season, partly because of the freak crash in which Juan Pablo Montoya’s car hit a truck loaded with jet fuel, injuring no one but scorching the track and forcing a two-hour delay.
If there was any doubt NASCAR successfully reached a mainstream audience, sports talk radio personality Jim Rome dispelled it Tuesday afternoon when he said the race was more entertaining than any Monday night NFL game last season.
Rome was particularly fascinated by track workers using laundry detergent to clean up the fuel fire.
“Dudes needed to hit that track with some Tide, make it smell April-fresh,” Rome said on air. “We’re talking NASCAR, like it or not.”
Lost in all the nonracing story lines was a second Daytona 500 title for Matt Kenseth, who held off Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Roush Fenway Racing teammate Greg Biffle over a two-lap overtime finish. But it was driver Brad Keselowski who stole the spotlight — after he grabbed it with both thumbs.
Keselowski took social media to another level with his live tweeting during the fire, when he was able to tweet pictures, answer fans and entertain the drivers surrounding him with his phone as they waited on the backstretch during the red-flag delay. By the time the drivers got back into their cars, Keselowski’s followers had swollen from about 65,000 to more than 200,000. It earned Keselowski a prime spot Tuesday on CNN.com’s Tech page and had the sports world abuzz about NASCAR’s use of social media.
He downplayed his social media savvy after the race, which ended for Keselowski in a late accident that he tweeted about minutes after the crash. Asked how many followers he gained during the race, he said, “a lot, but you know, I’ll take the win first.”
Actually, it was a win for everyone in NASCAR.
