Before diving into my thoughts on the weekend, I have to give it up for Pocono Raceway’s great fan base. I had the honor of meeting many of you this weekend and on behalf of everyone at Pocono, thank you for allowing us to do what we do here. Without your support and loyalty, we wouldn’t be doing this twice a year! Also, a very special welcome to the nearly 1,300 new Facebook followers and over 750 new Twitter followers from this weekend! Welcome to the Pocono Posse, the name (voted on by our fans), for our social network followers!
Speaking of Twitter, here’s an incredible number for those socially connected…our Twitter handle, @poconoraceway, was mentioned over 1,400 times in course of 24 hours (Saturday through Sunday). To put that into perspective, I asked the folks who handle Miss Sprint Cup’s twitter handle, @MissSprintCup, and the most single-day mentions of their handle they remember was around 500. Thank you to those who follow us and for the mentions this weekend!
Personally, this week/weekend was a time of “first” experiences. On Tuesday, I threw out the first pitch at the Trenton Thunder (AA Affiliates of the New York Yankees) in Trenton, NJ. On Thursday, I took a trip with Ryan Newman to the Lehigh Valley Sporting Clays (Allentown, PA) and to the Luzerne County SPCA (Wilkes-Barre, PA). It was my first trip in a helicopter, my first time shooting a shotgun and my first time visiting the SPCA. Then Sunday, it was my first time hosting two social events! On Sunday, we had a great turnout for both our Scavenger Hunt and Tweet Up! Nearly 100 of you took time out on race day to join us for those events!
The Scavenger Hunt concluded with 20 lucky people who received ticket upgrades to the 5-hour ENERGY® 500 for being the first to complete the Scavenger Hunt. A special thanks to Team Chevy, Miss Sprint Cup, National Guard, Pepsi Max, 5-hour ENERGY®, Stock Car Racing Experience, Jeff Burton & the No. 31 Caterpillar Team and Clint Bowyer & the No. 33 Cheerios/Hamburger Helper team for helping make our first Scavenger Hunt a success! A big shout out to our interns, Donnie & Phil (read their blog, Rookie Stripes) for doing an awesome job organizing and planning this event! Also, thanks to those who attended the Tweet Up, where we gave away driver autographed merchandise, Team Chevy prize packs, NASCAR 2011: The Game and tickets to the 2011 Pennsylvania 500! We are already working on making both of these events bigger and better for August!
On Sunday afternoon, as I was sitting in Victory Circle watching Jeff Gordon and his team celebrating their second victory of the season, I had to take a minute to myself to take it all in. Pocono Raceway was the first place I ever saw a race as a child. It was also the place where I started my NASCAR career in 2006. Following the two races at Pocono in ’06, I was hired at Performance PR Plus, an agency that handles the DuPont Motorsports account, including the public relations for Gordon. It really put things into perspective because my career has come full circle. My “first” Victory Lane experience occurred with Gordon and DuPont in 2007 at Darlington. And then, on Sunday, my “first” track Victory celebration occurs with the first driver/sponsor I worked for, at the first track I was ever employed. Simply…amazing!
Thanks again to all “The Tricky Triangle” fans! My first experience on the track-side of NASCAR was awesome! I can’t wait to do it all over again in six weeks!
See you in August!
-Kevin H.
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