Dale Earnhardt Crash Investigation

A Tuckahoe Strategies’

Case Study

June, 2015

➢ On February 18, 2001, NASCAR lost its biggest star, Dale Earnhardt, in the big biggest race of the year, the Daytona 500, in front of its largest television audience on FOX Sports.

➢ NASCAR, a family-owned business founded in 1947, had grown leaps and bounds in recent years but was unprepared to handle the crisis. At the time of his death, Earnhardt was the fourth NASCAR driver killed in an 18 month span and the media had taken notice.

➢ NASCAR was widely criticized for not doing enough to improve safety. NASCAR was in a vulnerable position at a crucial time in the sports progress; it needed to take immediate action.

➢ NASCAR hired Ramsey Poston, then an executive at Powell Tate, to help the sport communicate about safety issues and to rebuild credibility among its fans and media.

Background

www.TuckahoeStrategies.com @TuckahoeStrat

Challenges

➢ Four NASCAR drivers were killed between May, 200o and February 2001 when Earnhardt lost his life at Daytona

➢ NASCAR had just signed its first major network television deal with FOX Sports and NBC exposing the sport to millions of new fans

➢ The media and others had grown impatient and were demanding answers

➢ The sport was not used to accustomed to responding to critical media requests

www.TuckahoeStrategies.com @TuckahoeStrat

Strategy

Mr. Poston worked with NASCAR to develop a strategy creating opportunities to better frame issues and take control of the message. He established a “rapid response” system to help ensure that all media requests were considered and met with clear, concise and consistent messages.

This plan did the following:

• Used communications opportunities to allow NASCAR to gain the high ground and aggressively position the company as a leader in safety

• Repaired and rebuilt NASCAR’s reputation with key audiences by reminding them of NASCAR’s historic commitment to driver safety

• Utilized short-term opportunities to deliver key NASCAR messages to influential media and non-traditional racing media

www.TuckahoeStrategies.com @TuckahoeStrat

Results

The Return to Daytona –

➢ Mr. Poston creatively used NASCAR’s return to Daytona for its traditional Fourth of July race to change the narrative about safety.

The race, the Pepsi 400, marked the first time drivers, media and fans would return to the track where Earnhardt died. Working with

NASCAR and its communications team, Mr. Poston developed a plan to use the inevitable media discussion of Earnhardt’s death into

an opportunity to aggressively discuss the organization’s safety record and leadership.

○ Mr. Poston worked with NASCAR to redirect the focus of coverage to the positive and aggressive safety steps the sport was

taking to protect the drivers, crews and spectators.

○ Mr. Poston scheduled national television interviews with NASCAR chairman Bill France, Jr. and President Mike Helton to

address all issues head on.

○ The interviews served as the dominant news pieces for the week and were supported by a number of additional interviews by

NASCAR executives with local and national outlets.

www.TuckahoeStrategies.com @TuckahoeStrat

Results

Release of the Official Accident Report –

➢ NASCAR conducted an exhaustive six month investigation by experts, scientists and bio-mechanical

engineers to better understand what happened and why.

➢ Mr. Poston developed a national media event in Atlanta, Ga on behalf of NASCAR to present the findings

of the Accident Report.

➢ As part of the strategy, Mr. Poston worked with NASCAR to also present a number of new safety steps the

sport would take to better protect the drivers.

○ Mr. Poston’s role included training presenters, coordination of the media strategy including

coverage of the event and pre-and post-presentation interviews, development of all press

materials and fact sheets and assembly and printing of the 300 page report. The presentation,

held in Atlanta, GA, was covered by hundreds of media outlets and led the news on most

networks.

www.TuckahoeStrategies.com @TuckahoeStrat

Conclusion

➢ NASCAR emerged from the release of the Earnhardt report with improved credibility

with some of its toughest critics. Not only did NASCAR educate the nation about the

complex factors involved in a high impact collision, it did so in a complete and

comprehensive manner that was applauded by many.

➢ The Earnhardt announcement represented the first step for the organization on a road

to repairing its credibility and reputation as an industry leader in safety.

➢ This was best exemplified in a story that ran in USA Today summarized on the next

slide

www.TuckahoeStrategies.com @TuckahoeStrat

NEWS CONFERENCE TO HELP NASCAR CREATE NEW IMAGE

Wednesday, August 22, 2001

Rudy Martzke, USA Today

Sometimes it takes dark days for a sport to come out of the dark ages. Such was the case for NASCAR in Tuesday’s news conference on the Dale Earnhardt investigation televised by CNN/SI, ESPNews, ESPN2 and Fox Sports Net.

Experts James Raddin Jr. and Dean L. Sicking were credible, albeit somewhat long-winded, in their 1-hour, 20-minute explanations of the crash and how death occurred as a result of blunt force injuries to the head. And they offered suggestions as to how safety could be improved.

The scene was in stark contrast to NASCAR’s long-standing image of avoiding negative issues, an image that had to be changed now that the stock car circuit has powered into the mainstream of U.S. sports with TV ratings on Fox/FX and NBC/TNT second only to the NFL.

“I think they did an outstanding job,” said NBC pre-race show host Bill Weber, who himself had grilled [NASCAR President Mike] Helton on safety questions. “I feel the explanations they delivered should answer any questions. Earnhardt made the sport so popular in life. Now he’s the guy to make it safer in death.”

www.TuckahoeStrategies.com @TuckahoeStrat