What is a racing fan going to do with an English degree? Well, recently I was able to land a casual writing gig for Frontstretch, one of the leading motorsports reporting sites. They focus on Indycar, Formula One, and other series but primarily focus on NASCAR, which is my main passion. As an English major and Professional Writing minor that is also a racing fan, it was right up my alley. I already make racing content on Youtube and Instagram so might as well contribute to something with it. It is an entirely volunteer organization all the way up to the senior staff so it essentially functions as an internship to build experience and add to my resume. Regardless I have been grateful for the opportunity and I plan to use this to build a foundation that can allow me to be closer to the sport I love.
The Process
While searching for websites that were offering jobs for an assignment in my ‘Careers in Writing class’ at KSU I discovered Frontstretch’s contributor position. I decided to try and go for it because literally why not. For the contributor role, I had to audition. It was not a very serious pitch but it did consist of professional and well-written dummy articles. As someone with an interest in the news writing field, I have very little experience in it and it was eye-opening to research and get a feel for hard news writing vs. opinion pieces and practice staying on topic. The requirements were to write a short hard-news article, a long-form opinion piece, and a piece completely unrelated to racing. For the first article I wrote about the 2021 champion Kyle Larson’s disqualification from the NASCAR playoffs in 2022 and in the second I pitched Charlotte Motor Speedway, the best race track on the schedule in my opinion to be the location for the championship finale event. For the final piece, I analyzed one of my favorite vaporwave albums that I hold close to my heart. It was a fun exercise and now I’ll glad I can put my efforts toward something that will be seen.
The Role
As of the time I originally wrote this post, I had not yet started working due to scheduling difficulties. When it was decided I was a good fit I was in the middle of transferring day jobs so it was a scheduling mess and I was changed from a Tuesday to a Monday contributor, prolonging it more. Either way, I was excited to start. I first wrote a practice article and I got many pointers that helped me, mostly when it comes to abbreviation and elaboration. I think it’s a tricky balance between saying a lot to make details clear and keeping it concise to keep readers from becoming disinterested. So far the insight I have gained has been helpful and I hope to learn a lot. As a Monday contributor, I most prominently focus on post-race news, penalties, and starting lineups, a seemingly insignificant role that is actually very important in this age of NASCAR with the ‘Generation 7’ car. It’s very similar to a GT car, featuring handling and engineering that are meant to attract drivers from other disciplines such as Kimi Räikkönen and Travis Pastrana who have already made NASCAR Cup Series starts. The position has also given me the potential to contact and work with different people in the industry such as video editors, social media contributors, reporters, and more. In the end, it will be nice to work with like-minded people who are as passionate about the sport as I am. I have friends that enjoy NASCAR and many who are willing to experience it and give it a try but it’s not something you often find fans of. We’re few and far between these days, especially among my generation, but of the few that hang onto it, we are a passionate and fiery bunch. As of the time I edit this post currently, I have written one article. It’s nothing flashy, just a report on a Talladega entry list, but it’s a start.
Click here to view the article.
