What will happen to the Miss Sprint Cup social media accounts?
The social media accounts for Miss Sprint Cup changed their bios for the final time on Tuesday.
“Miss Sprint Cup brought you behind the scenes of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series from 2007–2016,” the profiles now read. “Thank you to all the fans who came along for the ride!”
The change follows a goodbye message from the accounts on Sunday: An image of Miss Sprint Cup Julianna White and Madison Martin holding their shoes after the NASCAR Awards Ceremony in Las Vegas, accompanied by the caption: “Thanks for the amazing memories, everyone! What a wonderful ride it has been! — Miss Sprint Cup.”
Miss Sprint Cup’s social media pages have nearly 1.3 million likes on Facebook, 136,000 followers on Twitter and 75,000 followers on Instagram.
But with Monster Energy taking over sponsorship of NASCAR’s Cup Series next season, the Miss Sprint Cup program is no more. So what happens to the accounts?
Kimberly Meesters, Sprint’s general manager for its NASCAR sponsorship, told USA TODAY Sports it was an “interesting quandary” not many companies have faced in the social media age. It’s not as simple as just taking down billboards or signs.
Sprint found that Facebook lets users merge accounts, so the company will merge its Miss Sprint Cup page with the Sprint corporate page, but likely not until February.
“We want fans to have time to read the farewell message and react to it,” Meesters said.
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But Twitter, Instagram and YouTube don’t have that option. So after much discussion, Sprint decided to leave them as a history of its sponsorship. Meesters said the accounts will remain online unless the respective social media companies choose to close them for inactivity.
“There’s a really great history of the sport in there and great content,” she said. “So if fans want to reflect on it, why not let them?”
Sprint explored whether NASCAR wanted the accounts, but the high amount of crossover made that unnecessary. The vast majority of fans who followed @MissSprintCup already follow @NASCAR.
The catch is Sprint can no longer post new content, which is why a goodbye message was necessary. Meesters said Sprint’s NASCAR rights go away Jan. 1.
At that point, she said, “We can’t talk about NASCAR Sprint Cup or continue to promote the company’s affiliation with NASCAR.”
Fans responded to the final messages, including a graphic that listed the years of Miss Sprint Cup’s reign, and reacted with some heartfelt comments.
“Thank You for treating us FANS so good!” a user named Mindy Phillips posted on Facebook. “For all the long trips away from home, friends, and family! The dedication y'all had was amazing!”
“Thanks to both of you for setting such a classy example and representing our great sport,” Raed Battah wrote on Facebook. “We're going to miss you but never forget you.”
Meesters said she thought Miss Sprint Cup’s social media presence made a positive impact because Sprint used that position as an authentic brand ambassador who tried to be the “fans’ friend on the inside.”
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