Top NASCAR journalist Jenna Fryer is out at AP [Associated Press] and that could be very bad news for the sport.
Fryer revealed in the last 24 hours that she has left the world-famous wire service after 30 years of covering motorsport, and told the story behind her exit on her newly-created Substack account.
Per Sports Business Journal, the reasons she gave for no longer being with AP have worrying implications for NASCAR and its ability to cut through in media on a national level.
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AP 'scaling back motorsports coverage' - Fryer
We already know that fighting against the NFL for eyeballs on Sunday afternoons is not a battle NASCAR is going to easily win. But if the nation’s biggest news agency no longer wishes to ‘cover motorsport like it once did’, the challenge is even bigger than we thought.
That is essentially the message Fryer passed on to her subscribers as she wrote that AP was “scaling back its coverage of motorsports - which is happening whether I stayed or not,” adding that it is “not good for motorsports.”
We have to agree with Jenna, who says she exited after volunteering for a company buyout. The fight for coverage for any sport not named the NFL is getting harder by the day. And for some sports - and we include NASCAR in this group - it is incredibly difficult.
If Fryer is correct with her take on AP’s stance on scaling back motorsport coverage, that essentially means AP’s clients - national and local publishers alike - are likely telling AP that motorsport should be scaled back.
This all means less widespread coverage of the sport, and it means the coverage becomes more niche. That does not mean lacking in quality, but it does mean it will go more underground and likely find its way in front of fewer eyeballs. This is bad news of course for the NASCAR brass in Charlotte.
One step forward, two steps back for NASCAR?
There have been genuine steps forward in the last few months as NASCAR looks to spread its message in a more efficient way. It can thank the likes of new sensation Carson Hocevar for that of course, nothing wins like genuine personality.
But what Jenna is telling us is that the storylines people like Hocevar deliver, will now have a much smaller chance of cutting through on a national level. For that reason we should all be concerned.
We wish Fryer well in her new venture - she says: “I will try to use this space and post the kind of content I collect in my head but it never made it to the AP wire.”
In 2026 niche sports like NASCAR are no longer truly mainstream, and they will likely never be mainstream again. Welcome to the underground.
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