NASCAR executive Tim Clark has responded to the calls he had for a Drive to Survive-like series for the championship after Formula 1 saw such huge success with the Netflix docuseries. While NASCAR has released something similar in Full Speed, available on the same streaming service, it hasn’t been able to mirror the success seen by F1, but has still managed huge growth after a $55million investment was made into original content.
Talking at the Autosport Business Exchange New York event ahead of the United States Grand Prix, Clark discussed the resources the series is investing in these projects.
“It’s funny, this group could probably quickly turn into a Drive to Survive support group,” he laughed. “The number of times I got phone calls that were, ‘Hey, have you thought about doing a Drive to Survive for NASCAR?’
“And I was like, ‘yeah, turns out all you do is call 1-800-Netflix and you’ll order it up and they’ll do it. I just hadn’t thought of it. I wish you’d have said something sooner.’
“So we have done, I would say we have invested a significant amount, I would say probably behind the competition, original content is the area of our business that we have focused on and invested in more over the last half-dozen years.
“Early last year we opened a $55million production facility in Concord, North Carolina, that was designed certainly for the live production element, but also for original content development. Around that same period of time we hired a gentleman by the name of John Dahl. John was at ESPN for a number of years and John and Connor Schell and Bill Simmons were kind of the three co-creators of the 30 for 30 series.
“We have done some work with Connor and his company Words and Pictures. I would say this year, we’re in probably the most successful year probably in NASCAR history from an original content standpoint.
“We had season 2 of Full Speed on Netflix, we had American Thunder, which was NASCAR to Le Mans on Amazon, and we also did the Earnhardt doc on Amazon, which was one of the top-performing sports docs that Amazon has had.
“I think for all of us, to a certain extent, you have got to tell stories that get people invested emotionally in the product they’re going to watch on track on Saturday or Sunday. ‘Helmet-off’ content’ – you’ve got to give people an emotional attachment to what has put them in a position to compete. I mean, all of these, for every form of motorsport up here, they’re the best at what they do.
“They’re the best athletes on the planet at what they do. What they do on Sunday or Saturday is extraordinarily compelling, that makes you want to know what they’re doing on Tuesday or on Thursday, and our ability to use content whether it’s original docs, whether it’s social media, or somewhere in the middle. That is key to how we’re going to evolve our product.”
Clark is NASCAR’s executive vice president and chief brand officer, a role he assumed in 2024 after a restructuring of the sanctioning body, and his quotes come as the championship aims to capture the immense success F1 is seeing thanks to a strong push into the US market.
Liberty Media’s acquisition of F1 in 2017 saw a total rebuild of how the brand is promoted in global markets. A push in social media coverage to a younger audience supported the symbolic opening of the paddock to the public through Drive to Survive, and this has paid dividends as the series continues to enjoy inflated viewership and revenue.
NASCAR: Full Speed was received positively by fans, with each season focusing on a single plot and very few drivers. In comparison to Drive to Survive, which jumped between teams, drivers, and races from episode to episode while exaggerating the drama of a season, the American series has leant on the real drama of the Playoffs.
Christopher Bell, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, Bubba Wallace, 23XI Racing Toyota, Tyler Reddick, 23XI Racing Toyota
Photo by: Sean Gardner / Getty Images
Where it failed, however, was in introducing the championship to new fans. While Drive to Survive explained the race in the most basic of terms, sometimes almost comically, NASCAR: Full Speed failed to lower the barriers to entry completely. And with just five episodes per season, there wasn’t enough for fans to really get their teeth into.
On its release, however, it managed to hit the top five most-viewed shows list in the United States and Canada, with it also reaching the top 10 most-viewed shows list in the United Kingdom. But with its second season released earlier this year, it still hasn’t gained the momentum of its open-wheeled competitor. With it being five seasons behind, though, there’s plenty of time for it to grow.
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