NASCAR on Twitter: Follow guilty pleasure at own risk

Editor's note: Some of the subject material is of a mature nature.

They tell you what they're having for dinner, some give you the weather report and, if you're interested enough, you can become privy to their bathroom habits.

Oh, to be so lucky.

We're talking about NASCAR drivers on Twitter. It's a fairly new guilty pleasure, or privilege, depending on who you ask, for NASCAR fans craving tiny tidbits of information about their favorite wheelman throughout the day, minute by minute.

Powered by people around the world, Twitter's social-networking site is an outlet for any and every kind of information to be shared with high-speed immediacy, whether it is useful or useless; although, when it comes to NASCAR, the intention is to share a slice of life with the fan base.

Twitter is for sharing "what's happening now" yes, but in some cases what's happening now -- at that very moment -- definitely should be kept to one's self. In other words, share the slice of life -- but do not share the whole freaking pie!

Case in point: I could've gone the rest of my life without knowing the personal details of what goes on in Michael Waltrip's pants in the morning or what Scott Speed likes to do in the shower to amuse himself.

That said, thousands of others can't wait to know these and other explicit details about drivers, proof of the enormous number of followers both Waltrip and Speed have on their Twitter pages.

A recent spin through Twitterville inspired me to take a pulse of NASCAR's social-networking culture and the emerging debate surrounding the good, the bad and the ugly of Twitter.

Some drivers, such as Elliott Sadler, feel if you don't like what you see, change the channel, just like your TV at home. More or less, these drivers are letting you peek into their windows, but don't complain about what your eyes might find.

Kyle Busch, a driver with a family brand on the hood of his race car, feels he should be more responsible, with which I agree; last time I checked the brochure, NASCAR still is a family sport.

"For me, I've been a little more thoughtful about it. If it came down to it, I don't know that I would tweet about 'morning wood', but talking about peeing in the shower is kind of funny," said Busch, citing examples of past tweets that have been less than PG.

For the record, there is no Twitter police, no filter or rules. It's follow-at-your-own-risk, a personal choice. NASCAR, the league, encourages social networking among drivers and industry professionals and is OK with the potty talk -- potty talk that would make the average NASCAR mom cringe and close her computer. More than that, she might force her kids to pick another driver and start shopping for someone else's swag, a fact Daytona 500 champion Jamie McMurray is very much aware.

"Whatever I tweet, it has to be something I would be OK with my mom reading," McMurray said. "It's so easy to quickly send out something from your phone and not realize the world has access to it now. It's no longer just a text message to your buddy, so you have to be careful." (Continued)