DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- During the past three days key members of NASCAR's marketing and communications departments began the latest round of "town-hall meetings" with some integral members of their constituency.

Tuesday and Wednesday in Charlotte, N.C., NASCAR met with groups of Sprint Cup owners and some of their key managers; Thursday morning it met with Cup drivers; and Thursday afternoon at Daytona International Speedway with a varied group of media members who were there for the opening of on-track activity connected to the Coke Zero 400 Cup event and Subway Jalapeno 250 Nationwide Series race.

In a move regarded by some in the industry and, according to NASCAR the general business community as well, as unprecedented, the sanctioning body revealed a five-pronged strategy to review where the sport is, as well as forecasting where it wants to be "over the next four to five years," according to Brett Jewkes, NASCAR vice president and chief communications officer and head of its Integrated Marketing Communications department.

In his opening remarks, Jewkes cited "transparency" and "regular reviews" as regular business practices undertaken by many other companies, though they've not been a regular practice for NASCAR, a 63-year-old family-run private company.

Jewkes said over the next five to six weeks NASCAR planned to meet with "all its stakeholders" -- with a NASCAR employees meeting set for Friday morning at Daytona-- to lay out the road map for the future.

Jewkes and NASCAR senior vice president and chief marketing officer Steve Phelps said the five-part plan included a "communications review," a "next-generation fan study," a "digital- and social-media initiative," cataloging fans' "event-engagement experience," and a "star-power initiative" focusing on the drivers, who Phelps qualified as "all skill positions," using a football term for the most high-profile players, such as quarterbacks and running backs.

"We need to make sure the industry is working as one on this," Jewkes said while summarizing the one-hour presentation. And not surprisingly, a number of competitors who were informally queried after their briefing expressed optimism and support.

While NASCAR said one of its primary goals in its star-power initiative was to take the lead on "building driver appeal," with driver participation basically mandated, it also said it was assembling an "industry-service team" to support "driver-brand development."

Four-time Cup champion Jeff Gordon was one athlete Phelps cited as already having a well-developed, cross-promoted brand. But Gordon himself said he was "really excited" about the latest developments.

"I think some of the things, to me are definitely going in the right direction," Gordon said. "Sometimes you have to take a step back and look at everything of where the sport is at. We were on such a climb for such a long time that some of these measures were necessary, even though they would have been effective at the time until you didn't look as hard into it.

"In these times, not just in our sport -- I think it's having a great year -- but you look at how tough it is just to be in business in general around the world. [Looking at] how you impact not only our core fans that are already big loyal fans but reach out to new fans.

"I think a lot of what [NASCAR] is saying makes a lot of sense and I'm looking forward to seeing some [of it] get implemented."

Kurt Busch, the 2004 Cup champion, said he's worked hard in recent years to become more fan friendly and he's totally bought into what NASCAR's doing.

"I've been there to support NASCAR in any of their ideas and what we can do to put more fans in the seats and to have more viewership and attendance," Busch said. "It's up to the drivers right now, in this current stage, to take what's been given to us by our forefathers -- the pioneers in the sport -- and turn it into something we're proud of when we leave, so that the next generation picks it up and continues to move it forward.

"It's everybody's responsibility and it's not anything new that they're talking about that we're not already doing -- it's just that we have to do it better. You have multimillion-dollar sponsorship programs cutting back on your marketing programs or your ability to connect to more people because it's tougher in this economy -- so we have to be smarter with our ideas."

NASCAR said it had conducted numerous focus groups not only with ardent fans, but also with casual fans and non-fans of the sport, and what they discovered was that competition and rules changes in the past several years had created a positive vibe.

While the sport has experienced gains in TV ratings this year over 2010, particularly in the prized 18-to-34-year-old range, attendance across the board has been spotty -- despite Kentucky Speedway on Thursday announcing a rare sellout for its inaugural Sprint Cup race next weekend; other aspects of the studies and strategies were related to exposing the sport to new fans, though Phelps stressed "that would not be at the expense of our longtime fans," diversifying the deployment of digital and social media, and exposing the sport to a more diverse fan base.

"I think that everybody has the same goal in mind and it is no different than anything else," Cup driver and Nationwide and Camping World Truck series team owner Kevin Harvick said. "Things change, perspectives of younger audiences change -- everybody wants that 18-to-34 [year-old] demographic. You want to keep the current fans and the old school fans happy, too. It's a fine balance. It's hard to juggle all the pieces and figure out how it works."

Harvick acknowledged things have changed, but also that the sport had to change with the current environment to stay viable.

"There is just a lot of things that have changed and there is no way that as a sport, that we can have the same strategy that we have had for 50-60 years," Harvick said. "It's just not going to work. [NASCAR] is doing a lot of work to try and make it better and that is really all you can ask for, is to have everybody be pulling the same direction.

"If everyone is understanding it and is on the same page, it is a lot easier to pull in the same direction. They have been very open as to what they want to do. If it doesn't work, it's not from a lack of effort."

As Busch did, Gordon said planning, as it always has been, will be key.

"I think we have some responsibilities," Gordon said of potential additions to the drivers' schedules for PR activity. "The thing is, if, as the sponsors cut back some of their budgets it also cuts back the demand on time that the drivers have. You hope from a sponsorship standpoint you don't have that because you've got sponsors that are willing to put the budgets out there and utilize the time.

"Your biggest problem is trying to find time to do more things. The key to me on that was letting us know early. I think that we can find ways to fit important things into the schedule to give back to the fans, but we've got to do it efficiently and we've got to do it in advance.

"As long as we're doing it, where we're planning for it and we're involved in the planning, then I'm all for it."

Denny Hamlin cited his Joe Gibbs Racing team's sponsor, Fed-Ex, as having employees who are extremely enthused with the racing program. As NASCAR itself said, "The studies aren't finished, the data isn't assembled and the entire plan is a work in progress." And Hamlin said for the competitors, it would be a lot easier to quantify things once NASCAR's plan was more in focus.

"We just need to wait to hear back more specific detail of what they need and require of us and where they're going to go with the sport," Hamlin said. "In my opinion, I think that they're going to break us down into a little bit smaller groups and go directly to the teams and drivers and say, 'OK, this is what we need from you. This is what our fans are looking for.'

"Really, we're kind of at the mercy of NASCAR in the sense that they know all of the information at this point and until we're informed fully of what our responsibilities are it's going to be tough for us to change anything, because, I feel like our on-track performance has been good, but there's more to it than that.

"We've got to attract new, young fans and those are the people that are going to be coming to the races, bringing their families 10 years from now. And, obviously, what little we've seen is that our fan base is aging a little bit and obviously we need to get a little bit younger."

Ironically, Dale Earnhardt Jr., who has won the past eight Cup Most Popular Driver awards, differed from the prevailing opinion and said competition, not drivers, would help sell the sport.

"I think we need to stay concerned and focused on the competition side -- what happens on the race track [because] that is what we sell," Earnhardt said. "We don't sell personalities. It is cool to have personalities and it is great when drivers have good personalities but the fans show up to be at a race. We need to make sure we put on a race.

"So, we need to focus on that and anything else we can do to improve their experience, which I think NASCAR is focusing on as far as the pre-race. What they buy when they buy the ticket, what they get, what they see and what they experience is real important, too. But, what it all comes down to, if the race itself is not as good as it should be, that's what we need to stay focused on.

"I think this year it's been great. I think this year we have been having good success. Some races will be boring. Some races will be great. Some things you just can't control. You just have to appreciate what the drivers are trying to do out there and what kind of technology we have got on the race track. You can't manufacture the perfect race every weekend. You just kind of have to let it play out and some will be great and some won't."