When Brad Keselowski tweeted a photo from his car during the red flag period in the Daytona 500 did he offer a glimpse into the future of social media in NASCAR?
Or was it just a fluke occurrence that allowed Keselowski to become a sudden Twitter sensation, picking up more than 160,000 followers after tweeting a photo of the view through his windshield when race cars were stopped on the back stretch at Daytona?
The answer may lie somewhere in between.
"I am not going to jump on board the Twitter train, but I think that anything that gets the fans excited is good," Carl Edwards said.
"I didn't realize we could have our phones in the car, but honestly I won't be taking my phone in the car during the race. If it gets the fans excited, if it's something they enjoy, then more power to the guys that are doing it. I think that is cool."
Denny Hamlin doesn't see it becoming a trend.
"Where does it end? What do you do? Do you then text or Tweet during cautions and then you look up and run into the guy behind you? I don't know," Hamlin said.
"There's certain parameters that I guess we've got to all play in but...if I'm thinking about winning the race, I'm not thinking about social media when I'm under that green flag or yellow flag or any of those conditions."
As participants in other sports are, drivers are expanding their use of social media. Most have Twitter accounts, using it as a way to communicate with their fans.
After winning the pole position at Phoenix last week, 53-year old Mark Martin ended his news conference by reminding reporters that he's on Twitter and calling himself, "a tweeting fool."
Jimmie Johnson tweeted from his home in Charlotte as he watched the end of the Daytona 500 after being eliminated in a wreck on the second lap.
Because of the prime-time exposure in this year's rain-delayed, fire-interrupted Daytona 500, Keselowski turned an unusual circumstance to his advantage.
It also raised the question: Why did Keselowski have his phone in his car during the race?
It goes back to a few years ago when Keselowski was involved in a racing accident in California.
"I had no idea where I was," Keselowski said. "I'm wearing this hospital outfit. No clothes. No phone. No wallet. No idea where I'm at. It was a miserable, miserable experience.
"I wasn't knocked out or anything, but you're strapped on a helicopter and you've got no idea where you're going. As far as I knew, I was in an Army test lab. I eventually got to call my mom, but it was hours after the race."
Fast forward to last year when Keselowski was again injured, in an accident at Road Atlanta. This time, he had his phone in the car. As he was being airlifted to an Atlanta-area hospital, he was able to let his family know his injuries weren't serious.
"When I got to the hospital, I could hit Google maps and figure out where I was. From that moment on, I decided to keep my phone with me," Keselowski said.
That's why Keselowski had a special pocket built into his Sprint Cup car to hold his phone, which, of course, came in handy during the down time in the Daytona 500. He hadn't planned to tweet during the race, but with little else to do during a two-hour red flag period, Keslowski put his phone to work.
"At the end of the day, I'm just trying to show people what I would want to see if I was in their shoes. My generation is obsessed with technology and access. That was a chance to use both," Keselowski said.
There are questions about what potential advantage a driver might gain by having a smart phone in the car, but driving in traffic at 180 mph suggests there's not much opportunity for a driver to concentrate on anything other than driving.
With all the applications available on smart phones, drivers may find clever ways to utilize them - if they're interested.
"I'm looking to outlaw this rule as fast as I can because I don't want to have to keep up with it," Kevin Harvick said.
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