This is awesome.
The Chase kicks off this weekend in NASCAR, with 16 Cup Series drivers competing over the final 10 races for the series championship.
The sport’s been making a lot of changes lately to try to get back to its roots, from returning to historical tracks to changing the aero package and adding horsepower in an attempt to improve the product on the track.
At the beginning of the season, NASCAR launched its “Hell Yeah” campaign, hoping to highlight the unfiltered, unpredictable and exciting nature of the sport. And for the Chase, the sport is launching an incredible, unique new campaign that will give fans a chance to win money when drivers get fired up on the radio.
The “Swear Jar” will give NASCAR fans a chance to win money based on how many times drivers swear over the radio during a race over the next 10 weeks.
Fans are able to submit their guesses each week for both how many total swears will fly over the radio that week, as well as which word will be dropped most often.
Seriously, there’s even a drop-down list to pick the swear word you think will be used most frequently:
For each cuss word that a driver (or their crew chief or spotter) says over the radio during the next 9 races, NASCAR will drop $5 into the Swear Jar. Participants will be awarded points based on their predictions: 5 points for guessing the swear word used most frequently, 10 points for predicting the exact number of swear words during a race, and 5 points for guessing it within 5 words.
The winner each week will be entered into the contest for the final race, where the fan with the most points wins all the money in the Swear Jar.
Hell yeah. Just an absolutely incredible idea from NASCAR.
Fans can enter now at nascarswearjar.com, and you have until 11:59 AM eastern on race day to enter that week’s contest.
Now, there are a few drivers who are probably going to run up that Swear Jar total pretty quick. Ryan Blaney is always known to be fiery on the radio, as is Denny Hamlin. Others are a little quieter on the radio: I usually tune in to Ross Chastain’s radio during a race and he’s generally pretty quiet and calm, so you’re probably not going to be able to count on him to add much to the winnings.
You’re also going to have to take into account which track they’re racing at in a particular week: Tracks like Darlington, Bristol and Martinsville are places were tempers usually flare, so you might want to set your guess a little higher during those weeks than at a track like Las Vegas or Phoenix. (It’s also, of course, going to depend on how the drivers are running and whether they have any incidents with their fellow competitors).
Personally what I’m hoping for is the drivers to get involved and start running up the Swear Jar. Let’s hear Blaney singing some Wheeler Walker Jr. on the radio, or just letting a string of expletives fly under caution to help the fans out.
Regardless, this is a great promotion from NASCAR and a unique way to promote the intensity and competitiveness of the Chase.
Let’s go f–king racing, boys.
