NASCAR YouTuber Eric Estepp is setting up another big year for his brand and his popular show, Out of the Groove, all while the sport of NASCAR is setting up for a big year of change.
Since the early 2010s, NASCAR has felt like an ever-changing body of work to many of its fans.
With changes to the Cup Series car design and generation in 2010, 2011, 2013, and 2022, the addition of stages, and several revisions of how the sport crowns its champion, NASCAR has become its own version of the Ship of Theseus.
Along for this ride among some of the sport’s most loyal fans has been Eric Estepp, whose popular YouTube channel has evolved in its own ways since its days as a channel known for 1/64 scale NASCAR diecast stop-motion races nearly 13 years ago.
Even though Estepp no longer makes his stop-motion videos, he has found himself as a staple of NASCAR content creation, with over 250,000 subscribers and 172 million views on YouTube.
The cornerstone of his channel is his daily Out of the Groove show, which covers the top storylines in NASCAR, alongside some interviews and opinions from top drivers, media members, and industry professionals in the sport.
Of course, with all the changes in the past year from NASCAR, including its leadership, how it promotes itself, and again, how it crowns its champion, the NASCAR news cycle has kept Out of the Groove packed with hot topics and news for the past 12 to 14 months.
In January, NASCAR closed a major storyline of the 2024 and 2025 season, deciding to end its Playoff format that it introduced in 2014, and reverting to a 10-race Chase system, which resulted in an overall reset and simplification of the sport’s championship format.
From Estepp’s perspective, this was a respectable move for NASCAR, as he, who often called himself a supporter of some form of NASCAR postseason, said the old format, which included a single championship race round, was “too forced.”
“I was really glad they at least moved away from the one race finale. But, I think still having a simplified Chase at the end of the year rewards consistency, you got to be consistent to get a good seed in the first 26 [races], and then those final 10, you again have to be consistent. You maybe get a mulligan if you’re lucky. But you also have to step up.” — Eric Estepp
While NASCAR closed the book on one major change, another rumored change, this time in marketing, finally emerged to the public in February, NASCAR’s new “Hell Yeah” campaign.
Following the release of the first major advertisement for this campaign, there were many reviews and hot takes online, with some calling it a return to NASCAR’s wild roots, while others fear the sport is crossing into an area where it is marketing itself as less serious than other major sports.
As someone who is on the creative side of the industry, Estepp says he feels the refresh is a shakeup from NASCAR’s recent promotional moves that placed it directly in the heart of major markets like Los Angeles and Chicago.
Still, if NASCAR leans into the “rah, rah” marketing of its product, Estepp says they need to stick to it, instead of walking in between the new and the old.
“They’ve been trying to be more like football, trying to cement themselves as a coast-to-coast, sometimes international brand. . . If they’re really going to say, ‘no, we’re simplifying things back to basics, we’re grassroots, rah, rah, American racing series,’ If they’re gonna commit to that branding, I think that’s what they have to do.” — Eric Estepp
Though he gives his support to what he has called NASCAR’s “re-rebrand,” Estepp still can’t help but wonder how the networks, sponsors, and partners will treat NASCAR after this new direction.
“Will corporate sponsors always embrace that rebrand?” Estepp said. “Because I think it’s great that they’re leaning into their southeastern roots and their heritage, I think there is a chance that that limits your appeal nationally and internationally. But, I think it’s a good move.”
Of course, while NASCAR is continuing to change its identity to the public, it’s also doing so online, a change that has brought the Texas native into the fold of NASCAR’s online content.
After Ryan Preece won last week’s chilly Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium, to the surprise of many of his new and long-time fans, Estepp was on the NASCAR YouTube Channel the next day, interviewing Preece as part of a new weekly series called NASCAR Film Room.
This video, beyond its solid public reception for its focus on analysis, was a major breakthrough for Estepp, pushing him into the NASCAR mainstream and fully bridging the gap between the sport and a leader in its online community.
Estepp has often been on the progressive side of NASCAR content creators, finding new and innovative content for fans, but this time, the veteran YouTuber told the Daily Downforce it was NASCAR who approached him about this new show last season.
“They came to me in the middle of last year with the idea of, ‘Hey, we want to bolster our social media content,'” Estepp said. “Their idea was to go find folks in the community that are already engaging with the audience, that resonate with the fans. And so they came to me.”
After floating some ideas, the team at NASCAR pitched Film Room, which would have a focus on Estepp and the most recent NASCAR Cup Series race winner, breaking down the footage from their win in a sit-down format, a concept Estepp liked as he hadn’t seen NASCAR take their content this direction before.
“I haven’t seen much of that in racing, I hadn’t really seen that in NASCAR, and I thought that’s a really cool idea,” Estepp said. “NASCAR, they have all the cameras, the feeds, they had the resources to give me that I don’t have on my own.”
While Estepp may be shifting some of his time to this new joint effort, he isn’t giving up any of his other popular works anytime soon, saying he’s excited to get back to the track for new races like San Diego’s Street Circuit at Naval Base Coronado, and back to work on projects like his race previews, the NASCAR Weekly Podcast, and a few surprises “here and there.”
Let us know your thoughts on this! Join the discussion on Discord or X, and remember to follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube for more updates.
