NASCAR fans are passionate and loyal, and love to rally around their favorite drivers. But that devotion is being exploited by a growing scourge: fraudulent social media accounts on platforms like Facebook and YouTube, pumping out AI-generated stories and videos with outrageous, baseless headlines. These accounts thrive on engagement, not truth, and they’re distorting the sport while duping uninformed fans.
Take this recent headline we discovered on Facebook: “CONFIRMED: Joey Logano faces a 10-game SUSPENSION and a $200K fine after NASCAR approves Chase Elliott’s lawsuit!!” Races aren’t “games,” no driver has received a 10-race ban, NASCAR does not “approve” who can sue who, penalities are not lawsuits and, more specifically, Elliott did not sue Logano. The headline alone is so ludicrous that fans should know it’s fake. Yet, comments flood in with shock and anger. Bubba Wallace is a favorite target of these stories, usually being slapped with imaginary suspensions, lawsuits, and being fired, or alleging his marriage is failing. After Darlington, a headline claimed Larson was sueing Wallace for denying him the win. The article failed to mention that Larson was more than 160 laps down and never had a shot at winning. And the photo used to demonstrate the wreck was that of Joey Gase’s car at the 2024 Xfinity race at Richmond. Denny Hamlin’s bogus headlines are equally as prolific—recently including that NASCAR ‘denied him the top spot after his Darlington win,’ with an AI photo of Denny sobbing and a caption that read, “The Standings have Seen a Huge Shakeup. Fans are Shocked.” Legitimate publications and informed fans are NOT shocked because they understand how the points system works. But for uniformed fans, these works of pure fiction help to skew public perception and they fuel hate. The horrendous comments are proof of that.
Manipulating stories about the sport is one thing, but creating fake drama about the drivers’ personal lives is truly despicable. Consider the vile tale of Kyle Larson’s son, Owen, allegedly battling a “terminal illness.” What kind of organization pins such a headline on a child? But these counterfeit accounts do, all for the sake of clicks, and debilitating diseases are their go-to. Most recently, these stories have affected Carson Hocevar, who is supposedly battling a “life or death” illness; Chase Elliott, who is seemingly leaving the sport because either he or his mother is severely ill, though the article never makes it clear; and Kyle Busch’s wife, Samantha, who is supposedly in hospital (despite that she just appeared at a signing at Bristol and was looking quite well). Speaking of Kyle Busch, he has walked away from RCR according to these stories, after dropping a ‘bombshell’. Yet despite that he clearly remains in the #8 Chevrolet every weekend, there are people commenting with a mixture of shock and praise for the move.
Beyond illnesses, there are ongoing stories about fake fights, absurd financial problems, and secret wives and affairs. For example, one outlet disgustingly claims that Ryan Blaney’s wife had an affair with Bubba Wallace while on a camping trip. However, the “camping trip” photo used to illustrate the story not only features Wallace’s wife, Amanda, standing between him and Blaney, but it is also from long before Blaney met his now wife, Gianna. Then there’s the clickbait headline of Chase Elliott’s “secret wife with a debilitating lung disease.” The photo is of Elliott with gymnast Livvy Dunn, a guest of NASCAR who attended the 2023 Nashville race and took photos with several drivers. Dunn has a longtime boyfriend, whom she’s been dating since around that time. Thus, she is not married to Elliott. Yet, as deceiving as that photo is with such a story, at least it’s an actual photo. Many are just AI generated images and have the Grok logo visible in the corner. But readers seemingly still can’t tell the difference and react with comments of love or hate.
RFK driver Chris Buescher watched a YouTube video not long ago, shown to him during an interview. The YouTube account was branded with NASCAR’s colors and featured videos depicting drivers’ personal lives. The Buescher video claimed he started his racing career in a series he had never raced in, met his wife at a high school he had never attended, and lived in a mansion that he didn’t even recognize. He was baffled by the information and where it had come from. A similar “Luxury Lifestyle” video about William Byron alleges he’s related to the 1949 champion, Red Byron. So how do these accounts avoid being taken down? Because they mimic credible sources, tweaking their names and logos just enough to confuse fans, then they lean on AI to churn out multiple tales daily. The more clicks and comments, the higher they rank—and the more AI learns from its own mistakes and garbage, the more it spits out increasingly wilder distortions of these stories. It’s a self-feeding cycle, multiplying faster than mice while overshadowing credible journalism.
Drivers face enough pressure without having to see their names associated with such nonsense. But uninformed fans, hooked by the sensationalism, help to spread the lies. Comments pile up, often causing hate to fester, and these accounts soar, all because engagement trumps accuracy.
Responsible journalism enhances NASCAR knowledge, as we do at TrackHopper. But this AI crap? This is nothing but reckless exploitation. Fans deserve better. So how do we fight back? Skip the clickbait. Get your racing news from credible sources like NASCAR.com, verified team accounts and respectable outlets and media personalities that are directly associated with the sport—not “similar-sounding” impostors. Pause before liking or commenting—crosscheck the information with a quick Google search. Also, help to educate fellow fans: the more we starve these frauds of attention, the less they can thrive.
Artificial hype is unnecessary considering there is enough controversy in this sport at times. Demand truth, not drama.