NASCAR INFLUENCERS
Eric Estepp OUT OF THE GROOVE
B
efore the pandemic of 2020, Eric Estepp was a college student with a nine-year-
old YouTube channel that was growing but remained a work-in-progress. Today, that same channel—dubbed Out of the Groove and featuring the biggest and most controversial news stories in NASCAR—boasts more than 145,000 subscribers. So what exactly happened that made Out of the Groove catch fire and become the No. 1 NASCAR News and Talk Show on YouTube? “As tumultuous as 2020 was, it did present unique opportunities for content creators,” Estepp said. “I’ve always been working remote and in the virtual space, so my business was largely unchanged. Meanwhile, the rest of the world was pushed into the virtual world out of necessity. I hosted several iRacing events with dozens of real-world NASCAR stars competing in them. As Zoom took over, it became easier for me to find drivers to come on the show as guests. “Most importantly, though, with more people at home and online in 2020, more fans took to YouTube for content. Naturally, more viewers stumbled in my direction, which helped with the dramatic growth of my channel throughout the year.” While COVID-19’s impact on the way people communicated and carried out their daily business certainly didn’t hurt Estepp’s efforts to grow his audience, Out of the Groove had actually already taken some positive steps before the pandemic struck. “A huge moment for the show was when I got to interview Aric Almirola at the start of the 2019 season,” Estepp said. “I was still just a college kid who filmed videos in my apartment
whenever my roommates weren’t home, so getting a NASCAR Cup Series driver to talk to me gave the show a huge shot of legitimacy. I feel like that episode was key to opening up a lot of other opportunities in the following months. “Up to that point, the first few years of Out of the Groove really felt like a grind. But after that first driver interview, the show began to establish a true identity.” With fresh episodes now produced five times weekly, Estepp’s audience known as “the Groovy Gang” tunes in daily not only to stay up to speed with the sport but also to be a part of the spirited and fun online conversation. “Since 2019, I’ve had many active NASCAR stars appear in videos, I’ve gotten to film videos at the track with some of them, and my subscriber count has steadily been climbing,” Estepp said. “The most difficult part of those first couple of years was establishing my legitimacy. I didn’t expect the top people in the sport to pay me any attention at first. I had no formal training, no company to vouch for me, and only modest viewership. It was a grind those first several years, but things have really taken off recently.” Estepp has been a NASCAR fan for more than 15 years and still considers himself a fan of the sport today. “I had very few people I could talk NASCAR with when I was growing up,” he said. “I was the first person in my family to start watching, and my dad was the only other person I knew who kept up with the sport in any way. When I moved out and started college, I no longer had anyone in my day-to-day life who knew the first thing about stock-car racing. “That is what inspired me to start Out of the Groove. I wanted to reach other NASCAR fans and find others who were as passionate about racing as I was.”
E S T E P P ’ S FA S T FA C T S
1
Beginning in 2021, Estepp teamed with A.E. Engine to scale the Out of the Groove
brand into new content spaces,
2
The Out of the Groove Weekly Viewer’s Guide is a digitallydelivered, subscription-based
magazine featuring opinion and
3
Through the expanded partnership between Estepp and A.E. Engine, they’ve
joined fellow YouTube creators and
4
Watch the latest episode of Out of the Groove @ericestepp on YouTube. Catch the latest
episodes on the Out of the Groove
including podcasts and a Weekly
commentary from Estepp and other
NASCAR historians to create the Out
Podcast Network here: https://
Viewer’s Guide.
established NASCAR content creators.
of the Groove Podcast Network.
polepositionmag.com/out-of-thegroove-podcast-network/
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POLE POSITION 2021
