At Lowe's, Papis dreams of tweet smell of success

By Nate Ryan, USA TODAY
May 15, 2009

If he becomes the latest first-time visitor to victory lane in the Sprint Showdown at Lowe's Motor Speedway, Max Papis will celebrate with social networking.

The Twitter nut has told wife Tatiana to keep his cellphone handy so if he makes the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race by winning its preliminary qualifier, Papis immediately can send a tweet via text message.

The ebullient Italian likely will need more than 140 characters, though, to convey the mood.

"I might need 100 tweets if I win," Papis says. "Maybe I will crash the server. I hope I can."

Tony Stewart, Michael Waltrip, Sterling Marlin and Martin Truex Jr. are among those who won the Showdown before winning a Sprint Cup points race. Papis is hoping for a breakthrough Saturday to confirm the progress he's made during a 20-race schedule this season with Germain Racing. His No. 13 Toyota has qualified in all four of its attempts with the team.

"I feel like I'm showing I have some speed," Papis, 39, says. "I don't have experience. Every lap is like taking a test at university."

It's also another opportunity to spread the word in cyberspace. Papis' postrace tweet at Darlington came within 15 minutes of the checkered flag. He was as quick to tell the Internet ("Whaooooo that was insane it means the world to me") about qualifying 22nd ahead of Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

"I wanted to take a picture of what was inside me because I couldn't describe the joy," says Papis, the most active of a handful of Cup drivers (including Sam Hornish Jr., Bobby Labonte and Ryan Newman) using Twitter.

With more than 700 updates to his Twitter account, Papis hasn't been shy (a tweet last week explained he drank three liters of water to accommodate a drug test) about describing what he calls "a NASCAR adventure."

The native of Como (a small town in northern Italy; Papis jokingly claims to have the only NASCAR hauler equipped with an espresso machine) was a two-time Rolex 24 at Daytona winner and also captured the 12 Hours of Sebring. He also scored a Grand Am title and three Champ Car wins before moving from Miami to Mooresville, N.C., three years ago after serving as Hendrick Motorsports' road-course test driver.

He since has immersed himself in stock-car culture. Papis went a few weeks early to Darlington and drove his pickup around the track with veteran Randy LaJoie. He is toying with attending the Richard Petty Driving Experience at Dover, Del., for the track's May 31 race.

"People might ask, 'What the hell are you doing at a driving school?' but I don't care," Papis says. "If I have to walk a track 900 times to gain an advantage, I'll do whatever it takes."

There'll be more than 1,400 Twitter followers (and counting) watching his every step.

"I hope I can grow that number as big as possible because I feel all those guys are on the side of my car," he says. "I want to share what I do with everyone."