Jayski's Silly Season Site is a web site focusing primarily on NASCAR news and rumors. The website was founded by Jay "Jayski" Adamczyk in 1996 (who was a fan of Mark Donohue) after he had difficulty finding news regarding the Melling Racing team, and subsequently worked to get all NASCAR news grouped together on the site.[1] The site was purchased from Adamczyk by ESPN in 2007; after ESPN shut the site down in January 2019, Adamczyk reacquired the rights to Jayski-related properties in April 2019 and rolled out a limited version of the new website with a full launch occurring on May 13, 2019.
Website
The name for Jayski's Silly Season Site is a reference to the midpoint of the NASCAR season when rumors within the sport most often circulate.[2] The main feature of the site is a "News and Rumors" page for the major three NASCAR series.[3] The sites also hosts pictures of the paint schemes used by teams throughout that year, television schedules and tributes to deceased drivers.[4] The site also lists series statistics and external links to teams and drivers.[5]
History
Adamczyk created the site in 1996 and used his moniker from his time in the military, Jayski, to brand the site.[4] On December 3, 1999,[6] Adamczyk quit his job as a computer programmer for the Federal Aviation Administration to work on the site full-time.[7][8] Two years later, Jayski's content began to be featured on Knight Ridder's racing website, That's Racin'.[7] That freed Adamczyk from several business commitments (such as advertising),[9] and enabled him to focus solely on creating content,[9] and hosting external links to newspaper and magazine stories on the NASCAR world.[6][7] In January 2004, sports network ESPN began to host Jayski.[6]
In early April 2007, as part of its renewed interest in NASCAR following re-acquisition of broadcasting rights, ESPN purchased Jayski.com.[10][11] Jayski underwent a stylistic overhaul in August 2009.[4] The site was redesigned in early 2017, becoming part of ESPN.com,[12] but Adamczyk continues to operate the site on a daily basis with a staff of two.
Jayski's Silly Season Site was featured in Time's The 50 Best Websites of 2011.[13] Jayski ran a podcast until 2013.[14][15] Adamzcyk had later expanded the Jayski staff to include two other employees to compile information about NASCAR.[16]
On January 28, 2019, ESPN ceased operations of Jayski.[17] The move was part of a wider exodus from NASCAR for ESPN, which also let go of reporters Ricky Craven and Bob Pockrass over the 2019 offseason.[18] Many within the NASCAR community expressed gratitude for the two-plus decades that Jayski ran online.[19]
The domain of jayski.com was acquired back from ESPN in April 2019, and a partial site was rolled out while the search for a new web host partner began.[20] A full site, now hosted by NASCAR Digital Media, was revealed on May 12, 2019.[21]
References
- ^ Sigala Jr., Sal (July 25, 2009). "Jay Adamcyzk (a.k.a. Jayski): Congratulations On a Job Well Done". bleacherreport.com. Bleacher Report, Inc. Retrieved July 25, 2009.
- ^ Mosher, Geoff (September 25, 2005). "Jayski.com grows with NASCAR – A relaxing day leads to a one-man empire". The News Journal. Archived from the original on December 14, 2005. Retrieved February 3, 2019.
- ^ "Jayski Named Grand Marshal for ARCA Race". www.charlottemotorspeedway.com. Archived from the original on 2018-04-15. Retrieved 2018-04-14.
- ^ a b c "Jayski.com updates look | HeraldNet.com". HeraldNet.com. 2009-07-24. Retrieved 2018-04-14.
- ^ "jayski.com website - server info, stats, DNS, IP, popular keywords - siteencyclopedia.com Websites". www.siteencyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2018-04-14.
- ^ a b c Rosewater, Rose (February 16, 2005). "With Web site, quiet outsider emerges as racing insider". USA Today. p. 6F. Archived from the original on November 30, 2005. Retrieved February 3, 2019.
- ^ a b c Fleischman, Bill (October 9, 2003). "South Jersey fan has site to behold". Philadelphia Daily News. Archived from the original on October 11, 2003. Retrieved February 3, 2019.
- ^ Herrin, Rick (November 3, 2005). "A fan's information superspeedway". Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Archived from the original on July 18, 2006. Retrieved February 3, 2019.
- ^ a b Levine, Al (May 30, 2003). "Fan's race site has Net effect". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Archived from the original on June 5, 2003. Retrieved February 3, 2019.
- ^ "ESPN Buys Jayski.com". Multichannel. Retrieved 2018-04-14.
- ^ Kaplan, David (2007-04-02). "ESPN Acquires NASCAR Fan Site Jayski". gigaom.com. Retrieved 2018-04-14.
- ^ "February 2017 – The Driver Suit Blog". thedriversuitblog.com. Retrieved 2018-04-14.
- ^ McCracken, Harry (August 16, 2011). "The 50 Best Websites of 2011 – Jayski's Silly Season Site". Time. Archived from the original on September 23, 2011. Retrieved February 3, 2019.
- ^ "Listen to ESPN.com: The Jayski Podcast on TuneIn". TuneIn. Retrieved 2018-04-14.
- ^ "ESPN: The Jayski Podcast". www.podbean.com. Retrieved 2018-04-14.
- ^ Caldwell, Dave. "Yet Another NASCAR Tradition Seems To Have Run Its Course". Forbes. Retrieved 13 May 2019.
- ^ Niehaus, Matt. "Jayski Closes Down Website: A Remembrance". ApexOff. Archived from the original on 13 May 2019. Retrieved 13 May 2019.
- ^ Vining, Daniel. "Jayski Bids Farewell After 22 Year Run That Helped Shape Motorsports Journalism Online". Pixelated Speed. Archived from the original on 13 May 2019. Retrieved 13 May 2019.
- ^ Epley, Justin. "COLUMN: Jayski changed the game for race fans". Morganton News Herald. Retrieved 13 May 2019.
- ^ @jayski (April 17, 2019). "Several new news items added to http://jayski.com/ today because I (Scott) am a creature of habit and love update the site, even if the current one is temporary" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
- ^ @jayski (May 12, 2019). "Since we are still pushing forward on the new website, one more "sneak peak". A little slice off the new main page of the site. Working on a mid-day launch tomorrow" (Tweet) – via Twitter.