Gentlemen (and ladies): Start your laptops.

NASCAR created the Citizen Journalist Media Corps, a group of 28 Websites and blogs approved by the racing organization earlier this month, and those sites will receive media credentials to cover races, AdAge.com reported.

NASCAR blamed empty seats both at its tracks during races and in the press boxes, so managing director of corporate communications Ramsey Poston, who oversees the Citizen Journalist Media Corps project, got to work, according to AdAge.com. Poston and NASCAR, with help from Nielsen Media, found more than 30,000 NASCAR-related Websites and blogs, trimmed that number to about 100, and finally chose the 28 to be granted credentials July 17.

Poston told AdAge.com:

The past 12-18 months, we've seen a drop in print media. We've not only lost some of the biggest auto-racing writers in the business due to layoffs and cutbacks—people like Jim Pedley of The Kansas City Star, John Sturbin (of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram) and Grant James (of the St. Petersburg Times)—but we've lost the papers themselves. We used to get great coverage from the Rocky Mountain (Co.) News, and now it doesn't even exist. And other papers are simply cutting back coverage. I mean, look at Atlanta. That's our No. 1 TV market, and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution doesn't even have a NASCAR beat writer anymore after it let Rick Minter go. They mostly use (the Associated Press wire service).