on a team‘s moniker.
I’ve seen it go from NASCAR, to where it was all about racing, to being NA$CAR to where it’s all about sponsors, marketing, and one man’s ego. I’ve seen it go from promoting the racing action to promoting one driver as the face of the sport. I’ve seen it go from being all about the fans to being all about the sponsors. I’ve seen it go from any and all fans welcome to chasing off the loyal fans and replace them with fad fans with lots of disposable income who are only there because NA$CAR happens to be the latest fad. I’ve heard the radio coverage go from non-stop radio broadcast of the races to being interrupted for commercial breaks like clockwork. I’ve seen the TV coverage going from brief clips in black and white on Wide World of Sports of the previous weekend’s race to the color, constant barrage of commercials and sponsor plugs we have today being briefly interrupted by a few minutes of racing. The further away we’ve gotten from the origins of the sport when racing and fans were the priority, the more the sport has become commercialized and turned into a shadow of its’ former self.
There was a time when a driver’s predictions about an upcoming race made the headlines in the sport’s section of the newspaper. Now we have the internet announcements cranked out by some obscure PR person about the new color scheme and related merchandising that comes with it. There was a time when some beauty queen would kiss the winner of the race on the cheek and now we have the fire suit clad, caught-in-the-headlights looking Sprint girl standing just in view of the camera to try to help market the series sponsor. We’ve had races go from simple names like the Firecracker 400 or World 600 to the Tropicana Orange Juice Owned by Coca-Cola brought to you by Merrill, Lynch, Pierce, Crosby, Stills, Nash, Young, Sacco, Vanzetti, Cheech and Chong 400.
We’ve had the owner of the sanctioning body promoting the races, selling popcorn, selling tickets, meeting the fans, talking with the press, schmoozing with the drivers and team owners, and closing the gates of the track when the last team left the track to an obscure, lackluster, egomaniacal drunken buffoon who sees everything as something to boost his ego and is scared to death of walking around the garage area like his dad and granddad did much less actually talking to the fans who use their hard earned cash to buy a race ticket. The further away we’ve gotten from the beginnings of the sport, the more removed the leadership has gotten.
There was a time when the drivers would gladly welcome any and all fans to hang out with them and sign autographs, their dogs, or various body parts. Now you’re lucky to catch a glimpse of a driver at a controlled one hour autograph session in between all the various appearances that they have to make in order to satisfy the needs of the bungling buffoon who thinks he’s a big fish in a small pond. There was a time when drivers gladly welcomed any fans who could find their way into the garage area. Now, drivers complain about the fans that have to pay their hard earned cash to get into the garage area. The further away from the beginnings of the sport we have moved, the more removed and less appreciative the drivers have become of the fans.
Have the old dirt and asphalt tracks like North Wilkesboro, Occoneechee, Augusta International Raceway, the Nashville Fairgrounds, Columbia Speedway, and a host of others that have disappeared into the mist of time and provided so many fans so much delight that much better than the highly sanitized for your protection, one-size-fits all cookie cutter paved tracks we have today which replaced the old tracks on the schedule? The fans from the old days liked the character and distinction of these old tracks even if they got dirt in their ears and splinters in their backsides when compared to the highly sterile, plastic backed, uncomfortable, packed like sardines, single file racing clone tracks. The further away we've gotten from the original tracks, the less character the tracks have in them.
Folks say things were great back in the good old days of racing when it was about racing and they fondly miss them. We had honest-to-goodness journalist who covered the sport and wrote about what they saw on the track. Now we have a controlled media, propagandists, and Kool Aid drinkers who weren’t even born when the good old days were happening cranking out spin and revisionism about the good old days saying things weren’t that good back then and touting the highly commercialized form of sports entertainment we have today as the best thing since Windows 95. Are the fans and journalists from the old days that wrong and the Kool Aid drinkers and Spin Doctors that right?
Are the millions of fans who saw and went to the
races and the drivers, mechanics, and car
owners who were around back in the old days
that wrong about the old days? Are the members
of the short attention span crowd who rule the
scene nowadays so right about the old days
being seen through rose colored glasses? Are
the fans who’d sip a little shine from a Mason jar
at the tracks while sweating their backsides off
during the races that much worse than the fans
who sip fancy drinks through straws with
umbrellas for decorations while watching golf,
baseball, or football on a big screen TV in the air
conditioned comfort of a suite despite a live race
going on outside the suite windows?
We've come a long ways since the days when they raced on dirt and the cars were actually based on the cars we drove every day. Were things that much better today? I’ll leave it for you to decide.
Motherhood, Apple Pie, and John Wayne
Mad Mikie, Curmudgeon at Large
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