A Public Service Message for Disgruntled NASCAR Fans
Tuesday, October 16th, 2007 7:11pm EDT
By Marc, Thunder Lounge
Published on Thunder Lounge.
Kyle Petty has something to say about the current state of affairs in NASCAR and how many of its fans view the sport:
“I really want to know what is it that race fans want,’’ Petty says, noting the fan uproar about racing at Bristol and Talladega, which both used the COT.“I’m not really sure that they even know what they want. I think they’ve been sold a bill of goods on what racing used to be. Racing wasn’t always 43 cars under a blanket. Racing was Bill Elliott winning Talladega by a lap on the field.’’
There it is, the clear unvarnished truth.
Richard Petty once won a race after going 3 laps down, and his winning margin was 7 LAPS! In case you didn’t catch that, in effect he was 10 laps better than everyone else in the field.
If that were to happen today, there would be an insurrection in the grandstands as the laps wound down. A few brown bottle tossed Jeffy’s way would be mild in comparison. Yet the sky is falling around NASCAR Nation because OMG, someone leads the most laps and wins a race by 2 seconds!
I read a recent suggestion and long discussion the Chase should provide a process of elimination. A loss and you out sort of thing similar to a baseball or football playoff.
Sounds crazy I know, even crazier is the idea was floated by someone who’s “Anti-Chase Mantra” is “why do they wanna make NASCAR like other sports?” You figure it out, I damn sure can’t, and feel no great need to delve into the convoluted logic it takes to hold those two positions.
As you know the fan base discontent doesn’t end there, it touches on the shifting make-up of the financial side of the sport. The flurry of partnerships and mergers this season is unprecedented in the sport.
The deals give each team more money and resources, making the cost to start a team from scratch almost prohibitive. To be a part of NASCAR, someone almost has to buy into a team. The question is, is that a good thing or bad for the sport?
Joe Gibbs has tentative (tentative because the fallout from all the changes are yet to be felt) answer for that:
“To me, that’s a good thing,’’ said J.D. Gibbs, president of Joe Gibbs Racing, which will switch from Chevrolet to Toyota next season. “I’ve got value in my team. Five, six, seven years ago, there was not much value in your team.’’
WOW, value in a race team. What a concept.
In previous days the “value” in a race team was regained the only way possible, via an auction of the assembled parts that were bought by other teams for pennies on the dollar.
If Gibbs is right team owners have equity, something they’ve never had before. Also, it may put on hold any thoughts some may have of starting some type of franchising in NASCAR.
With all the changes on the financial side of NASCAR it’s way too early to make any definitive judgment, that may take years to get any real feel for them.
I’m willing to wait and see, unfortunately many are not, some have already tossed France and NASCAR under the bus transporter.
Filed Under: Damn Good Points, Marc Boland, Nascar, The Soapbox
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