November 22, 2008
By Brenda Benedict
What do you think was the best and worst events of this NASCAR season? Now that Jimmie Johnston is the Sprint Cup champion, we can step back and think about the what drove us crazy and what pleased us.
The highlights of the season for me also became the low points in many instances.
Several drivers looked strong in the beginning and had signs of greatness to come. But they did not maintain their strong performances had a disappointing finish to the season. This includes Ryan Newman who won the Daytona 500. Kyle Busch’s incredible early to mid-season looked so promising but disappointed us in the end.
The controversy over the Car of Tomorrow has quieted down but is not gone away. Michael McDowell’s spectacular crash at Texas showed that the new car is effective in protecting drivers in even the most horrific crash. I vote for this crash as the worst wreck of 2008.
McDowell acknowledged this and said, “"I feel grateful and blessed that I'm sitting here right now," McDowell also said.”Five years ago, four years ago or maybe a year ago, I don't think that would have been possible."
McDowell joked that he's finished being the crash-test dummy for the Car of Tomorrow.
Other highlights for me occurred whenever a driver had a true display of emotion and not the canned responses that are common in media interviews.
Max Papis provided one such moment. During the summer, he failed to qualify for a Cup race. In the interview that followed his attempt, he stated, “I am broken in my heart.” His heart-felt emotion provided a highlight along with his attempt to express himself in English.
Brad Keselowski’s reaction to criticism about his aggressive driving in an incident with Denny Hamlin was another great display of true emotion.
Brad Keselowski talked to the media about the importance of the Nationwide Series to his career. Unlike Hamlin who races in the Cup Series and the Nationwide Series every week, Brad said, “I have 200 laps to prove myself, not 400. I have to make the most of every lap."
When asked by reporters, “Aren’t you guys paid to race?” Brad responded “I agree.”
In post-race interviews Brad stated that it was just hard racing and that’s what racers do. Way to go Brad. Tell it like it is.
But the real disappointment to me is the growing realism in me that NASCAR, Inc. is sometimes the enemy of the sport of NASCAR. Kyle Petty, in last week’s Tradin’ Paint, on SPEEDtv stated that "we must realize that NASCAR is a business and not a sport." I want it to be both.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. is out-spoken about his race team, his race car and on race day, even his crew chief, Tony Eury Jr. Several weeks ago in Texas, Earnhardt added NASCAR to his list of complaints. The organization of NASCAR, that is.
Earnhardt has made a commercial with an 800 pound gorilla to show the pounds of force on a driver during a race. But in Texas, Earnhardt faced the unseen 800 pound gorilla of NASCAR that is apparent to fans. He was very willing to go to territory that many affiliated with NASCAR seem unwilling to speak about openly.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. addressed concerns in an outright manner and he shares many of the concerns that fans have been stating for years. He talked about the length of the season -- a 36 week schedule is too long. In answer to Earnhardt’s statements, Rowdy.com suggested a shorter season with a second race to be held on Wednesday to accommodate the race venues that depend on NASCAR for their livelihood.
I also agreed with Earnhardt’s recognition of the problems caused by the inconsistency of time of races. With the current schedule, fans must be proactive to be sure they have the correct time and even the correct network on which the race is broadcast. It would be an improvement to have consistency of time and network.
NASCAR’s current way of doing business reminds me of a fairy tale called “The Golden Egg”. In this story, a man has a goose that lays a golden egg every day. The man is thrilled with his new-found riches. He could depend on his goose to lay a golden egg right on schedule. But after a while, that man grew dissatisfied with only one egg per day. He wanted more so he decided to kill the goose. The greedy man assumed the goose would be full of golden eggs just waiting to be laid. But you know what happened. There were no golden eggs inside the goose and the man lost his source of riches. We’ve always heard to not kill the goose that lays the golden egg and the moral of the tale is take care of your fans and do not assume they will always be there. Maybe that is my interpretation but I’m sure many of you will agree with me.
There is no doubt that NASCAR has a golden-egg laying goose. As auto racing’s premier series, NASCAR has grown fat and rich. The France family has maintained tight control over every aspect of their organization and has set it up for their maximum profit. But with this profit-maximizing control, there has been a loss of credibility with the true racing fans.
Many of the true racing fans have become disenchanted with the current product produced by NASCAR. These fans may have been replaced by others but we are seeing the slowing of fan growth.
Last Saturday I attended my first arena racing event in Grand Rapids Michigan. The exciting race contained many of the elements of racing that make it fun and it reminded me that joy in the sport does not depend on the large venues and flashy teams and cars.
Arena racing is run on a 1/10 mile indoor track with half-scale cars. The competition was intense and exciting. One of the best features was the presence of many female drivers. I’ve always wanted to see more females in the sport and this may be the start of more consistent presences of females for auto racing.
When I watch what is happening in NASCAR today, I’m reminded of an observation made by Janet Guthrie in her book At Full Throttle. Janet Guthrie rose to racing fame in both Indy style and NASCAR. She talks of when she realized that race winners were often the result of the money spent by the owner more than any other factor such a driving skill. Guthrie stated, “A wealthy friend told me that when he, too, came to understand how the fastest car was acquired with the most dollars, and the fastest car usually won, he lost interest in racing.
Purchasing the fastest car was no problem for him, but if victory was less a matter of skill and desire than of money, the sporting element diminished and his interest did too.”
The 2008 NASCAR season will be memorable for all of these reasons and many more. But I’m not giving up but really looking forward to 2009. The countdown to the 2009 Budweiser Shootout is stating 78 days, 12 hours, 12 minutes and 19 seconds right now. That will be 79 days of looking forward to seeing what NASCAR can provide for the fans next year.
The thoughts and ideas expressed by this writer or any other writer on Insider Racing News, are not necessarily the views of the staff and/or management of IRN.
