August 28, 2008
By Brian Watkins
Brian Watkins
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I’ve never been a big football fan.
I grew up in Michigan -- the Lions sucked. (A tradition that continues to this day).
In the late 70’s and early 80’s my grandparents lived in North Western New York, and were good friends with a defensive back for the Buffalo Bills. One year I got to go to his house, play ball with his kids and got to hang out with the team after a game. I even got the entire team’s autographs on a single sheet of paper. When I got back to school and told my friends, all they had to say was “Buffalo Sucks!”. I was 0 for 2 on favorite football teams.
My dad’s parents wintered in Florida back then, on the gulf side near Tampa. I got a bright orange Tampa Bay Buccaneers t-shirt on one visit. Upon wearing it to school the following Monday I was greeted with the announcement that “Tampa sucks!”. I gave up on picking teams after that.
Given my early negative experiences with football, I’ve grown up having a take-it-or-leave-it attitude about the sport. That might make me less manly in some crowds, but so be it. I don’t care for baseball much either and basketball never graces my TV screen.
What does this have to do with racing? Well the baseball and basketball references have absolutely nothing to do with racing. Football however has a little something to offer this week and I think NASCAR needs to take a listen.
It’s not cheerleaders as there are already plenty of scantily clad women at the races (though I guess there’s always room for more).
It’s not pig skin, though plenty of it is consumed at the track (along with various other better discarded pig parts that are consumed in the form of $6 hot dogs).
It’s the simple penalty called unnecessary roughness.
Football is a contact sport. Brute force is used to run down an opposing player and take him to the ground. Bodies clash and it’s all fun and games.
But knock that quarterback down a few beats too late, or take out another player after the whistle and you’re penalized -- your whole TEAM is penalized.
Can you see where I’m going with this?
The finish at Bristol is yet another example of why NASCAR needs to reign in the bump-and-run and the dump-and-go driving that is becoming all too common on the track.
And before all you Edwards fans get in a tizzy and think I’m crying because Busch lost, think again. I’m talking about Kyle too. Tempers will flare and fenders will bang, however there’s a level of roughness that’s expected, and then there’s a level that’s unnecessary. The paint trading that went on at Bristol was the latter.
Yes, and rubbin, son, is racin’.
Aside from getting to write this column every week, I’m also an amateur mind reader -- I can do it right from my computer. Before you even read the column, I can tell what many of you are thinking.
“So they got into each other, get over it ya' pansy”
“Kyle had it coming”
“Carl was just doing what he had to to win”
“Boiled peanuts are nasty”
Sorry, that last thought was one of my own. But the others are legitimate arguments, to a point. But to those comments, I have ask “what’s not okay anymore?”
My kids have a habit of getting all wound up to run a race on the X-Box. My middle son Asher loves the Target car and is a Reed Soreneson fan. (On an unrelated note, he’s gonna have to choose between the car and Sorenson next season… I’m betting he’ll stick with the car) My oldest likes Dale Jr.
They pop in the disc, pick their drivers and set the race to run a full 400 laps. About 30 laps in though, one of them gets frustrated at the fact that the other is ahead and won’t let them pass. “Daddy, he won’t take it easy on me!” one will yell. Next is “Daddy, make him let me go by!” They generally run 42nd and 43rd, so I don’t know what the issue is -- but instead of finding a way around the guy in front, the slower of the two cars will beat on the bumper of the one in front, turn him into the wall or the infield and go by.
This will invariably send the other into a tizzy about how it wasn’t fair and how if he was winning (an odd description of 42nd place) he shouldn’t have to lose because the other crashed him on purpose… ON PURPOSE!
While it is just a game, you can’t really argue with the logic.
Why is it okay to push someone out of the way simply because you can’t get around them any other way? Carl said he did it because he knew Kyle would have done it to him, and had done the same thing to him in a Nationwide race in the past. That’s like one kid saying he hit Tommy because Tommy had hit him a few weeks back, so he had it coming.
Again, I’m not picking on Carl. Kyle is no stranger to the dump and run either. Neither is Jimmie Johnson or Jeff Gordon -- and don’t get me started on Montoya or Sauter. The point is, why is NASCAR letting this become a growing trend?
They let it slide and let it slide, and soon it’s becomes an accepted part of the sport. If I’m running a foot race and I can’t get past the guy in front of me, is it okay to trip them so I can win? What would you think about a baseball player who pushed down a runner so he’d have time to get the ball and tag him out? What would you think about the sanctioning body of those sports if they condoned it by not penalizing the offenders?
If a driver can’t get past another with only a little contact, they should try harder coming off the next turn. If the lead driver is losing ground to the guy behind him (if his hood is past his door) then there is no excuse for grinding on them to try an prevent a pass.
It’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt.
Okay, so maybe it sounds a little grandma-ish of me, but seriously, how long will it be before aggressive driving like that gets someone hurt or worse? How many times will NASCAR allow post race and under caution moves like we’ve seen recently before it results in something more than a bruised ego and a dented fender?
By allowing this to continue, NASCAR is setting a dangerous precedent -- one that is not only giving a bad impression of the sport to would be / could be fans, but also can spread to lower circuits. Kids that are coming up in go-carts emulate what they see their NASCAR heroes doing. By the time they matriculate to the big leagues, the whole race will be nothing but one big demolition enduro.
That’s fine for the county fair, but it’s not fine for the level of the game that Cup racing has risen to.
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.
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