Dear NASCAR,
First of all, greetings from one of your biggest fans. For the entirety of my 27+ years on this earth, you have been a major part of my life. My parents, both die-hard Bill Elliott fans, instilled the love of stock car racing into me before I was capable of intelligent thought. Growing up, I was "the NASCAR kid," those youngsters who could double as a walking program to the upcoming race. It was a reputation I relished. To me, NASCAR topped everything, which to a kid growing up in Georgia in the early 1990s entailed the Atlanta Braves, Batman, and the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers.
My love of NASCAR has grown as I have. The last Sprint Cup race I missed altogether - no TV, no radio, no grandstand ticket - was the 2003 Chevy Rock and Roll 400 at Richmond, which I skipped in favor of attending a Braves game with the assumption that the headset radio I had bought would let me listen to the race at the same time (it didn't). Difficult as it was to watch races go by without Tony Stewart - my favorite driver - in the field, I watched every televised lap of the last 15 races of the 2013 season. I did so because, while watching Tony race (and especially win) gives me the greatest joy, I am a proud fan of this sport as a whole and for me there was no option besides continuing to support it by tuning in.
Y'all love to talk about fan loyalty, well I am one of your guys. With very rare exceptions, I only buy and use products who are involved or have been involved in the sport in some capacity. I drive a Chevrolet because Tony drives one. If he drove a Yugo - and let's face it, he probably could and still win a race here or there - I'd be in one too. I am munching on Cheez-Its as I type these words because of their one-time associate sponsorship of Tony (in 2001) and the current deal with Carl Edwards. Tonight's supper will be barbecued Tyson chicken breasts, which to this day I associate with the No. 19 Ford Chad Little drove in 1991 (and, therefore, with NASCAR). Dessert will be a bowl of Cheerios, purchased because of their long-time association with this sport.
I have laid all of this out to illustrate the kind of fan you are potentially driving away if the reports about your planned "elimination-style" point system (particularly the final race "winner take all" aspect) prove true. What a contrived farce that would be, one that would further dilute the title of champion to the point that it would no longer be worthy of being mentioned in the same paragraph as the crowns won by Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt, Jeff Gordon, and so forth.
It is already diluted to the point that you can't put them in the same sentence. Once upon a time, top-level stock car racing championships were about being the best over the course of a grueling season that tested everything a man and his team had. Now they're about hitting a hot streak at the right time. "Champion" means about as much in Chase-era Sprint Cup racing as it does in the equally-contrived Major League Baseball playoffs, with their multiple wild cards and idiotic play-in game after a 162-game, series-based season. It is still huge to win it all, but it doesn't mean nearly as much as it used to.
Yes, your attempts to turn stock car racing into a stick-and-ball sport has created some great moments. The 2011 Ford 400 and the last weeks of that season in general remain chill-inducing for Tony fans. It helped, though, that his first two titles (won under the season-long and Chase, respectively formats) came in years that he scored the most points of any driver over 36 races. Were that his first championship, it would certainly have the same feel of an asterisk next to it that blemishes Kurt Busch's 2004 crown for longtime fans.
You can only manipulate so much before you reach people's breaking point. I have changed and changed and changed again as the format has, owing to my love of the sport. I can't change much more, though. If this is the direction you plan to go, then I doubt I can change any further. I'll continue to watch every race for as long as Tony decides to hang his helmet at Sprint Cup tracks. Once he rides off into the stock car racing sunset, I expect (fearfully so) that I will also, at least as the die-hard fan I have been my whole life to this point.
I nearly swore you off in 1997, when you cost Dale Jarrett the championship with an erroneous black flag at Watkins Glen (and the subsequent but not-at-all unexpected failure to rectify it like you had with the "other" Dale two years before at Rockingham). When Dan Marino waved the green flag for the 1998 Daytona 500, though, I was glued to the screen. I have been for nearly every lap of every single race since.
Sitting here this morning, with the 2014 edition of the Great American Race just over a month away, I find myself wondering how many more laps and how many more races remain in my windshield. Sadly, as things stand and appear to be heading, it is probably far, far, far less than those in my rear-view mirror.
Saturday, January 18, 2014
Tuesday, January 7, 2014
Elliott, NAPA a dream pairing for Georgia race fans
As both a die-hard NASCAR fan and a proud Georgian, I could scarcely be more giddy over yesterday's announcement that Chase Elliott and NAPA Auto Parts will be partnering for a full slate of NASCAR Nationwide Series races this season.
The excitement meter over having an Elliott back racing full-time in one of the top series for the first time since 2003 is absolutely pegged. No one wants to put too high expectations on Chase, lest he become another prospect that doesn't pan out. Reed Sorenson has already filled that role for the Georgia racing faithful, though hope remains that somehow, some way, the Peachtree City native might eventually find his way back at least into a top-tier Nationwide ride. If most area fans were asked I'm sure they would much prefer Chase spend enough time in the Nationwide car to make sure he's fully ready to be thrust into the Sprint Cup Series, rather than being pushed far too soon as Chip Ganassi did with Sorenson (and may be repeating that sin with Kyle Larson, though only time will tell).
Still, it is hard not to be excited and hopeful that Chase will one day bring top-level racing glory back to the state and give local fans a reason to cheer that has been largely absent since Bill hung up his full-time racing shoes following that '03 campaign. Perhaps he can stand alongside McDonough's Jason Heyward - the Atlanta Braves right fielder who is on the verge of becoming one of baseball's elite - as Georgia's next great homegrown sporting talent.
To local fans, Chase has already stepped out from under the shadow of just being Bill Elliott's son. He is a tremendous racer in his own right, as evidenced by his dominance of short track racing's premier events over the last couple years and his great - though controversy-marred - NASCAR Camping World Truck Series win on the Mosport road course in Canada. It won't be long, I don't believe, before the rest of the country catches on and he begins to shed that title.
While everything pales in comparison to the fact that Chase will be driving full-time on the Nationwide tour, there is plenty of excitement to be had in the fact that NAPA is remaining in the sport after all. Times have been kind of lean for Georgian race enthusiasts in terms of our local sponsors. Coca-Cola, Aaron's, and Aflac remain committed to the sport, but UPS has announced they're pulling out at the end of this season, the Home Depot - once one of NASCAR's most-visible sponsors with a full-season presence - has cut down to fewer than ten races as a primary sponsor of Matt Kenseth's Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, and until yesterday it appeared that NAPA would be severing ties with NASCAR altogether.
It would be hard to blame them, given the embarrassment brought on them by the Michael Waltrip Racing/Richmond scandal. A lot of the anger in the aftermath of that whole debacle was resultant of the fact that a respected company like NAPA that stuck with Waltrip through some very lean times like the fiasco that was MWR's inaugural campaign in 2007, would be dragged through the mud like that. It would have been 100% understandable - though still just as disappointing - had they dropped their NASCAR program entirely.
Instead, after being bounced from one Chase last September, they have found what looks like a very bright future with another one.
It is a win-win situation for us Peaches. The son of perhaps our greatest sporting icon - a terrific racer in is own right - and one of our top companies are brought together with a beautiful blue and yellow Camaro that will no doubt be a hot diecast seller among collectors. The only thing that could make the story any better would be if Georgia's most-famous company got on board and Chase were to become a member of the Coca-Cola Racing Family and shed that Pepsi Max nonsense that appeared on his uniform last season.
The excitement meter over having an Elliott back racing full-time in one of the top series for the first time since 2003 is absolutely pegged. No one wants to put too high expectations on Chase, lest he become another prospect that doesn't pan out. Reed Sorenson has already filled that role for the Georgia racing faithful, though hope remains that somehow, some way, the Peachtree City native might eventually find his way back at least into a top-tier Nationwide ride. If most area fans were asked I'm sure they would much prefer Chase spend enough time in the Nationwide car to make sure he's fully ready to be thrust into the Sprint Cup Series, rather than being pushed far too soon as Chip Ganassi did with Sorenson (and may be repeating that sin with Kyle Larson, though only time will tell).
Still, it is hard not to be excited and hopeful that Chase will one day bring top-level racing glory back to the state and give local fans a reason to cheer that has been largely absent since Bill hung up his full-time racing shoes following that '03 campaign. Perhaps he can stand alongside McDonough's Jason Heyward - the Atlanta Braves right fielder who is on the verge of becoming one of baseball's elite - as Georgia's next great homegrown sporting talent.
To local fans, Chase has already stepped out from under the shadow of just being Bill Elliott's son. He is a tremendous racer in his own right, as evidenced by his dominance of short track racing's premier events over the last couple years and his great - though controversy-marred - NASCAR Camping World Truck Series win on the Mosport road course in Canada. It won't be long, I don't believe, before the rest of the country catches on and he begins to shed that title.
While everything pales in comparison to the fact that Chase will be driving full-time on the Nationwide tour, there is plenty of excitement to be had in the fact that NAPA is remaining in the sport after all. Times have been kind of lean for Georgian race enthusiasts in terms of our local sponsors. Coca-Cola, Aaron's, and Aflac remain committed to the sport, but UPS has announced they're pulling out at the end of this season, the Home Depot - once one of NASCAR's most-visible sponsors with a full-season presence - has cut down to fewer than ten races as a primary sponsor of Matt Kenseth's Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, and until yesterday it appeared that NAPA would be severing ties with NASCAR altogether.
It would be hard to blame them, given the embarrassment brought on them by the Michael Waltrip Racing/Richmond scandal. A lot of the anger in the aftermath of that whole debacle was resultant of the fact that a respected company like NAPA that stuck with Waltrip through some very lean times like the fiasco that was MWR's inaugural campaign in 2007, would be dragged through the mud like that. It would have been 100% understandable - though still just as disappointing - had they dropped their NASCAR program entirely.
Instead, after being bounced from one Chase last September, they have found what looks like a very bright future with another one.
It is a win-win situation for us Peaches. The son of perhaps our greatest sporting icon - a terrific racer in is own right - and one of our top companies are brought together with a beautiful blue and yellow Camaro that will no doubt be a hot diecast seller among collectors. The only thing that could make the story any better would be if Georgia's most-famous company got on board and Chase were to become a member of the Coca-Cola Racing Family and shed that Pepsi Max nonsense that appeared on his uniform last season.
Wednesday, December 11, 2013
"I don't like you either": Joey Logano's Twitter Christmas gift
In order for one to grasp its full effect, it is important, I suppose, that I preface this post with a disclaimer. As with any fan of Sprint Cup racing, I have my drivers I want to see do well. I am an unabashed Tony Stewart fan, and have been since his final full season on the IndyCar circuit. With Smoke sidelined in August, I spent the last four months of the season cheering on my second-favorite driver, Kevin Harvick. Mark Martin and Denny Hamlin are also high on my list. Beyond that, I don't really dislike anybody. I don't mind Jimmie Johnson's success - I do root for my favorites to outrun him - and our sport is full of such good folks that it is hard to root against them.
There is one driver, though, I genuinely do root against, and his name is Joey Logano. With that list of favorite drivers, I suppose that shouldn't come as much of a surprise. I didn't care for his bump-and-run on Mark entering turn one at Pocono in June 2012. Had it been employed at a short track, that would have been one thing, but any turn at a high-speed track like Pocono - let alone the one at the end of the longest straightaway in NASCAR - is not the place to be bumping-and-running, at least in my opinion. I also felt like Mark Martin is about the last guy anyone should pull the move on, adding to my furor. I won't delve into the Fontana situation beyond saying that, like Pocono, that is the wrong place to be running into other drivers, especially as a payback for getting spun at Bristol.
With all that being said, one of Logano's biggest fans also happens to be my best friend on God's green earth, Suzy DiCicco. Thank the Good Lord we both love Tony and Denny (yes, she likes both Logano and Hamlin. I'm really in no position to judge, seeing as I once liked an Allison, in my case Davey, and Darrell Waltrip simultaneously, though I do have the excuse of being five at the time), or else we probably wouldn't get along at all where racing is concerned.
See, Suzy feels pretty much the same about Kevin as I do about Joey. In fact, we were in the stands at the March 2010 Nationwide Series race at Bristol when Happy looped Logano's car exiting turn four on the last lap. Suzy's feelings on The Bakersfield Basher were solidified when the pair's cars again came together - though not in a bump-in-run scenario - at Pocono that June in the incident that led to Logano's famous "She wears the firesuit in the family" quip about DeLana Harvick.
Suzy and I give one another plenty of ribbing, bantering back and forth about "Crappy" Harvick and Joey "Lo-no-go." It's all in fun - for the most part - and when the other's respective driver wins, we grit our teeth and offer congratulations.
Just after Thanksgiving, Suzy made a request: that I tweet Joey (whom I do not follow and have not since the Pocono incident, after which I sent what remains to date my only "hate tweet" to any driver) and ask him to wish her a Merry Christmas. Oh, joy. To stick the knife in even deeper, she added the stipulation that I could not include my personal feelings for the driver of the No. 22 Fusion.
Monday night, well after the test at Charlotte Motor Speedway had been postponed, I decided to make my move and get this over with. Typing his handle into the tweet composition box (or whatever the heck we call that thing) felt quite odd, seeing as the last time I did it I was informing him in no uncertain terms that I thought his move on Mark was inappropriate, which I accentuated with a couple of less-than-kind adjectives and nicknames.
I sat staring for a moment at the box, empty aside from "@JoeyLogano" staring back at me. How was I going to word this tweet to the one driver I root against, hoping every week that his car winds up on pit road with the hood up and oil pouring from the header pipes? Would I even be able to type anything at all or would it look like The Fonz trying to admit he had been wr-wr-wr...you get my drift. I pondered what to say, and then a devilish smile crossed my face.
See, Suzy and I often joke that I never listen to anything she says anyway, so I decided to ignore her decree. It's not like Logano would see the tweet anyway, right? I mean come on, it's the off-season - Christmastime in fact - and he's recently engaged. He's going to probably be busy, and my request will be swept away, unseen, amid the sea of tweets from the starstruck teenage girls who, best I can tell, make up 90% or more of his fanbase.
I commenced to typing: "@JoeyLogano I don't like you - at all - but my best friend @EclecticSuzy loves you. Could you please make her holiday brighter with a tweet?"
"Phew," I exhaled. It was done. I was already wondering what sort of needle Suzy was going to stick in me for the way I worded the tweet, but I put those thoughts aside and moved onto another activity. A few minutes later, I returned to Twitter for a brief check-in, opened my mentions, and nearly fell out of my chair.
There was Logano's Twitter picture of his victory lane celebration at Michigan. To the right, his response read as follows: "I don't like you either but tell your nicer friend I said hey"
I burst into laughter, and based off her own response, Suzy did likewise. I composed myself, thanked him, and wished him a Merry Christmas. There was no further correspondence, aside from a handful of Logano fans who - like Suzy and myself - found the whole thing quite hilarious.
Talking to Suzy afterward and seeing her excitement meant the world. I love her like the big sister I never had - and she will tell you that I can be as annoying as a little brother, which we both were "blessed" with and know first-hand - so playing the butt of the joke to my least favorite race driver for the world to see was well worth it.
As for Joey, he probably didn't give the tweet a second thought after sending it. He also probably doesn't know just how much it meant to Suzy and I. Maybe he will one day, I can already picture Suzy running up to him at the Penske Racing complex or an autograph session and saying "Hi, I'm the nicer friend of that guy you don't like!"
I appreciate so much the time Joey Logano took to respond to one of his biggest detractors in order to make one of his biggest fans' year. I can't say that I like him as a race driver - that reconciliation remains distant, most likely - but as a person, his Twitter Christmas gift has given me reason to step back and give him a second look.
Maybe he isn't so bad after all...
There is one driver, though, I genuinely do root against, and his name is Joey Logano. With that list of favorite drivers, I suppose that shouldn't come as much of a surprise. I didn't care for his bump-and-run on Mark entering turn one at Pocono in June 2012. Had it been employed at a short track, that would have been one thing, but any turn at a high-speed track like Pocono - let alone the one at the end of the longest straightaway in NASCAR - is not the place to be bumping-and-running, at least in my opinion. I also felt like Mark Martin is about the last guy anyone should pull the move on, adding to my furor. I won't delve into the Fontana situation beyond saying that, like Pocono, that is the wrong place to be running into other drivers, especially as a payback for getting spun at Bristol.
With all that being said, one of Logano's biggest fans also happens to be my best friend on God's green earth, Suzy DiCicco. Thank the Good Lord we both love Tony and Denny (yes, she likes both Logano and Hamlin. I'm really in no position to judge, seeing as I once liked an Allison, in my case Davey, and Darrell Waltrip simultaneously, though I do have the excuse of being five at the time), or else we probably wouldn't get along at all where racing is concerned.
See, Suzy feels pretty much the same about Kevin as I do about Joey. In fact, we were in the stands at the March 2010 Nationwide Series race at Bristol when Happy looped Logano's car exiting turn four on the last lap. Suzy's feelings on The Bakersfield Basher were solidified when the pair's cars again came together - though not in a bump-in-run scenario - at Pocono that June in the incident that led to Logano's famous "She wears the firesuit in the family" quip about DeLana Harvick.
Suzy and I give one another plenty of ribbing, bantering back and forth about "Crappy" Harvick and Joey "Lo-no-go." It's all in fun - for the most part - and when the other's respective driver wins, we grit our teeth and offer congratulations.
Just after Thanksgiving, Suzy made a request: that I tweet Joey (whom I do not follow and have not since the Pocono incident, after which I sent what remains to date my only "hate tweet" to any driver) and ask him to wish her a Merry Christmas. Oh, joy. To stick the knife in even deeper, she added the stipulation that I could not include my personal feelings for the driver of the No. 22 Fusion.
Monday night, well after the test at Charlotte Motor Speedway had been postponed, I decided to make my move and get this over with. Typing his handle into the tweet composition box (or whatever the heck we call that thing) felt quite odd, seeing as the last time I did it I was informing him in no uncertain terms that I thought his move on Mark was inappropriate, which I accentuated with a couple of less-than-kind adjectives and nicknames.
I sat staring for a moment at the box, empty aside from "@JoeyLogano" staring back at me. How was I going to word this tweet to the one driver I root against, hoping every week that his car winds up on pit road with the hood up and oil pouring from the header pipes? Would I even be able to type anything at all or would it look like The Fonz trying to admit he had been wr-wr-wr...you get my drift. I pondered what to say, and then a devilish smile crossed my face.
See, Suzy and I often joke that I never listen to anything she says anyway, so I decided to ignore her decree. It's not like Logano would see the tweet anyway, right? I mean come on, it's the off-season - Christmastime in fact - and he's recently engaged. He's going to probably be busy, and my request will be swept away, unseen, amid the sea of tweets from the starstruck teenage girls who, best I can tell, make up 90% or more of his fanbase.
I commenced to typing: "@JoeyLogano I don't like you - at all - but my best friend @EclecticSuzy loves you. Could you please make her holiday brighter with a tweet?"
"Phew," I exhaled. It was done. I was already wondering what sort of needle Suzy was going to stick in me for the way I worded the tweet, but I put those thoughts aside and moved onto another activity. A few minutes later, I returned to Twitter for a brief check-in, opened my mentions, and nearly fell out of my chair.
There was Logano's Twitter picture of his victory lane celebration at Michigan. To the right, his response read as follows: "I don't like you either but tell your nicer friend I said hey"
I burst into laughter, and based off her own response, Suzy did likewise. I composed myself, thanked him, and wished him a Merry Christmas. There was no further correspondence, aside from a handful of Logano fans who - like Suzy and myself - found the whole thing quite hilarious.
Talking to Suzy afterward and seeing her excitement meant the world. I love her like the big sister I never had - and she will tell you that I can be as annoying as a little brother, which we both were "blessed" with and know first-hand - so playing the butt of the joke to my least favorite race driver for the world to see was well worth it.
As for Joey, he probably didn't give the tweet a second thought after sending it. He also probably doesn't know just how much it meant to Suzy and I. Maybe he will one day, I can already picture Suzy running up to him at the Penske Racing complex or an autograph session and saying "Hi, I'm the nicer friend of that guy you don't like!"
I appreciate so much the time Joey Logano took to respond to one of his biggest detractors in order to make one of his biggest fans' year. I can't say that I like him as a race driver - that reconciliation remains distant, most likely - but as a person, his Twitter Christmas gift has given me reason to step back and give him a second look.
Maybe he isn't so bad after all...
Friday, November 15, 2013
Donovan McNabb and the Ignorance of the Race Driver Detractor
"There are only three sports: bullfighting, motor racing, and mountaineering; all the rest are merely games." - unknown, though generally attributed to Ernest Hemingway.
Make no mistake, those "mere games" -particularly North America's "Big Four" - are great forms of entertainment. I myself love the game of baseball - so long as it is played under National League rules - and type these words while wearing a t-shirt with the name and logo of my beloved Atlanta Braves. Some folks love the NBA and the heroes of the hardwood. Others yet clamor to watch the NHL and its two-for-one of top-flight professional hockey and the ultimate illegitimate fighting body. Last but certainly not least in terms of viewership comes the NFL, which has reigned as America's undisputed sporting king ever since the Major League Baseball strike of 1994.
Compared to the rigors faced by stock car drivers, especially prior to the safety revolution over the past 12 years and counting, they are indeed merely games.
Fans of the Big Four - especially the football fans it seems, though that perception could be skewed simply by the gargantuan fanbase the NFL enjoys compared to the other three - often deride professional racing, particularly NASCAR and its fans, by claiming it is not a sport. The most recent critic to throw his two cents into the discussion is former NFL quarterback Donovan McNabb, who stated Friday on a Fox Sports 1 talk show that our five-time (and likely, soon to be six-time) champ Jimmie Johnson is not an athlete because he drives a car.
To say that about just about any race driver is silly, but to say it about Johnson - a man who competes in triathlons - is downright idiotic.
I'm going to give Mr. McNabb, a man whom I have zero knowledge of aside from seeing him on soup commercials (actually making him one of my better-known football players), the benefit of the doubt and say that he is just plain ignorant. Like most motorsports detractors, he apparently thinks the racing edition Chevy SS that Johnson will use as he seeks that sixth crown in Sunday's Ford 400 is the same as the street model bearing the same name and - thanks to the Generation 6 platform - a strong aesthetic resemblance.
Racing fans know better, that Johnson's car and the other 42 like it in Sunday's race feature none of the creature comforts we mere mortals are accustomed to. And we know better than to think that racing is just a matter of taking left turns for three and a half hours. I won't rehash the same arguments about the g-forces and intense heat a driver must withstand for that amount of time with no scheduled break; they have been well chronicled elsewhere. Nor will I delve deep into the argument that race drivers do those things at nearly triple the speeds most folks run on the interstate, which many folks seem to have an issue staying out of trouble with while going in a largely straight line.
The fact of the matter is that it takes either a very athletic individual - like Johnson or Carl Edwards - or someone with the great upper-body strength needed to manhandle a race car (a la Tony Stewart) to be successful in the marathon Sprint Cup Series races. It also takes immense mental strength and focus. One momentary lapse and you are heading into the wall with an impact that makes an NFL linebacker's tackle (that's the guy that does most of the heavy hitting, right?) feel like that of a small puppy.
In a perfect world, we could take the naysayers, the Donovan McNabbs of the world, and stick them into a simulator that subjected them to the same factors that race drivers deal with, only stopping at the point of potential injury. Unfortunately, we can't, and so the generosity will continue. That is to say that those aforementioned naysayers will continue to give away their ignorance every time they opine on racing and race drivers.
Perhaps the time has come to quit worrying about what these idiots say about racing. They don't understand it and they never will, so what is the point of trying to hammer it into their ten-inch-thick skulls? Naysayers will always be naysayers, whatever the subject.
And who knows? Perhaps McNabb and company are right. Perhaps race drivers really aren't athletes.
Perhaps "athlete" is just too sissy a term to slap upon them.
Make no mistake, those "mere games" -particularly North America's "Big Four" - are great forms of entertainment. I myself love the game of baseball - so long as it is played under National League rules - and type these words while wearing a t-shirt with the name and logo of my beloved Atlanta Braves. Some folks love the NBA and the heroes of the hardwood. Others yet clamor to watch the NHL and its two-for-one of top-flight professional hockey and the ultimate illegitimate fighting body. Last but certainly not least in terms of viewership comes the NFL, which has reigned as America's undisputed sporting king ever since the Major League Baseball strike of 1994.
Compared to the rigors faced by stock car drivers, especially prior to the safety revolution over the past 12 years and counting, they are indeed merely games.
Fans of the Big Four - especially the football fans it seems, though that perception could be skewed simply by the gargantuan fanbase the NFL enjoys compared to the other three - often deride professional racing, particularly NASCAR and its fans, by claiming it is not a sport. The most recent critic to throw his two cents into the discussion is former NFL quarterback Donovan McNabb, who stated Friday on a Fox Sports 1 talk show that our five-time (and likely, soon to be six-time) champ Jimmie Johnson is not an athlete because he drives a car.
To say that about just about any race driver is silly, but to say it about Johnson - a man who competes in triathlons - is downright idiotic.
I'm going to give Mr. McNabb, a man whom I have zero knowledge of aside from seeing him on soup commercials (actually making him one of my better-known football players), the benefit of the doubt and say that he is just plain ignorant. Like most motorsports detractors, he apparently thinks the racing edition Chevy SS that Johnson will use as he seeks that sixth crown in Sunday's Ford 400 is the same as the street model bearing the same name and - thanks to the Generation 6 platform - a strong aesthetic resemblance.
Racing fans know better, that Johnson's car and the other 42 like it in Sunday's race feature none of the creature comforts we mere mortals are accustomed to. And we know better than to think that racing is just a matter of taking left turns for three and a half hours. I won't rehash the same arguments about the g-forces and intense heat a driver must withstand for that amount of time with no scheduled break; they have been well chronicled elsewhere. Nor will I delve deep into the argument that race drivers do those things at nearly triple the speeds most folks run on the interstate, which many folks seem to have an issue staying out of trouble with while going in a largely straight line.
The fact of the matter is that it takes either a very athletic individual - like Johnson or Carl Edwards - or someone with the great upper-body strength needed to manhandle a race car (a la Tony Stewart) to be successful in the marathon Sprint Cup Series races. It also takes immense mental strength and focus. One momentary lapse and you are heading into the wall with an impact that makes an NFL linebacker's tackle (that's the guy that does most of the heavy hitting, right?) feel like that of a small puppy.
In a perfect world, we could take the naysayers, the Donovan McNabbs of the world, and stick them into a simulator that subjected them to the same factors that race drivers deal with, only stopping at the point of potential injury. Unfortunately, we can't, and so the generosity will continue. That is to say that those aforementioned naysayers will continue to give away their ignorance every time they opine on racing and race drivers.
Perhaps the time has come to quit worrying about what these idiots say about racing. They don't understand it and they never will, so what is the point of trying to hammer it into their ten-inch-thick skulls? Naysayers will always be naysayers, whatever the subject.
And who knows? Perhaps McNabb and company are right. Perhaps race drivers really aren't athletes.
Perhaps "athlete" is just too sissy a term to slap upon them.
Saturday, November 2, 2013
Farewell, Miss Marcy
"Just yesterday morning, they let me know you were gone...I walked out this morning, and I wrote down this song. I just can't remember who to send it to." - James Taylor
Countless hearts collectively broke Friday morning, November 1, with the news that Atlanta Motor Speedway Promotion and Marketing Director Marcy Scott had passed away following a second bout with cancer. Though we knew the news, delivered by track president Ed Clark, was likely coming - probably sooner rather than later - it was still a blindside and a punch in the gut for those of us that held out hope and prayed nightly for a miraculous recovery until the very end.
I never met Miss Marcy in person, but she became a huge influence on me in the all-too-brief time I worked with her through my writing as SB Nation Atlanta's NASCAR writer. It didn't take very long for me to find out that if you were a writer in Georgia with the Atlanta Motor Speedway as a focal point of your work, a friendship with her was a huge asset. I found out that a friendship with her was a huge asset in life, as well.
After SBN eliminated their regional positions in early January, it was Marcy with whom I corresponded about the creation of this blog. She seemed intrigued by the idea of a site by an AMS lover for AMS lovers, and she asked me to pass along any comments from fans. Alas, as you see, the blog has been heavily neglected to this point. That will change now. Marcy believed in me as a writer even when I didn't, and fulfilling my plans for this site at its genesis will be my tribute to her.
My story is far, far from unique. The tributes that poured in after the news had set in Friday indicate as much. It is comforting to know that, in a way, Marcy will continue to live on through all the lives she touched.
It is even more comforting to know that, after the long, hard road she traveled, she'll never feel an ounce of pain again. She has raced under the Good Lord's checkered flag into the ultimate victory lane.
Still, as humans, one can't help but lament that she no longer walks among us. I deeply regret - and will as long as I live - that I never got to meet her and thank her in person for everything she did for me. The opportunity was there, for sure. See, I've never once mistaken myself for a media member, because frankly I am not. I'm just a huge, huge NASCAR fan who loves putting his thoughts on the sport into words and had a great opportunity to spend two seasons bringing the sport to fans in my beloved state. And yet, Marcy treated me as though I were a nationally-known scribe, with invitations to a variety of events surrounding the Speedway. I never went, as I feel strongly that people like myself don't belong among the actual media folks who worked through the ranks to become a respected reporter and made it their livelihood. Still, I wish I had let ego get the best of me just once, though, so that I could have met probably my greatest advocate as a writer outside of my mom.
It's so hard to balance being thankful that Marcy's ordeal is finally over and that she is in the Lord's company as I type these words with the selfish pity of wishing she were still with us. It shouldn't be, but it is. Ultimately, I guess we just have to look beyond our grief and realize that one's life isn't quantified by money or possessions but by love and the impact one has on others. By that score, Marcy lived one heck of a full life.
Farewell, Miss Marcy.
Countless hearts collectively broke Friday morning, November 1, with the news that Atlanta Motor Speedway Promotion and Marketing Director Marcy Scott had passed away following a second bout with cancer. Though we knew the news, delivered by track president Ed Clark, was likely coming - probably sooner rather than later - it was still a blindside and a punch in the gut for those of us that held out hope and prayed nightly for a miraculous recovery until the very end.
I never met Miss Marcy in person, but she became a huge influence on me in the all-too-brief time I worked with her through my writing as SB Nation Atlanta's NASCAR writer. It didn't take very long for me to find out that if you were a writer in Georgia with the Atlanta Motor Speedway as a focal point of your work, a friendship with her was a huge asset. I found out that a friendship with her was a huge asset in life, as well.
After SBN eliminated their regional positions in early January, it was Marcy with whom I corresponded about the creation of this blog. She seemed intrigued by the idea of a site by an AMS lover for AMS lovers, and she asked me to pass along any comments from fans. Alas, as you see, the blog has been heavily neglected to this point. That will change now. Marcy believed in me as a writer even when I didn't, and fulfilling my plans for this site at its genesis will be my tribute to her.
My story is far, far from unique. The tributes that poured in after the news had set in Friday indicate as much. It is comforting to know that, in a way, Marcy will continue to live on through all the lives she touched.
It is even more comforting to know that, after the long, hard road she traveled, she'll never feel an ounce of pain again. She has raced under the Good Lord's checkered flag into the ultimate victory lane.
Still, as humans, one can't help but lament that she no longer walks among us. I deeply regret - and will as long as I live - that I never got to meet her and thank her in person for everything she did for me. The opportunity was there, for sure. See, I've never once mistaken myself for a media member, because frankly I am not. I'm just a huge, huge NASCAR fan who loves putting his thoughts on the sport into words and had a great opportunity to spend two seasons bringing the sport to fans in my beloved state. And yet, Marcy treated me as though I were a nationally-known scribe, with invitations to a variety of events surrounding the Speedway. I never went, as I feel strongly that people like myself don't belong among the actual media folks who worked through the ranks to become a respected reporter and made it their livelihood. Still, I wish I had let ego get the best of me just once, though, so that I could have met probably my greatest advocate as a writer outside of my mom.
It's so hard to balance being thankful that Marcy's ordeal is finally over and that she is in the Lord's company as I type these words with the selfish pity of wishing she were still with us. It shouldn't be, but it is. Ultimately, I guess we just have to look beyond our grief and realize that one's life isn't quantified by money or possessions but by love and the impact one has on others. By that score, Marcy lived one heck of a full life.
Farewell, Miss Marcy.
Wednesday, August 7, 2013
Tony Stewart's injury situation, as viewed from one of his biggest fans
Ever since the news hit the wire that Tony Stewart had been injured in a sprint car accident in Iowa, opinions have been flying in from all directions and in all manners. He should quit moonlighting, he should keep doing it, it's a terrible thing, it's funny, it won't be the same without him in the race, it's karma for him firing Ryan Newman.
Most of those opinions were made known via social media, throughout Twitterville and on the various NASCAR-related Facebook pages by race fans, some who count themselves among Tony's massive fanbase, some who don't but wanted to offer their sympathies, and some who should perhaps tread a little lightly these next few days, lest they find themselves in a similar situation to his after expressing their glee over another human being breaking a leg.
The NASCAR media also opined, with stories ranging from those scolding him for putting his Sprint Cup program into this situation to those praising him for making fans aware of short tracks across the country in a day and age when city councils and other morons who moved into a neighborhood, knowing full well there was a race track that had been there for 50 years or more nearby, and complained about the noise are so eager to turn those hallowed grounds into a mini-mall or a parking lot.
The purpose of this story is to try to present the situation from the view of one of Tony's biggest fans. No, it won't be as eloquent as the great pieces written by USA Today's Nate Ryan or Fox Sports' Tom Jensen or pretty much any story written by ESPN's Marty Smith (the best in the business as far as I am concerned), but hopefully it provides a little insight on the situation for those who don't root for Tony and can't see the story from this angle.
When word came that Tony had been involved in a crash and taken off in an ambulance, my first thought -as I'm sure is the case for most who were awake when the news broke - was about Jason Leffler. Fortunately, there were soon reports from the Southern Iowa Speedway that stated that Tony had been awake and alert and talking to the officials and the safety workers. Then came the rumors of a leg injury that ranged all the way to a compound fracture to the femur before we finally got the official word from Stewart-Haas Racing that Tony had broken his tibia and fibula (the two bones in the lower leg, for y'all who didn't pay attention in health class or biology). With that came the news that Tony would be out for this weekend's Watkins Glen race and likely longer, with one surgery complete to stabilize the injury completed and another one left to actually work on fixing it.
I felt a wide range of emotions, from fear to relief to anger to immense disappointment to understanding. Let me say first that the anger was never once directed at Tony and his sprint car pursuits. It was directed at the aforementioned idiots who feel big behind a computer screen and talked about how funny it was that Tony had been hurt and this and that. They have no understanding of the business of racing (hence they would understand why Ryan Newman is out at SHR next year and Danica Patrick is still in, as backwards as that may be), and frankly a lot of them were these teenage girls who don't know an axle from a tailpipe and who's only knowledge of the sport is that "like, OMG, Kasey Kahne/Dale Jr./Carl Edwards/Jimmie Johnson/Jeff Gordon/insert-whoever-else-here is SO hot!" They aren't worth getting mad over, but when you see all this crap being said about your hero, it's hard not to become incensed. I seethed for a good while.
The fear part is obvious, an immediate fear that Tony was hurt severely or that we had lost him. Relief came when we learned it was just - just - a leg injury. That was followed by the immense disappointment over the fact that he wouldn't be able to go for a record-extending sixth win in Sunday's Cheez-It 355 at the Glen, the fact that I won't get to see him race at Atlanta next month (and at this point, nobody. Finances can't justify buying tickets to a race Tony isn't in), and the fact that for only God knows how long at this point I won't get to see him race period.
The understanding part, which I turn to anytime that disappointment tries to creep back in, is that we still have Tony. Like I said a minute ago, it is just his leg. Yes it probably hurts like the dickens right now and I feel absolutely terrible for him, but doctors can fix a leg the same way the mechanics can fix a race car. Heck, if Rick Mears could come back to race and win two more Indy 500s after his feet and legs were completely shattered in a 1984 IndyCar accident, Tony can come back from a broken lower leg with no problem. The key is that we still have him and that the Good Lord and his guardian angels - whom I assume include Jason and Kenny Irwin, who would have turned 44 Monday - were looking out for him.
The best part of the day of course was Tony's message to his fans on Facebook, thanking us for our prayers and support. I cackled at the first line that read "I told someone to go get my phone or I was going to get up and get it myself." Is that our Smoke or what?
Long before Tony's accident and injury, his extra-curricular activity has been a point of contention among his fans, detractors, and the NASCAR media corps. Now the line has hardened even more, with folks on either side either criticizing or defending it more loudly than ever. It is quite telling, though, that the folks who were calling the loudest even before Tuesday for him to quit racing sprint cars have never turned a competitive lap, while drivers, mechanics, and broadcasters past and present vocally supported him doing the short track racing if he so chooses.
I've never raced, probably never will, but I fall in line with the latter group. If racing in his spare time is what Tony wants to do, then shame on anyone who would want him to stop. Yes, there are times when I wish his car of choice was something different - a dirt late model, perhaps - but I would never, ever suggest that he quit. The fact of the matter is that he has fallen in love with winged sprint cars since getting the opportunity to start racing them on a more frequent basis a few years ago. That's what he wants to drive, so all I can do is sit back, pray for his safety, and wait for an update on how he did.
He's living his life the way he wants to live it. That is something to be envied. And yes, he is responsible to a lot of folks - not me or you, but to his sponsors, his employees at Stewart-Haas Racing, the crew members of the 14 car - but you have to imagine that they already knew before they signed on the dotted line what his intentions were. It is a unique situation with a unique individual. I saw Donna Richeson, who was part of the ownership group of the No. 11 team when her then-brother-in-law Brett Bodine ran the team from 1996-2003, talking about this subject yesterday and comparing it to the situation with their team. Now, I'm not going to criticize Donna; for one thing she's an awesome lady and one of my favorite folks to interact with on Twitter, and furthermore she's much more qualified to speak on the subject of team ownership that most folks, myself included, because she's been there.
Like I said, though, it is a unique deal. I have to figure - I don't know for sure, and I don't want to be mistaken for thinking I do - that everyone knew up front what they were getting into when signing on to race with Tony and the risks that would be involved. Disappointed as Bass Pro Shops, ExxonMobil, Rush Truck Centers (the scheduled primary sponsor for this weekend's race at The Glen), Coca-Cola, Nabisco, and all the other companies who support his team have to be with the circumstances, I doubt they feel blindsided by this. I hope they don't, because I love having those brands on his car and supporting them all I can. It would be a shame if this were to sour their relationship with Tony. Will things change going forward? Maybe, but that's a bridge that will be crossed when they reach it.
Hey, at least they had more forewarning than Joe Gibbs did. The Coach famously restricted a bit of Tony's short track racing when Tony was driving the No. 20 car. Just as famously, names like Smoke Johnson, Smokey Jones, Mikey Fedorcak Jr., and Luke Warmwater started showing up in short track entry lists. No one outside of his inner circle and whoever he happened to be driving for on that evening were anymore the wise until the race was over and - often in the winner's circle - he pulled off his helmet.
It's not fun to face the fact that the next several races, perhaps the rest of the 2013 season, will go by without Tony Stewart in the field. I love all of our drivers for the most part, but it is hard to think of it as a race if he isn't in it. That's probably the big reason I seldom actively seek out Nationwide, Camping World Truck, NHRA, or IndyCar races on television. Conversely, I haven't missed a Cup race since 1998, when I would skip watching the Jeff Gordon Show in order to watch Tony race in the IRL.
I just love the guy. I've never met him and I probably never will - if I did, I'd end up like Jackie Gleason as Ralph Kramden in The Honeymooners (Huminahuminahuminahumina) - but every time I see him on television or wherever, it is as though I'm seeing a distant cousin or something. I'm sure I'm far from the only fan that feels that way about their driver, but it's still neat. I never say that I am his biggest fan, because that is reserved for his family and friends, but I am as big a fan as you can get otherwise and I would absolutely nominate myself for his biggest fan in the state of Georgia.
It is tough to know he's hurt, and that he will be kept away from his passion for the next few weeks. People aren't defined by their profession, but when it comes to Tony Stewart, "racer" isn't his profession. It's who he is, period. In terms of contemporary American motorsports, I'd say without hesitation that he is the best at it. Hopefully there's something to bring him some peace, whether he takes up some guest broadcasting or ups his prank-pulling to a whole new level, as he deals with his recovery and this temporary lull in the action.
Monday, August 5, 2013
Has the time come for defending Advocare 500 champ Denny Hamlin to make the hard choice?
Another race, another hard crash, another argument for Denny Hamlin to strongly consider abandoning the remainder of the 2013 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series campaign.
Hamlin's vicious crash 14 laps into Sunday's GoBowling.com 400 at the Pocono Raceway and the subsequent 43rd-place finish was just the latest misery in a season that has turned into the kind of nightmare you wouldn't wish upon your worst enemy. The No. 11 FedEx team, one of the best in the business, has run terrible all summer. Even on days when things have looked brighter, like they are heading for a decent finish, something happens almost religiously to derail them. Generally, it has been a brutal shot into the wall, and that is the key in the argument for writing off 2013 altogether and coming back strong next year.
Were the poor results the 11 team has endured these last several weeks the result of mechanical woes or gentle wall-dings - relatively speaking, there aren't really any gentle hits when you're speeding around the track in a race car - it would be easy to sit back and admire their tenacity in soldiering on. It would be a lesson in perseverance in the face of unbelievable adversity for a team of that caliber. Instead, it seems as though Denny nearly knocks a hole in the SAFER barrier every week. How many more hits like that can he and his already-injured back endure before there is severe, possibly permanent and career-altering damage?
Denny has already proven himself to be a championship-contending race driver. He should have won the title in 2010, and he was strong last year before a few of late-season disasters dropped him to sixth in the final rundown. Watching the Virginian short-track ace work traffic on those types of tracks is one of the great enjoyments for a Sprint Cup fan, and his wins on the bigger, faster tracks - including last year's Advocare 500 at the Atlanta Motor Speedway - has proven him to be essentially a complete driver, at least on ovals. His day in the sun as Sprint Cup champion still seems to be out there, his for the taking.
It seems as though he is risking all of that in order to soldier through what has been a lost season pretty much since the final lap of the Auto Club 400 in March, when a rival driver decided that crashing Hamlin at a track where cars race at speeds approaching and surpassing 200 mph was a fitting payback for a bump and spin at 100 mph at the Bristol Motor Speedway a week prior.
What is there left to race for? A victory, in order to ensure that he maintains his streak of winning a race each year of his career (something only Tony Stewart and Jimmie Johnson can claim among active drivers) seems out of the question with the way the 11 team is performing. Getting to the point that they can even contend for a win at this point also seems a lost cause.
Denny is right to say that he is the face of FedEx's NASCAR program. Had Jason Leffler not been tragically killed in June, it would have been hard for a lot of race fans to name any driver besides Hamlin to drive the FedEx race car (Terry Labonte and J.J. Yeley also took the wheel in 2005 before Denny won the ride permanently in his late-season audition). Certainly a sponsor with so much invested in their race team (only Miller Brewing Company and Lowe's Home Improvement appear on the hood their respective cars in more races than FedEx holds primary status of the No. 11 Camry) realizes what is at stake. One has to imagine they would be willing to put someone else in their car for the remainder of the 2013 campaign in order to preserve a driver who has the potential to one day be enshrined in Charlotte.
Denny Hamlin is one of my favorite race drivers, and believe me, it would be disappointing to not see him in the field at Atlanta on Labor Day Weekend. That being said, I would much rather prefer to have the opportunity to see him race for 15 more years or so at his full ability than to have him risking his career and frankly his quality of life - the back is not something to mess with much - to compete while injured. I was all for his comeback earlier this year in a bid to win some races and show that even if he wasn't participating in the Chase, he would have been a title threat. That ship has sailed, and it seems pointless to risk his long-term career any further in order to salvage whatever it is the 11 team is looking to salvage at this point.
Hamlin's vicious crash 14 laps into Sunday's GoBowling.com 400 at the Pocono Raceway and the subsequent 43rd-place finish was just the latest misery in a season that has turned into the kind of nightmare you wouldn't wish upon your worst enemy. The No. 11 FedEx team, one of the best in the business, has run terrible all summer. Even on days when things have looked brighter, like they are heading for a decent finish, something happens almost religiously to derail them. Generally, it has been a brutal shot into the wall, and that is the key in the argument for writing off 2013 altogether and coming back strong next year.
Were the poor results the 11 team has endured these last several weeks the result of mechanical woes or gentle wall-dings - relatively speaking, there aren't really any gentle hits when you're speeding around the track in a race car - it would be easy to sit back and admire their tenacity in soldiering on. It would be a lesson in perseverance in the face of unbelievable adversity for a team of that caliber. Instead, it seems as though Denny nearly knocks a hole in the SAFER barrier every week. How many more hits like that can he and his already-injured back endure before there is severe, possibly permanent and career-altering damage?
Denny has already proven himself to be a championship-contending race driver. He should have won the title in 2010, and he was strong last year before a few of late-season disasters dropped him to sixth in the final rundown. Watching the Virginian short-track ace work traffic on those types of tracks is one of the great enjoyments for a Sprint Cup fan, and his wins on the bigger, faster tracks - including last year's Advocare 500 at the Atlanta Motor Speedway - has proven him to be essentially a complete driver, at least on ovals. His day in the sun as Sprint Cup champion still seems to be out there, his for the taking.
It seems as though he is risking all of that in order to soldier through what has been a lost season pretty much since the final lap of the Auto Club 400 in March, when a rival driver decided that crashing Hamlin at a track where cars race at speeds approaching and surpassing 200 mph was a fitting payback for a bump and spin at 100 mph at the Bristol Motor Speedway a week prior.
What is there left to race for? A victory, in order to ensure that he maintains his streak of winning a race each year of his career (something only Tony Stewart and Jimmie Johnson can claim among active drivers) seems out of the question with the way the 11 team is performing. Getting to the point that they can even contend for a win at this point also seems a lost cause.
Denny is right to say that he is the face of FedEx's NASCAR program. Had Jason Leffler not been tragically killed in June, it would have been hard for a lot of race fans to name any driver besides Hamlin to drive the FedEx race car (Terry Labonte and J.J. Yeley also took the wheel in 2005 before Denny won the ride permanently in his late-season audition). Certainly a sponsor with so much invested in their race team (only Miller Brewing Company and Lowe's Home Improvement appear on the hood their respective cars in more races than FedEx holds primary status of the No. 11 Camry) realizes what is at stake. One has to imagine they would be willing to put someone else in their car for the remainder of the 2013 campaign in order to preserve a driver who has the potential to one day be enshrined in Charlotte.
Denny Hamlin is one of my favorite race drivers, and believe me, it would be disappointing to not see him in the field at Atlanta on Labor Day Weekend. That being said, I would much rather prefer to have the opportunity to see him race for 15 more years or so at his full ability than to have him risking his career and frankly his quality of life - the back is not something to mess with much - to compete while injured. I was all for his comeback earlier this year in a bid to win some races and show that even if he wasn't participating in the Chase, he would have been a title threat. That ship has sailed, and it seems pointless to risk his long-term career any further in order to salvage whatever it is the 11 team is looking to salvage at this point.
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