For my entire life I have struggled with patience. I hate to wait for anything or anyone. I do not like dealing with people who are not on time…I’m always early. Even worse-I can’t stand it when folks do not see things my way. You can imagine the stress this has created. But I normally charge ahead and continue my persistent quest to have things “my way”, though recently I’ve noticed a shift.
Something that has been a thorn in my ridiculously impatient side has been all the changes in NASCAR rules over the past few years. Why the hell do they think we need a chase? How can anyone perceive that the top 35 in points get a bye on qualifying? What is wrong with the long-proven “go fast or go home” scenario? And what the hell good is a lucky dog? If I race my ass off to put a guy a lap down, what gives anyone the right to give it back? Why do all the drivers have to drive the same freaking cars? And now, we hear rumblings or suggestions from Bruton Smith of adding “planned” competition cautions. These changes all represent something I refer to as “managed results”. You get my point…right? Aren’t you completely stressed over this stuff, too?
I know. I get all the BS about keeping sponsors involved and creating a level playing field… blah, blah, blah. Take a look around. How’s it working out? Not too good! We’re losing fans in droves and sponsors are dropping, too. Does this sound like sour grapes to you? If so, perhaps you have not been involved long enough to understand why I feel the way I do. I’ve been a fan of this sport for over 50 years. My rants and concerns are due to the LOVE I have of a sport that has been a major part of my life for as long as I can remember. I have had reason to care.
Well, I’m beginning to feel less impatient about all these things I can’t change. It seems no one really cares what I think anyway. There is a new quest (every year or so) to find a new fan base that will accept status quo. Am I really becoming more patient with age? Is this maturity? No, I think not. I think I’ve lost my give-a-shit faculties. How many others are caring less? How can this be a good thing? I ask a lot of questions…don’t I?
I think I’m over it. I give up. No more bitching and complaining from me. But I do LOVE racing. And it has given me countless hours of pleasure and excitement. So, I should just try my best to enjoy the status quo…right? I hate the sound of that, too.
This week end, I’m going to a local track and watch some really good racing. I may take some beer, fried chicken, and some biscuits. It will be nice to relax, enjoy the competition, and contemplate these changes in the way I feel of late. Perhaps I can revive my give-a-shit faculties. If I do, I’ll let you know.
Until then, support your local short tracks. They care about the fans, do not have any TV commitments to uphold, no sponsorship obligations to affect the race format…and they need your support!
-Jeff
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Ya know Jeff, I call you Dad because I love ya, even though I’m old enough to be your Mom. I also know you quite well, and not caring is not in your makeup. I wonder if folks today can even understand it when we speak of loving a sport. Do they know that we’re not talking about once a week or once a month? Could we ever explain how a sport… a dang game, if you will… could be something we eat, breathe and live, every day, all the time, for a lifetime?
They play their games on some little hand-held gadget or gizmo, and when they grow weary of that one, they push a button and amuse themselves with another one. We, on the other hand, have thought nothing of hopping into the family wagon and making a thousand-mile journey, one-way, to see one race. Why? Because we could!
What you call your give-a-shit- faculties actually translates directly to your ability to love, deeply and completely, and that is the way you have always seen stock car racing. Me too Dad! Go, have fun at the short track of your choice. The racers there won’t have glass dashboards, nor will they be millionaires, but I’ll bet you a ten-spot right now that you’ll see better racing and all the “competition” that Mr. France keeps preaching about “creating.” Good racing isn’t created; it comes directly from the desire of one racer to outrun another racer.
Enjoy, my friend, but never stop caring. Just change the venue.
So, true, PKL. Too many times it seems the money has replaced desire.
Jeff, You are not alone in your feelings. I dont think you’re getting more accepting of the status quo. You are finally realizing you cant fight city hall and it’s frustrating you as it has most of us. They will only change when they have to because they are just like most people. They want to, no, insist on “Doing it their own way, results be damned”. Please let us all know how you enjoyed your race week end and be careful cause you may get the urge to get up on the wheel once again. lol. My current vintage modified race car has a big word painted on the left side of the dash(metal,not glass) and it says PATIENCE…..it can be a good thing….
Bill,
I went to Lakeview last night (Carolina Speedway)…an old school dirt track out in the SC country. Lakeview is a suburb of Nichols, SC which is a very small town with a couple of traffic lights and a couple police officers very determined to enforce the 25 mph speed limit.
It was Bell&Bell Buick GMC Night. Bell&Bell are the sponsors of the Bell & Bell Vintage Modified Series. Mr. W.C Bell made his debut (I’m guessing at 70+ years old) in one of the finest modified Ponitac (1939ish) mods I’ve ever seen. Great night of racing…loved every minute of it. And you are so right. The bug to return to racing increases with every visit I make to a local track.
Good post…
I agree with you, all the changes certainly have added nothing to the sport. I think Nascar succeeds in spite of the people who run it, rather than because of them.
Here’s my plan:
- No more chase
- Only the top 20 finishers in a race get points. 21-43 get zero.
- Winner of a race get a huge number of points, enough so that whoever wins the most races over the year probably wins the Cup.
Drivers kill themselves to win races, and yet Nascar gives them a piddly little point or two for doing so.
Last year, Stewart won FIVE freaking races in the Chase, to Edwards ZERO, and yet Stewart won by a tiebreaker. How asinine is that?
This idea to “reward consistency” is moronic. No one cares about finishing 40th instead of 41st, and yet Nascar rewards that.
If no one got points from 21 on back, you wouldn’t see cars 50 laps down with no hood, driving around to get 1 position.
And, the top 35 in points would make sense for qualifying, because the “start and park” cars would get no points each week, so they’d have to qualify on time, instead of being guaranteed a spot.
Also, one race per track per season, except maybe Daytone, Talladega, Bristol, and Martinsville. The rest get 1 race period, spread out the racing to more venues, and less boring venues.
John,
We agree…I just can’t wrap my head around all the “managed results”. My frustrations were certainly greater when all the changes began. I wanted to be heard and to let the powers know that I didn’t approve. In my most enjoyable years as a fan, I planned everything around the race…didn’t miss one. I have tried very hard to like the product we now have and have encouraged others to attempt the same. But, I am most definitely losing my interest in top-level stock car racing. Racing is supposed to be an all out attempt to win, or at least finish in the best position possible with the equipment one has. I do not see how this product will ever yield and sustain a fan base.
John, are you my brother by another mother? I swear, I wrote that column about 8 years ago and still believe every word of it. One small difference… I would most emphatically get rid of the guaranteed top-35. Heck, we don’t have 35 competitive teams racing right now, never mind giving a guaranteed spot to start and park cars.
On the point cutoff for cars at the rear, I made the cutoff at 35, but I’d also cut off the money at the same point. “Thanks for coming; try again next week.” That would be the end of starting and parking.
How I wish that one of us… or all of us… could get Brian France to listen to a thing we say. It sadly seems that he is bent on destroying everything the fans have loved about racing… most of which starts with the RACE!
~PattyKay/Assc. Editor
Jeff, I sure understand where you’re coming from. I’ve been a race fan for the past 50+ years and, up until this past year, I wouldn’t miss a truck, Nationwide, or Cup race – whether in person or on TV. HOWEVER…..
With all the changes over the past few years, “race” doesn’t fit anymore. My favorite drivers either hang out at the back until close to the end or they politely move over to let others pass. The cars are all matched to NASCAR specs – might as well be IROC week after week!
Yesterday, I went to a barbecue…. Missed the race…. Watched the highlights on the NASCAR site when I got home…. Do I feel deprived? Heck no! When NASCAR took away the actual ability to race, they lost me, my money, and my support too. Sad, but true – fans like us are a dying breed.
So true, SRRaceFan…and look what happened to IROC.
I fear for the future of the sport because new-age fans do not seem to share the same enduring passion old-school fans exhibited. They certainly do not seem to share the same long-term loyalty to the brands that support the sport.
Can NASCAR continue to turn over the fan base in an effort to sustain the sport? I dunno…seems like a major task to me. Especially when there WAS a very caring base in place that provided 60 years of support.
Hello Jeff, good article that makes one think about our lost sport.
Patience or caring less? Personally I think as we age we grow wiser and therefore begin to realize that the way we spend our time and make our decisions is more important than some other things that we cannot control. We become calmer and live more on memories and wish things were not so fast to change. Younger people live more in the now and want instant gratification and then are off to the next “now” way of getting their gratification. Too many times, business people do forget how they got to where they are and their core roots of fans/customers, etc are not as important as the money they hope to get from the “now generation”. I will always want to watch the race broadcasts, but I no longer put that on the top of my weekend agenda as there are so many ways to get a summary of the Nascar happenings without getting my blood pressure up by worrying about how they are ruining it these days. Perhaps it is both patience and caring less about dedicating hours to stuff that agitates us?
Vivian,
You hit some very good points.There is so much competition for attention these days. The result seems to be decreasing attention spans with each generation.
I agree as we age priorities change, but in past generations (at least in my circles) racing remained a major priority even to older fans. But…there again…I am the classic southern redneck raised on racing. I am a fan because my father was a fan and introduced me to the sport. My son is a fan because I introduced him to the sport. What happens as fathers become less interested in introducing the sport to their children? There seems to be a generational gap developing and as a “former” die-hard fan, that concerns me. I cannot figure out why that does not concern NASCAR. I’m sure it does concern them, but they sure seem to be looking for answers in the wrong places.
Everyone seems to miss a big point to Bruton Smith Ideas. Sure it makes more restarts, but I don’t see anything along the lines of “managing results”. With the simple step of a “half time” break it will be a little step offsetting the rules violations that are going on for 23 years. The violation of “no passing under yellow”. The fouled up pit stops have trashed so many potentially good races on the track. No one seems to care about this?? Do you even want to see cars racing? Or pit crews racing like it is now??
Compromise is always possible, safe pit stops for 1/4 race, or 1/2 race. Why is the world are they jammed up together in EVERY early pit stop???
In the old old days, Roger Huntington described in Stock Car Magazine while watching the races, keep an eye on the flagman, when the yellow came out the drivers could come on in the pits. Someone running 8th, 10th could be the leader (at that time most of the cars were chumps and got lapped early). The running order could change dramatically. Not long after that Richard Petty said ALL THEY NEEDED was probably a speed limit in the pits.
And (later) didn’t racing back to the yellow come up to decide ON THE TRACK, the running order and then screwed up with the multi car teams?? Wan’t that managing results from the other side?
One more tidbit, It might have been Roger Huntingto who described restarts being single file for many years. With the advent of a few dramatically faster cars (Petty etc)a “fast lane” was developed to keep the “chumps” from getting run over, so the fast cars pulled into their own lane.
I’m sorry but the Brian France era has almost no “car racing” content, mostly pit crew racing and high speed parades and (most) all the cars artificially kept on the lead lap.
Thanks for your comments, Henry.
I do not consider the evolution of safety to be part of this issue. The death of Mike Ritch in Atlanta in 1990 led to pit road speed regulations…great move. Eliminating the race back to the caution flag has obviously prevented countless accidents and eliminated the gray area observed by some drivers who exercised the “gentlemen’s agreement” (and good judgement) only to be passed by others who would take (and impose) the risk. I’ve seen many instances at local short tracks as well where racing back to the caution has created extremely dangerous situations for “sitting ducks” on the track…especially the unfortunate ones who ended up wrecked near the start’finish line.
In my opinion Smith’s competition yellow idea is not all that crazy. But when/if added to the already string of rules that have in, my opinion, taken away from the sport seems to be the wrong direction.
If that (breaking up the long runs) is the direction we’re move toward, I’d absolutely be for running some (shorter) heats and a main event. Why not? That would certainly keep the cars in a bunch and create excitement. Everyone would have to race his/her ass off to get to the main. But, that would most likely eliminate some sponsors from being represented in the main event. Probably not a popular direction in today’s environment.
And the Chase doesn’t eliminate sponsors from contention? C’mon Dad, that has to be the biggest reason for the drastic drop in sponsorship over recent years. I have a personal interest in that one. I predicted it; it happened; Patty – 1; NASCAR – 0.
If heats and a Main would get more fan attention, sponsorship will follow. That’s the way it’s always worked.
I agree the Chase has hurt sponsorship…absolutely!
I’ll honestly say down the line, NASCAR will make the Trucks more Truckier if they go to Bowman Gray or Hickory and the Nationwide Cars look like Trans Am Clones and I feel sooner or later, the Late Model Glut of Cup and Nationwide Cars will wind up.
Tony,
I love the trucks! And I would love to see the trucks and NW cars go back to some of the smaller venues who need them. I totally understand the “expected” economics that eliminated those cars racing at smaller venues, but I don’t think it is too late to correct that situation. The truck race at Rockingham this year was a good test. I would love to see more or that.
Well, by golly, Jeff… you sound just like me. My wife says I have no patience at all and no tolerance for people that can’t do their job right.
She sure is right.
My philosophy always was, “Don’t transfer your problem people to another department; either get them retrained to do it right or terminate them.” I was once disciplined by the Department of Commerce because I made people cry. Well, I couldn’t fire them, so I made sure they were miserable by gawd.
My wife is always late and I am always early.
And I bitch at just about everything NASCAR does these days.
Unlike you, Jeff, I am still impatient and my wife says it will eventually kill me. Also, she doesn’t like to ride with me when I exchange “pleasantries” with other idiots on the highway.