night, it was my opinion there were more folks at the truck race than at the Nationwide race in Texas.  Could be wishful thinking, or maybe just being unable to judge a crowd size and because NASCAR never releases official attendance figures we will never really know which was the larger crowd.  I did hear that Elliott Sadler was on The John Boy and Billy Big show this morning and stated that the crowd was between 32,000 and 34,000 and other than the truck races at Daytona, this would be the largest crowd in the history of truck events.

Of course, being the guy that I am, the first impulse was to shout “In your face, Brian”.  Then I saw a commercial on TV just before coming out  to The Lair to write this and realized it is not so much Brian Z. France as it is the marketing geniuses who are banging the drum about the 18 to 36 year old demographics.  I realized that NASCAR has made a couple of concessions this year to us older fans, although some of us are reluctant to admit that, and maybe, just maybe, there is hope for even more now that Mr. Hillenburg has proven that the point. By that I reiterate what I said last week about the truck racing being the closest to “back in the day” racing and being such, to return to a track full of quite a bit of history in its own right, was to say to NASCAR and the marketing folks that “hey, we old fans are here. We still care. We want to be recognized and acknowledged for what we have contributed to the growth of the sport”. I think that was well driven home Sunday at The Rock. We can all offer personal thanks to our very  own Jimmy Johnson for all his hard work in promoting the event.  Jimmy should be taking a well earned rest this week!

Before going further, I need to say that I have nothing against folks in marketing. I know several such folks and they are all good people. A few years ago I was fortunate to meet a young man about to graduate with a marketing degree from USC.  He is a really great guy but after two years of working in marketing he said he just couldn’t do it anymore.  He says it’s too reliant upon information that is not always reliable and to succeed in the field you have to be able to second guess common sense and he was not into that.  Is that not what we have been saying here for some time now?  Have we not been saying that the marketing folks who are trying to put folks in the grandstand seats have lost sight of the fact of exactly what stock car racing is about.   It is, in my humble opinion, about young men, and sometimes women, who have a dream of driving a race car, first on the short tracks and eventually in the Cup series.  It is not about the slick dudes who can sell products on TV and who must always hold the Coke bottle so the label shows when they are interviewed, and be sure to hold up the interview while you take a swig of the Coke.  The only time that was entertaining was when Logano tried to drink from the bottle with the cap still on.

I was looking at some old programs last week and saw some pictures of Nelson Stacy after a Darlington race.  That picture reminded me that the drivers of the past were tough guys.  Nelson drove tanks for Patton, I believe, in World War II. I purposely compared that picture side by side with Carl Edwards, Denny Hamlin, A. J. Allmendinger, Kyle Busch, and a few others, and not meaning to degrade any of the aforementioned drivers, compared to Nelson Stacy, they should be in a prom dress awaiting their date.  I even compared Nelson Stacy to D.W. but I won’t comment further on that comparison.

So, all in all, I would say Andy Hillenburg won a victory comparable to Kasey Kahne Sunday.  I would say that I think we, the old fans, won a victory of sorts as well.  Whether or not Brian and the boys at the Beach will acknowledge what happened is still yet to be seen.   But, compared with what they have going on these days, it has to bring attention to the fact that racing is more than slick Hollywood type productions.

Now, on to other very important matters.  By this time, the ribbon cutting ceremony at The Historic Cleveland County Fairgrounds Speedway should be completed and now the excitement will build to a fever pitch as this weekend approaches.  Michael W. Smith and his group which also includes our own Wayne “Chief” Wilson, have worked magic to reestablish this venue for racing.  And Jeff Gilder has set this Saturday, April 21, 2012, as the very first RacersReunion® Vintage Championship Series event.  Bopper can address the issue of vintage racing much better than I can so I’m hoping he will do that later in the show. But the point to be made here is that a track that was dormant for more than 30 years in a small town in North Carolina will roar back to life with the vintage cars this Saturday and then weekly racing will continue under the Good Old Days Series banner, the brainchild of Michael W. Smith.  This is going to prove to be a boom for race fans in that area who have longed for such racing.  I will be there Saturday and I hope many of you in the area will come out and support this new venture and see who can claim the title of North Carolina Vintage Racing champion.  It should be quite a show.

So, this week we have covered the rebirth of The Rock and what can happen when NASCAR makes a half-hearted effort at a return to the old days.  We have covered what is about to unfold in Shelby, North Carolina.  We have said very little about the past weekend’s events in Texas and, frankly, other than a good guy like “The Biff” winning, there isn’t a lot to excite me about that one.  This week the NASCAR boys are in Kansas.  I’m so happy I’ll be in Shelby.  Kansas has done nothing to excite me since Dorothy was swept up to OZ from the Kansas farm.  I do wish NASCAR a good weekend, but if Brian wants to see how it should be done, he should come on over and join me in Shelby.  Leave D.W. to handle matters in Kansas.