A Voice For The Fans ~ What If Rednecks Ran NASCAR

by: PattyKay Lilley

Because it's my column and I get to make the rules for the game, let's set the timeline for this as January, 2004. I choose that time period only because it marks the beginning of what we fans have come to know as "The Changing of the Guard." In this little exercise, it may be necessary to cast your mind back to that time period to understand this with any sort of reason or comprehension, but really, nothing much has changed in the intervening years, except quite possibly for the worse. I've always enjoyed a good game of "Make believe", haven't you?

Imagine if you will, a racing journalist seated at the keyboard in her office, contemplating what to write about and hoping she can find a thought that 35 others haven't already expressed. She stares at the blank screen before her and then alters her gaze to the window beside her that overlooks a winter day in Georgia, quite cool but snowless. Finding no inspiration to write among the plants and trees, her eyes slowly return to the blank screen as her mind wafts away to that semi-trancelike state we call oblivion.