I could not have put my thoughts on paper any better than you did, PattyKay.........I guess great minds think alike. I, too, have been a NASCAR fan for about 60 years, never was fortunate enough to be able to drive a real race car although I did my share of street racing when I was younger. I did manage to do a little flagging at various tracks around the southeast and have been a "frustrated" race car driver forever. I really, really admire you guys like Johnny, Jeff, & Tim who, in my opinion, are part of the "founding fathers" of this sport.....and dearly wish I could have been in some of those seats you guys were in. The sport is nothing like what it used to be...............but it is still racing and I still love it, just not quite with the same level of burning passion that I used to feel. Although I truly admire some of the great young racing talent I see on the track today, I believe that every one of those drivers & team members is passionate about what they are doing - even those that are not quite as talented or well-financed as some of the others. Having said that, I am distressed about the changes, the current management, and the direction taken by the sport in recent years. It was a lot more fun when it was being run by those who had been down in the trenches, paid their dues, worked hard & played hard, worked their way up that proverbial ladder & never forgot where they came from..............and before so, so much corporate money came into the picture (although R.J. Reynolds was a great supporter of the sport). It's obviously become a very big business today, but I believe the France family & their associates should do everything they can to familiarize themselves with the early & middle histories of the sport............and make every effort to recapture some of the early culture that was such magic. That probably sounds like a pipe dream.....and maybe it is..........but we can still dream & enjoy our memories.
PattyKay Lilley said: You guys make me humble. I've never driven a stock car, other than the one parked in my garage at any given time. I found the sport quite by accident, which I discussed when Tim dragged me onto the radio for an interview. (Still don't know why anyone here would want to hear about me) The only thing I've ever raced was a snowmobile, and that was only drags, not ovals. There were races for those things held every winter weekend, just up the road from me, but by that time, I was past 30 and a mother, not that starry-eyed 16-year old, and I guess I'd developed more good sense by then. Still, I wasn't afraid to push that thing well over 100 mph and do it well. Ah...what a shame that youth is wasted on the young.
Even to the young fan, it's obvious that this isn't your Daddy's NASCAR any longer. I'm not naive enough to think that Big Bill and Annie didn't think about making money with their new toy. Of course they did. They were only human, for goodness sake. But it was young Bill that built the empire, with a lot of help from R. J. Reynolds. (I still believe that T. Wayne Robertson belongs in their precious Hall of Fame, along with everyone else on their limited list. By the time all the pioneers are inducted into the HOF at the pace of 5 per year, most of us will be long dead and gone)
Someone, somewhere drew a comparison between the Family France and immigrant families in America, saying that in both instances, the first generation work their fingers to the bone to get ahead, because they can. The second generation, having been passed the torch, keeps up the good work and improves its rewards so as to provide for the next generation, "in style" if you will. The third generation, raised not to see the actual work that Grandpa did, believes that Dad's generation somehow owes him a living and all too often, when it's his turn to take over the business, just trashes it for what he can get out of it, putting nothing back into it, until eventually, there is no business left.
Sadly, I can see that comparison all too clearly and I fear for the demise of a sport I have loved unconditionally for almost sixty years. Remember, one of the very first things Brian France did after taking over NASCAR was to sell almost all of his stock in the corporation. Not clever in my book, but then, I've never looked at Brian as clever...and he probably doesn't think much of me either. What a shame it would be to see all of the excitement and wonderment we've loved for so many years just thrown out like the baby in the bath water.
Johnny, you mentioned one of my pet peeves there and you might be sorry you asked, so I'll try to keep this part brief. In my humble opinion, anyone that goes to a racetrack to see wrecks is not a fan by anyone's description. He...or she...is a jerk of the highest magnitude. There are human beings inside those cars, and in any wreck anywhere, in any car, the weakest and most fragile part in that car is the driver! Wrecks are not fun and they are not exciting. They can and do kill. If someone gets some sort of pleasure out of that, then that person is beyond my understanding.
NASCAR insists that racing Talladega with restrictor plates is a wonderful idea. Well, maybe for them, if it puts fannies in the seats, but I beg to disagree. That sort of racing just scares the daylights out of me. Cars were never meant to race there four wide and ten deep for a multitude of laps. That isn't racing; it's blatant insanity. When you insure that the fast cars cannot pull away from the back markers, that is nothing but a wreck waiting for a place to happen...and it seldom disappoints. Maybe I'm crazy or weird, but I sometimes actually sit and cry when I see one of the "Big Ones" occur. Besides the obvious but mostly unnecessary danger to life and limb, look at the cost to repair all of those beautiful machines. Someone has to pay that cost, but it isn't Brian France. Yes, I guess Hendrick, Roush and the other big boys can probably afford it, but why? Other smaller teams can be devastated by being caught up in a couple of those "engineered wrecks" made especially for the idiots that come to see them.
Ahem...Johnny, don't wind me up like that about things I hold near and dear. Sometimes, when you pull my string I tend to become a little Chatty Patty doll and just keep talking and talking and...
~PattyKay
