Today vs Yesteryear and why

For some time I've tried to understand why I have such a hard time looking at today's drivers in the same light as the drivers I saw as hero's years ago. It finally came to me. It is something we have all talked about but I failed to tie the loose ends together until today. It all comes down to saturation. Pure and simple, too much coverage. All NASCAR all the time has kindda made me numb towards the drivers and the sport. I love NASCAR and would probably jump off the nearest bridge if the TV coverage of the races were to end, but in my opinion the amount of media coverage the sport is getting has depleated the level of excitement. It kindda like living room furniture, after a while you don't even notice it anymore.

I miss the days of limited NASCAR coverage. We didn't need to know how many times they had been married and we didn't care. We all had our hero's for no other reason than we like the driver or the team or the car, that was enough. Don't get me wrong I enjoy the coverage and what it has done for the sport, but at the same time it has taken the tingle out of the sport, that feeling we got when we did find some coverage years ago. Let me know if you agree that there is too much coverage or are you happy with the media bombardment we get every week.

updated by @bumpertag: 12/05/16 04:02:07PM

A lot of truth to what you say about oversaturation. Back in the 60s we just lived for the Saturday afternoon that ABC's Wide World of Sports would show a stock car race, even though we already knew the outcome of a usually several weeks old race and had to endure having it broken into 3 or 4 disjointed, heavily edited segments between arm wrestling. tiddlywinks, etc. However, the first racing action I ever saw at Daytona, Charlotte or Atlanta was on ABC Wide World of Sports. Used to see the Darlington "movie" of the previous year's Southern 500 every year when Buck & Buddy Baker would come to Richmond and show it at Tiny Town Bowling Alley's Tantilla Garden to promote it. That was the first time, also that I ever laid eyes on Sonny Hutchins' Junie Donlavey-built #90 1961 Ford Starliner Daytona Sportsman car.

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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"

My answer to media saturation is not to watch the pre race although Race Hub does a real nice post race review. Concerning how we think about the drivers I think most of it has to do with the era of our impression or in other words, what we experience at a young age. What we see and do during childhood is what sticks with us for life.

I was 13 years old in 1975 and seeing Petty, Pearson, Yarborough and others at Doverhas stuck with me to this day. Nothing compares. But the best for me these days is seeing driver interviews after a race. Love it !

On Sunday, I'd hope the preacher would not be longwinded at ourSouthern Baptist church in Richmond. I'd get dad to give me the car keys, rush out of church to the parking lot and turn on Universal Racing Network on the car radio (after dad finally let me get a radio - AM only, of course, at the junk yard andinstall it myself in our '57 Chevy). It'd usually be another 15-20 min. before mom, dad and my sister got to the car. We used to have a 30 minute radio show in Richmond on WXGI Radio (the station was formed by two WWII Army buddies, ex-GI's, get it?) in the 60s named "The 5th Turn" hosted by Joe Kelly and Eddie Anderson that aired for 30 minutes before the radio broadcast. Oh, to hear URN's Bob Montgomery open a race radio broadcast was a treat not to be missed. Back in those days, the lineup would be read (last to first), starting with car number, hometown, car make and year, and driver name. Even if we hadn't seen the starting lineup in the paper, and some of these races had qualifying the same day, we would anticipate the driver's name by the hometown. You could almost picture those different towns in your mind. Those towns would roll off Montgomery's tongue like melting chocolate:

Bridal Veil, Oregon

Hueytown, Alabama

Rhonda, NC

Inman, South Carolina

Skyland, North Carolina

Christiansburg, Virginia

Gastonia, North Carolina

Norfolk, Virginia

Chapel Hill, North Carolina

Keokuk, Iowa

Cross, South Carolina

Manning, South Carolina

Arden, North Carolina

Jacksonville, Florida

Daytona Beach, Florida

Spartanburg, South Carolina, and on and on....

If we didn't get the driver's name by hometown (i.e. Jabe Thomas & Clyde Lynn were both from Christiansburg), we'd get it on the car number.

And then, sometimes if they were doing a joint feed with the track PA system, they'd announce:

"in car #43" and the rest of the announcement would be totally drowned out by a rumbling cheer of thunder like a gathering storm unlike any I haveheard since at a racetrack. You never heard the Randleman, North Carolina or 1964 Plymouth or the driver's name at the wheel of that electric blue entry. I can't ever again imagine hearing a crowd respond the way they did anticipating Richard's name being called out. It was amazing and gave you goosebumps all over! We shall not pass that way again.

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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"