As he had all of his life, in his later days Smokey Yunick had opinions and was not loath to share them. On latter-day NASCAR racing, he opined that it should not be called racing. Between 1947 and the year 2000, we had racing and then something that came after it - whatever name you want to put on it," he said. "I am not criticizing it. This is by far several hundred times more successful than we were, but, if I was a racer, then these guys competing today aren't. And if these guys are racers, then I never was."That doesn't mean I consider that we were better, nor do I consider them better than us. The fact is this doesn't resemble what we had, what we started out with. It doesn't mean it is bad. It is now operating as entertainment and has nothing to do with the sport. When we started, my pleasure was, the reason I did it, was I'd like to step out on the line Sunday morning and pull my pants up and say, 'Let's have a race.' If I won, I was happy. And if I didn't, I was already thinking about what I was going to change next week to beat their ass.At another time, he offered yet another thought on the modernization of stock car racing. Maybe I'm not seeing it right, but I feel sorry for those coming behind me. Looks like the freedom to do the things I did are being lost with thousands of new laws restricting what you can or can't do. Hell, in the beginning race winnings weren't even taxed.Now you can't turn around without permission. In the early days, you didn't need a lot of money to race. You raced for the fun and for the hell of it. Big money did try to come in and take over racing, but it always failed. Now, big money's got a good grip on auto racing. If you are wired in, that's fine but if you are trying to break in, there is a mighty tough fence you're gonna haveto cut through! I guess it's really better to look at racing today in a different way. It's no longer a sport; it's show business.