Maybe I am the exception, but I don't think so, at least not within the group who gathers here on Tuesday night.  Perhaps it was my young age attending my first race, I'm not sure, but I always wanted to see the cars RACE, not WRECK.  I was there to see those drivers hot foot the cars in powerful broad slides through the dirt turns of half mile speedways.  I loved to see the side-by-side battles and the scraping and banging off one another while they raced for position.  The yellow flags just interrupted that excitement.  There was nothing exciting for me in the wrecks, and the yellow flags were just wasting laps when the drivers could be racing.   Oh, after the race, when we walked through the pits, we could see banged up race cars, paint scraped off, and tire rings on the doors and quarter panels of the hot cars but they had, for the most part, raced, not wrecked.

My first trip to Darlington for the spring race in 1957 opened an entirely new adventure for me in racing.  Now I was seeing cars go really, really, fast on asphalt.  I was seeing side-by-side racing and nose to tail racing lap after lap with some of those doggone yellow flags thrown in.  Again, it was not the wrecks, although they had a few that day.  I do remember a huge multi-car wreck in turn four, only some of which I could see from my vantage point standing on the trunk of Uncle Bobby's car parked against the fence in turn three.  But I remember that just held up the race.  In fact, I'm not sure there wasn't a red flag thrown for that wreck, but be whatever, it was holding up my race!  Fireball Roberts won that day, I remember, and there weren't that many cars running at the end, but I had seen my first "Super Speedway" race and absolutely began a love affair with Darlington Raceway.  I still revere that track and if I were to pick a race I would attend, it would be The Southern 500 now that it is back on Labor Day Weekend as it should have always been.  Just for reference, I was there for the 1963 Southern 500 when Fireball won that race withOUT the first caution flag thrown.

I guess that I always respected what I considered the "beauty" of a race car.  There never was a streetcar that would match the awesomeness of a race car, any race car.  My friends and I, growing up together, would always visit the dealerships that brought in some of the drivers and their cars before the Columbia Speedway races and sometimes the Darlington Races.  We saw Richard Petty at Marion Burnside Chrysler-Plymouth twice a year in 1963 and 1964.  We saw Fireball Roberts at Pulliam Ford in 1963 before his Southern 500 win and Junior Johnson was there in 1964 with his yellow Ford.  I remember that back in those days, not many fans would visit the dealerships because it was always a weekday event.  Lunch hours would get crowded, but most of the rest of the day it would be just a few of us kids and the drivers.  Oh yes, some of those events came on school days so what to do????  I wish I had one of those notes my mother would write to my teacher:  "Please excuse Tim's absence yesterday as he was spending the day with Richard Petty at the Plymouth Dealership".  Never knew what the teachers thought, but after all, my mother had written the note and I was a pretty good student so, other than the Ms. Hayne "eye roll" when turning in one of those notes, there wasn't much of a problem.

Jeff will love this part because it has to do with my never closed big mouth.  In 1964, they had Junior's yellow Ford inside the Pulliam showroom.  When we got there, Junior was sitting all alone in a chair near the front of the car.  I got down on my knees in front of the Ford and was looking closely at the grill and bumper and running my hand along the bumper.  Junior finally asked "what you looking for boy?”.  I said, "I'm looking for all the little dings and dents there from the asphalt flying up from the track when Richard Petty blows by you on the race track".  Junior took the joke well, or so I thought, until I saw all the Holly Farms Chicken was priced at 98 cents a pound with a note on the price sticker noting that for me, the price was $1.98 a pound.  For years after that, I just picked up road kill chicken on the highway as the chicken processing plant wasn't far from my house and chickens were always falling off the truck.

Now it is time to get serious.  The intent of this Legendtorial is to address the Talladega race (and like races at the other restrictor plate track).  The restrictor plate started its miserable life when Bobby Allison got airborne and almost went into the stands at Talladega.  Since that time, I can immediately recall almost the same scenario with Richard Petty in the early 90s at Daytona with almost exactly the same result as Allison and Richard was running the required restrictor plate. Wasn't it Kyle Larson who almost did the same thing about 3 years ago in the Nationwide/Busch/Xfinity/JGR Benefit racing?  Again, restrictor plate racing.  Just think about the number of cars getting airborne over the past 15 years, all equipped with the "plates" or whatever NASCAR is doing now with the EFI restriction.  Have the plates worked?  In my opinion, absolutely not.  It is just another effort by NASCAR to make fans feel as though NASCAR cares about anything other than money.  The Little Lizard 500 Sunday was a crash fest of the worst kind.  And NASCAR loved it.  NASCAR is adding to their video treasury of spectacular wrecks for all their pre-race introductions. Did you see the pre-race introduction Sunday?  NASCAR dug out every multi-car wreck from the past 10 years to show how "exciting" NASCAR is.  Excuse me Brian, but isn't this the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, not the National Association for Seriously Crashed Auto Recycling?  What am I missing here?  Racing is excitement. Multi-car or single car high-speed crashes are not what racing is about in my opinion. Besides, now you have crybaby pin head Kenseth making threats to Joey Logano again for reasons I don't quite understand.  That was like the second or third time Kenseth had been spinning.  Besides, I distinctly saw Joey let Kenseth back in line after Matt's little journey on the apron.

I personally think NASCAR management is mentally sick to use the attraction of life threatening crashes to attract fans.  But then, again, it appears the lust of the Romans for Christian blood, or, in this case, the lust of the insensitive for Racer's blood is still alive and strong. I note the television ratings for the race did not take a dip but did, in fact, made this the second most watched race this year and losing out to an NBA game as the sports attraction of the weekend.  As for fans in the stands, the way they have those seats painted and the lack of camera coverage of any portion of the stands other than right at the start-finish line, it was impossible to tell the size of the crowd. However, the overhead shots of the surrounding parking lots indicated there must have been a "pack a car" contest to see how many fans could get in one car to come to the speedway.

I have watched interviews with a number of the drivers AFTER the race, and read comments of many more.  Most, if not all, made statements about the track and that type of racing which could result in fines such as Tony Stewart encountered when he pointed out the obvious.  Remember September 1969, and that first race at Talladega?  The PDA?  Big Bill was in charge then and he didn't take anything off anyone.  Is there not now a Drivers’ Council?  Is it not the members of that council that seem to be speaking the loudest about this type racing?  Could it be the boneheads in Daytona have turned a deaf ear to the Council?  Could it be the Race Team Alliance is a little "miffed" about the millions of dollars in race cars reduced to junk?  Be afraid, Brian, be very afraid.  Could be, by your next race, both those entities may decide it's not worth risking lives to "entertain" those folks who come, or watch on television, just to see the crashes.

I saw an article or two where NASCAR explains away the intensity of the race on the prospect of rain ending the race at any time.  Really?  I truly believe that most (please notice I said "most") of the drivers out there have more common sense than to make stupid moves on the track under those circumstances.  Yet, you can be assured that the next pre-race show will include video of all the "flying cars" from Talladega.  Where is Dick Van Dyke and "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" when he could have had a good chance to make the highlight reels?

One final note here, not on the subject of NASCAR's preference for potentially dead or seriously injured race drivers.  This has to do with an already deceased individual.  Have you seen the new KFC Commercial where the fake Colonel, whatever his name is, is reciting the pledge of allegiance to KFC?  In my opinion, that is a disgraceful example of disrespect for an important part of our American Heritage.  It's not like I've been eating KFC recently anyway, but I would not step foot in one of those restaurants if the meal was free.  That is a total disgrace to the company Harlan Sanders built.  The advertising "genius" who came up with that disrespectful ad should be banished to Mexico.  Re-think that ad, KFC.  Fire that idiot who came up with that promotion.

So, folks, I guess between the price hike Junior imposed on me for the Holly Farms Chicken and the disgust I feel for the disrespect for our Pledge of Allegiance to our flag, chicken is off my menu unless I buy the Publix brand and grill it myself.  Come to think of it, I do that pretty well these days.

I brought up the "chicken" issue a couple of times here in an effort for a little humor, but also expecting the "fans" who watch to see massive wrecks to start calling some drivers speaking out against that form of racing the old stand by for coward, "chicken".  I frankly don't think it's a chicken worthy name calling event when someone is speaking out against the lunacy that prevails in continuing this type racing.  Would removal of the restrictor plates make a difference?  I don't know the answer to that.  But, I do believe, with all my heart that a return to more stock appearing cars would be a start.  Get rid of those "splitters".  Raise the cars about four to six inches, and reduce the height of the rear spoiler.  That should provide some good racing for true fans, but the big wreck junkies will have to start parking on overpasses to watch the rush hour traffic on the interstate below to see their massive crashes.  I won't even mention the fact to the wreck lovers that they only have to watch the number 10 car to see a crash.

That's it for this week folks.  Which side are you on?  Think about that before you answer.  Next week it may be YOU facing the lions in the coliseum.