Part of the problems ongoing with NASCAR is their total disregard for tradition.  Every where they race, every stupid rule they make, every time they fail to act when they have an opportunity  to improve the "on track product", they miss the mark.  With me, and most of you folks listening, I assume, we are all about tradition, especially in our sport.  It is what made the sport the multi-million dollar industry it is today.  Yet in insistence that Brian and the boys are always right, tradition has taken a back seat in every respect.  Just think about that.

Enter Darlington Raceway.  Return of the Southern 500 to Labor Day weekend last year.  Someone, and I'm not going to waste the time researching who it may have been, came up with the idea of a "Throwback weekend" meaning they would have cars wrapped to resemble the great cars of the past.  While I don't particularly like the term "throwback", preferring retro instead, it worked.  It worked in spades!  Darlington was about the only track last year to fill the stands, in spite of the press releases about "sellouts" that weren't really sellouts.  The Southern 500 was a good race in 2015 and we all wondered what 2016 would be with the same theme applied.  Of course, most of us were worried because attendance at tracks this year has been the joke of the sports world.  We need not have worried!

Darlington is tradition.  Without that track and Harold Brasington's foresight, NASCAR would still be running only the short dirt tracks.  Not that such is all bad, but to grow the sport, Darlington was needed and it proved to be the catalyst I don't even believe Harold Brasington could have foreseen.

Now, in this world of political correctness, much of the Darlington Tradition still remains in hiding.  The Confederate Flag, a very familiar logo for everything Darlington does not appear.  Someone who attended the event this weekend told me they were asked by a NASCAR Official to take down their flag, which was flying on a pole in the parking lot outside the track.  I was told the NASCAR Official was "politely" asked to go jump in Mr. Ramsey's minnow pond.  Whether or not that is a true story is questionable, because the party to whom I was talking about this is always involved in shenanigans.

I noticed in almost all the scenes from the historic races, that the Confederate flag was photo shopped out, even to the extent of having "Johnny Reb" holding an empty pole as he rode into Victory Lane with Cale Yarborough.  As most of you know, I have no use for political correctness and firmly believe part of what is destroying our nation is the point of silliness we have reached in political correctness.  The Confederate flag at Darlington is a part of the tradition and heritage of the sport and its beginnings.

I will say that I am very proud of our sport where the fans, drivers, and teams, all stand for the National Anthem with hands over their hearts.  No "taking a knee" in protest of something perceived by an over privileged troublemaker as an injustice.  Sure, I believe in the First Amendment.  But, I also believe that if you don't love this Country enough to honor our flag and our service men, get the hell out.  Get on a plane and head anywhere you think you'll be treated better.

Okay, that's it for tonight.  Modernize Tradition, huh?  If that is even a possibility, we can be sure the boys in Daytona will never figure out how to do it.