Forgive that little personal aside, but I sort of had to brag on my Daddy before we get into the earwax discussion. For years when I was growing up, it seemed like my Daddy never heard anything. He was always responding to my Mother with "Huh", even before she finished the sentence. I guess we assumed it was all the noise from guns and bombs during his campaign to "Kill the Rising Sun" if I may be so bold as to paraphrase the title of Bill O'Reilly's latest book. During a regular doctor's visit somewhere in the 70s, Doctor Allen discovered one ear canal was almost completely blocked with earwax and the other wasn't much better. After the earwax was removed, he could hear a pin drop on a satin pillow a block down the street. Oh, he never stopped the "huh" in mid sentence from my Mother but I think that had been so ingrained in him by then there was no hope for that to stop.
It was shortly after that when my Mother told me I ought to check out my hearing problems with Dr. Allen. I had been unable to hear much in my right ear since being inside a gun torrent on a Naval Destroyer during war exercises. But my left ear was beginning to experience problems. So, off to Dr. Allen I went. He checked my ears and the look on his face was enough to tell me I had earwax problems. He took an instrument of some sort, dug into the left ear, and pulled out a pea-size ball of wax as hard as marble. Same from the right ear. The difference in hearing was automatic and amazing. Later a professional hearing test indicated I do have a 25% loss of hearing in my right ear, which can only be explained, per the doctor, by the gun torrent incident. Of course, I failed to tell the good doctor of all my years around race cars.
The point of this earwax discourse was to bring up two points making the rounds on social media and on NASCAR's own site. The first is that NASCAR is considering crowning a regular season champion at the end of 26 races and then race for the overall championship during "The Chase". In a small way, that is an olive branch extended to me and many vocal fans who abhor the Chase. Foreseeable issues with that scenario is the 26-race champion also being the Chase Champion. Do I see 8, 9, 10, or more Championships in any one driver's future? Could happen.
The other article circulating, and this just coming out yesterday, is NASCAR is looking at severe changes to the Cup drivers invading XFinity and Truck racing. The participation of these Cup interlopers in those lower divisions has already had huge championship implications for some of the regulars who will not be a part of the "Round of Four" for the Championship. I am not buying any of the arguments I hear that racing against the Cup drivers gives the XFinity drivers more experience against competition. Competition should be oranges to oranges and not apples to oranges. Just imagine how those independent Xfinity drivers feel when the multi-million dollar Kyle Busch team (a JGR team in disguise) pulls in to race. The argument that having Cup drivers in the field draws more of a crowd is asinine. If you've watched any XFinity races this year, you've surely seen the stands. I have more people standing in the street watching me cut grass than XFinity can draw. Wonder why that is?!
Perhaps the earwax that has been impeding NASCAR's ear canals has been removed at long last. I have my doubts, but then again they have to do something. I saw a note yesterday from a noted sports writer pointing out the fact that Sprint will be gone in 73 days and NASCAR is still in suspense about a new Cup sponsor. It is already a clearly stated fact that the expected cash influx from a new sponsor isn't going to happen. We'll see. Maybe NASCAR is hearing some of its older fans, or perhaps they are seeing the writing on the wall. Not time to give up all hope. Not yet. Keep listening NASCAR. We care. It's time you do too.
