Forum Activity for @andy-denardi

what's the deal with cowboy hats?

Current NASCAR

Racing starts this weekend. That should make me less cranky. I think you might donate one of your hats to the NASCAR Hall of Fame. It's not right that DW is the only Legend represented.

what's the deal with cowboy hats?

Current NASCAR

So I guess what you're saying is Texas is more badass than the South, and all these folks wish they were from there.

what's the deal with cowboy hats?

Current NASCAR

Richard's been wearing that hat since forever but I still don't think of it as "his thing". I've seen dozens of pictures of him without it and I don't think twice. But when he takes off those sunglasses, he's undercover. To me, the sunglasses are Richard's thing. He looked a lot better when he had the long sideburns to go with them though.

what's the deal with cowboy hats?

Current NASCAR

Well, I'm aware of that but didn't want to address it on a personal basis. Since you mention that you wore them before Richard, it seems to have even less bearing on the overall question. I have fair skin, so I've been a hat wearer for nearly forty years. For a time I had a fetish for fedoras but thankfully I grew out of it long before it became a hipster fad. Now I just wear a ball cap or a broad brimmed straw hat if I'm going to be outside for a long time.

But somehow Southern has become Western, and those are two different cultures and regions in my mind. As I said, I draw the line somewhere around the Mississippi River or more precisely, the state borders running from North Dakota down to Texas. The impetus seems to comer from country music, originally country & western. But there was a difference between Appalachian country and western swing. The trend seemed to have become more prominent in the Nineties when it became less a symbol of where you were from than how much hair you had left.

Now we've got some young punk who's neither bald nor a musician. It bothers the heck outta me that he's wearing a cowboy hat when he's a good 500 miles from the Great Plains. It strikes me as a phony image building exercise. I want race drivers not some polished media star. That hat is going to bother me every time I see it. It's going to bother me even more if they keep pushing this guy in my face as the next big thing. I could see Cale in a cowboy hat, but Austin ain't man enough yet.

what's the deal with cowboy hats?

Current NASCAR

I know this is going to annoy me for the next twenty years so I may as well investigate it now. One of those Dillon boys has a fondness for wearing cowboy hats. The boy was born in North Carolina, and as far as I know, the state does not have a history of cowboys. It's as ridiculous as me wearing a space helmet in New York City because I think astronauts are pretty cool. I'm originally from the Northeast, nobody there wore buckles on their shoes because they were proud of their New England heritage. People from Virginia don't strut around in powdered wigs because most of our early presidents came from that state.

I know why Richard Petty wears his. He didn't enjoy the "hat dance" in victory lane. He started the habit before NASCAR was excessively commercialized and he's Richard Petty. He can get away with it. This young kid is going to have to do the hat dance whether he wants to or not.

I know why country stars wear cowboy hats. They're old and bald and they don't want to admit it. The rest of us buy a red sports car, but musicians have to look young because mostly young people buy music. This Dillon character is not old, and I don't think he's bald yet.

What makes a man from East of the Mississippi dress up like he's a six year old playing in the backyard? Why not a Daniel Boone coonskin cap? At least that would be authentic to your roots. Maybe a kilt. Junior has a whole Western town on his property and he obviously likes old John Wayne movies. But he doesn't ride a horse into town when he needs to pick up more Mountain Dew.

Do you have to borrow the cowboy culture because they took away the rebel flag and they won't let you display your own heritage? Please let me know if they try to take away Daisy Dukes. I'll join you on the front lines to fight that one.

updated by @andy-denardi: 12/05/16 04:04:08PM

CARL SHOWS OFF A GUARANTEED WINNING FORD

Stock Car Racing History

Carl Edwards seems to be very well liked in Dearborn, I've seen him in several videos and commercials and I don't recall any other racers being featured. I think we have to acknowledge Edsel Ford as well. He really likes racing and since Ford still has strong family control, I think he has a lot to do with Ford being on the track. I hope the enthusiasm continues after he passes.As difficult as it may be to drive that car at 75mph, it must have been twice as bad to kneel on the running board on a bumpy dirt track.

Racing History Minute - 1977 Winston-Western 500

Stock Car Racing History

I think the five hour length was a culturaql difference between the stiock car and sports car factions. I don't know if it's still true, but back in the day sports car events ran from about 9 am to 5pm. Frequent Riverside attendees probably expected all day entertainment.The difference is that sports car racing put on ten to twelve different races in those eight hours. I think the current four hour NASCAR events are too long and I'm usually watching on TV and can see the whole track and go make a sandwich when I'm hungry. There's no way I could tolerate watching a five hour race, especially with limited visibility.But that's another thing. You spend your whole day in your seat watching an oval race. Road race fans often wander around the infield to various spots on the track to see the action there. Having a long race gives you time to hit all of the hot spots.Whenever someone tells me that football players are athletes and race drivers are not, I just laugh. The average football player is active for fifteen minutes spread out over three hours. I think even I can manage that at my advanced age. Compare that to a driver who spends three hours in a hundred degree cabin with a fifteen second pause every 45 minutes. Who has a harder workout?

Racing History Minute - 1976 Winston Western 500

Stock Car Racing History

63 minutes seems like a long time to change engines. Weren't most teams under 30 minutes? I seem to recall that the Petty team did it in 14 minutes once.

NASCAR looking to make winning a necessity with eliminations in Chase and winner-takes-all finale

Current NASCAR

I don't like it but have no better suggestions.I don't see a problem with determining the champion on who ran best for the entire year. The winner gets double the points of 2nd place. Pay the whole field but only award points for the first 25 spots. I didn't like it last time they changed the points structure but they seem to have been right because we've had good championship battles.The danger in determining the champion based on the whole season is that it will become obvious with five or ten races to go. So what. Be happy with dominating the Summer and put on a decent show so the fans will hang with you to the end. Nobody can beat football, so stop sweating it. This new plan may make the championship closer but people are still going to watch football instead. Maybe you boost viewers on the last race, but more likely people will just keep flipping back and forth.

King & Almirola Bring Home Bacon; Thank You, Paula Deen

Current NASCAR

Smithfield doesn't appear to have an official corporate color, so maybe we'll get to see a little more Petty blue and less lime green and yellow.