Let’s Talk About Indy Instead of Homestead
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I bid
you welcome gentle readers, as we approach the now much anticipated end to
another NASCAR racing season in the era of the new millennium. Your scribe
remembers other times, and other years… oh, so many years… when this time of
the year was nothing if not bittersweet. The Holidays were fast approaching,
bringing all the sights and sounds of family, frivolity and good cheer, but… in
my life and that of many others my age… this time of year was also darkened by
a feeling of separation and deprivation, as we knew we would not see racing
again until Daytona.
Have no
fear; I’ll not be comparing stock car racing with the birth of the Savior, but
for me, it seriously rivaled the fat man in the red suit many years. There were
times, when Ruth was small, and again when my Angel Babies were the same, that
the Christmas Spirit won hands down. Alas, those “babies” are about to turn 20
and 17, so there are no more paw prints in the snow, left assuredly by the tiny
reindeer pulling the sleigh that ran over Grandma. But just as the magic of
Christmas loses a bit of its luster when the little ones come of age, so too
has much of the magic gone out of racing.
If you
follow the writers on our site… and I sincerely hope you do, as we have an
excellent and well-informed staff… you will have read many diverse suggestions,
both for what went wrong and for how to “fix” it. Some are good, some maybe not
so much, but all are interesting and well-intentioned.
You
know that feeling you get right before you come down with some sort of flu or
“bug.” You’re not sick… yet… but something just isn’t right. You can’t quite
put your finger on the problem, but it becomes more apparent with each passing
hour. Does one take a pill? Two pills? Pills to cure what? There’s nothing
wrong… yet. This old fan has been suggesting that NASCAR see a doctor, or at
least be checked by a nurse, for well over a decade.
Your
scribe has no magic solutions; no elixir for what ails racing, only logic… and
a whole lot of years of experience. Allow me to give you a “for instance.” I
read today (Tuesday as I type), that NASCAR is considering trying restrictor
plates on the Xfinity cars at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, to see if that will
“make the racing more exciting", since passing in that race is pretty much a
forgotten entity. Let’s just examine that for a minute…
One
time, in the modern era, they tried a restrictor plate race on a
flat track.
Granted, New Hampshire is only a mile, not the 2.5-mile monster that is Indy,
but does anyone remember the results of that race? It was run, as stated, at
New Hampshire, in September of 2000. That time, it was the sanctioning body’s
“shoot from the hip” approach in response to the deaths of Adam Petty and Kenny
Irwin at that track earlier in the year. There was ONE lead change in that
entire race, and it occurred on lap ONE. Bobby Labonte sat on the pole, but was
immediately passed by Jeff Burton, who started on the outside pole. Burton led
that lap, and every one of the 299 more that followed, leaving everyone
grateful that it was a short race because it certainly was not a good one!
What’s
that old saying? “Those that do not learn from history are doomed to repeat
it.” Close enough! I have no clue whose clever idea this one is, but I can
promise from experience that it’s not going to work. Not only will it not work,
but will produce the direct opposite of the intended goal. I can hear my co-conspirator
David Nance yelling down the hall, “More Cowbell!”
This
scribe has pointed out several times a couple of unfortunate things about the Indy
race in question. The first is that the race is a stinker, and has been from
the word “Go.” At the risk of inducing a comatose state for those that have
heard this so many times, flat tracks and stock cars are not a match made in
Heaven. Quite the opposite end of that spectrum, as a matter of fact, and yes,
that applies to the Cup cars as well. NASCAR enjoys the status that Indy
brings, but the racing is just plain BAD!
Until a
few years ago, the Busch/Nationwide/Xfinity series didn’t run at the “big
track.” They, and the trucks as well, ran across town at Indianapolis Raceway
Park, (Now known as Lucas Oil Raceway) a sweet little half-miler that always
produced good racing for both series. It was someone’s idea to move the
Xfinity kids to the big track to boost interest in the Cup race. Seems like a
whole lot of fans had figured out what I’d known all along about stock cars and
flat tracks. (Note, this does not apply to little bullrings such as
Martinsville. It’s flat, but the racing is anything but. They just keep
knocking each other out of the way.)
The
“Other shoe” as it were, for the Xfinity cure for insomnia at Indy is the race
immediately preceding that one. On the Wednesday evening before the Saturday
race at Indy, the trucks run a race at a little track not very far away. It’s
called Eldora! It’s a little half-mile dirt track, and those trucks put on one
heck of a race every time they run there, complete with qualifying heats and
all that is part of regular old “Saturday night racing” except it’s on
Wednesday. The race is always a sell-out with even “standing room only” at
capacity. Then comes Saturday, and I could accommodate the crowd at
Indianapolis Motor Speedway in my back yard with room to spare.
Somehow,
what is so obvious about that simple comparison fails to make an impression on
anyone in Daytona Beach or Charlotte. NASCAR seeks to play to “larger markets,”
but here again is where that pesky logic intervenes. We race at a huge track in
a huge metropolitan area, and the stands, even for the Cup races are for the
most part, empty. We put the trucks… the third tier, as NASCAR refers to them…
on a tiny unpaved track in the middle of nowhere, and the stands can’t hold
everyone that shows up to watch.
Why
doesn’t that tell someone something? Three days apart, and the fans… those good
folks that pay the way for everything else… make the choice so obvious and
resounding that it can be heard like thunder from the heavens… but no one at
NASCAR hears it. They pay $Millions for studies to tell them the preferred “buzz
word”, but they somehow cannot hear what’s left of the fan base… begging and
pleading for simpler times. I’d say that what’s being missed is simple. Gentle
readers, the race IS the show. Eldora puts on fantastic racing, and the fans
respond. Indy puts on parades, time after time, and the fans respond. Those
responses are such polar opposites, someone should hear and see the difference
and take the meaning that a blind man can see.
Sunday
evening, with Phoenix in the rear view and bedtime on the horizon, I sat at my
laptop in the living room watching Seattle put a trouncing on New England, and
I jotted down a note to myself and emailed it to the already sleeping desktop
in the office. It was simple and short, but something I thought I might want to
share with you, my gentle readers, later in the week. This is what it said…
“I'm sitting here, wishing it were 20 years ago or maybe even more. I'm
wishing that Dale Earnhardt and Bill France Jr. were still here. I'm wishing…
oh Lord… I'm wishing that I still loved racing the way I did when those men
were still an integral part of this sport!”
All of
that and not a word about Homestead, the center of so much hype, spin and
make-believe, it’s almost like Christmas… almost, but not quite. I think I’ll
wait for the real thing. I have just one thing to say to anyone out there with
ears or brains… “NO! Do NOT run restrictor plates at Indianapolis. Stock car
racing there is already dead. Let’s not throw more dirt on it!” Oh… wait a
minute! Come to think of it, with enough dirt to cover and bank that big ol’
track, just maybe…
And
that, of course, means it’s time for our Classic Country Closeout. In a couple
of weeks we’ll be adding another “C” to that, as Christmas draws near, but
today I’d like to present some good ol’ down-home gospel music to point out
that there’s nothing wrong with a little dirt in life, and there are places
that shouldn’t be paved. If your horse were named Mr. Ed, he’d tell you that to
pave the barn floor is to cripple your horse.
With
that bit of wisdom out of the way, here is Merle Haggard with his offering of “If
We Never Meet Again This Side of Heaven.”
Next,
no Country Gospel collection would be complete without something from Jim
Reeves, he of the voice of soft velvet. Here is Gentleman Jim with his
beautiful offering of “May the Good Lord Bless and Keep You.”
Talk
about your Classic Country! Next up we have Hank Williams, the Original, with a
song that he both wrote and sang. Here then is the leader of the Drifting
Cowboys singing, “I Saw the Light!”
Now
let’s give a listen to a wonderful medley of Country Gospel as done so
beautifully by Johnny Cash, June and Anita Carter, Mother Maybelle and the Statler Brothers… a star-studded presentation to be sure.
In the beginning, Johnny does a spoken intro that really tells us what it’s all
about… to be Country and to have Religion. Please enjoy…
And
finally, because it’s my column, and my favorite song, here’s one that my
friends and family have heard many times before, but it never grows old. This
is the incomparable Red Foley, doing this song as only he can… “Peace
in the Valley”
Be well
gentle readers, and remember to keep smiling. It looks so good on you!
~PattyKay
