Looking Back ~ A View from the Rearview

 

I bid you welcome gentle readers, and as always a warm and friendly welcome to our assigned reader of all things NASCAR. A week with a Holiday in the middle always messes with my mind. I have nothing written for this week; it’s Wednesday and I have to have my car’s emissions tested and then go register it before the State of Georgia comes and parks it. The car has 26,000 miles on it and the emissions are fine. It’s the trip down to the County Seat that irks me. Anyway, I did some rummaging through my files and came up with one I’m sure no one will remember, but it’s rather interesting. It would seem your scribe was in a somewhat “crappy” mood while writing this. Time frame is early autumn, 2004, so please read in that context.

We’ll start off today with a quote from the irascible Junior Johnson, comparing racing as it was in his day with racing as it is today. (This comes from in interview given at Bristol Motor Speedway several years ago)

"Back when I started we would drive the race cars from track to track. I would be gone for two weeks from Virginia, up to New Jersey, New York, over into Canada, race ten races before I would go back home. We hauled everything we would use in the trunk. Sometimes, we would stop at a service station and overhaul the motor. You had to go to the junkyard and get parts. That's how we raced."

"It was a very funny atmosphere where you traveled. I remember my brother would go with me and we would be greasy and nasty where we just left the racetrack and I would want to stop and he didn't want to go in a restaurant the way we looked. Back then, there weren't all the motels; you pretty much had to live out of the service station bathrooms. Most of us raced because we liked it. The bigger races only paid about $1000. One time we raced 70 some races one year and now these guys are raising Cain about 36 races."

"Today, the people have all the elaborate things like buses at the race track. They have airplanes that go everywhere. The price of racing is probably around the $20 million bracket when you get around to it. Half of the stuff you don't see is the souvenir sales. That's most of the money comes that they do what they want to with. I've seen it come from the bottom to the top. I have an opportunity to get back in it in a limited way, but I doubt if that will happen."

Obviously, Junior comes from a simpler time, when most folks would have given up their birthright for the chance to spend a lifetime doing what they loved to do and at the same time earn a living by doing it. He and his contemporaries were more than willing to spend weeks on end roving from track to track, most assuredly not with any sort of luxury involved, simply for the chance to go racing. Those were the days, as they say, when men were men and women were happy that they were.

Admittedly, Junior would not have been a sponsor’s dream as are many of the pretty boys of today. For sure, he wasn’t pretty, then or now, and I’m sure he wouldn’t have made much of a corporate spokesman when it came to public speaking, but the man was a racer. Over his career as a driver and car owner, he amassed 139 wins, a total that leaves him second in the sport only to Petty Enterprises.

It may appear to you that we’re going to spend the day talking about Junior, but we’re not. His words were used only as an introduction to my own, which follow. We’ll get back to Junior later on.

Though it’s been said repeatedly of late that “It’s all about the money”, I suggest that it’s always been about the money. Big Bill France didn’t put a lifetime into NASCAR in an effort to go broke, any more than would the present regime. Drivers back in the “Good old days”, even those that would be classified today as “field fillers”, were still primarily interested in making a living doing what they loved to do.

Today (Friday) I read an article penned by a good friend, advising that fans “Just get over it”, referring to the Chase for the Championship format. At one time, that would have been an immediate burr under my saddle but today I found myself agreeing with him. I asked myself, “Why do I care one iota how NASCAR picks someone they deem to be a Champion” and the answer came back, “I don’t care.” When Mike Helton told us all last winter that “It is what it is”, many of us were too foolish to listen, but Mike hit the nail right on the head. It (NASCAR racing) is what it is. (Their game being played with their ball) Who am I to argue?

I spent much of this morning scanning the news, which I haven’t had a chance to do for a couple of days and saw a few more things about which I really don’t care. On Thursday, they unveiled the new “Nextel Cup.” It’s not a phone and it is surely not a cup. What it is, they say, is a pair of checkered flags waving. Okay, if they say so! After some close scrutiny, I can sort of see that if I squint. It does come from Tiffany’s and it’s silver and shiny.

Reading further, I found an article that states:

Safety Systems, Inc., (SSI) released test results that demonstrate the company's RACE WALL impact barrier offers significantly more impact protection than current products installed on most NASCAR racetracks. The R.A.C.E. Wall ™ (Restricted Air Controls Energy) was conceived out of the need to save lives and subsequently lessen vehicle damage at the same time, "in following with NASCAR's efforts to control the costs for teams competing in this ultimate sport". The RACE Wall uses proprietary technology in conjunction with specific materials, construction methods and "outside the box" thinking to produce the second-generation soft wall.

Well, that’s nice. I spent over three years studying and championing the SAFER barrier and someone claims to have built a better mousetrap. Good for them! I’m sure the various tracks will be standing in line to install yet another new wall. There was a time when I’d have been sinking my teeth by now into every word ever written on the project, but what the heck, “RACE” is a catchy acronym. Go for it!

As I read further, I found that someone at NASCAR just realized that neither Bobby Hamilton Jr. nor Carl Edwards qualify to run for the Rookie of the Year title in 2005, even though most of us fans could have told them that. The big hang-up seems to be that there is no one else yet dedicated to entering that particular race and we have to have a Rookie of the Year. It’s no problem though; this is NASCAR and the solution is simple; just change the rules to read that as long as they haven’t competed in a complete season to date, they are eligible as rookies. See, there’s absolutely nothing there worth working up a sweat over. Just roll with the flow.

Lastly, I found an article saying that President George Bush would not be throwing out the first pitch… excuse me, I meant giving the command to start engines at NHIS on Sunday. It seems that the President feels it’s more important to travel to the Gulf coast and spend time with some of the people so recently devastated by the wrath of Hurricane Ivan. Somebody’s got it right!

Okay, so where is all of this taking us? Let’s go back to Junior Johnson for just a minute. After discussing the differences between yesterday and today, his final statement was that although he had an opportunity to come back into the sport, he would not be taking it. Even though he mentioned money several times, I didn’t take from his words that he felt that was what had made the sport different. I felt that what he was saying was that the sport had just outgrown him and his kind and I’m sorry to say that I agree.

What we find spoon-fed into our living rooms each week is not a sport and has little to do with racing. It is exactly what we hear it referred to time after time; it’s a “show” and nothing more. The actual race only serves as a backdrop for the show. Obviously, NASCAR is doing something right because a whole lot of folks are paying a whole lot of money to come and see the show. Those of us that don’t enjoy hard rock music or inane announcers that talk of anything and everything but the race at hand are simply not with the program. The show must go on, with us or without us.

Junior is not the only one to leave racing of late. Over the past year or so, I’ve watched with great sadness as several of my compatriots behind the keyboards have quietly taken their leave and gone on with other things. Don, Hal, Joe, Jeanne, Tom, I miss you all, but I understand. For the past few months, with the exception of the Lady in Black columns, this keyboard has only typed sweet remembrances and shared smiles and laughter. Opinions no longer matter because, “It is what it is.” So be it.

Well before the Daytona 500 this year, I wrote a column that delineated all of the disappointments I’ve felt since the new regime took over; along with the sorrow it brought to my heart, watching something I’d cherished for so many years just fade into oblivion. That article, which can be accessed here, http://www.racefansforever.org/a-voice-for-the-fans--nascar-doesnrsquot-love-me-anymore.html must have struck a chord with a lot of folks, as it's still the most widely read article in my file and drew by far the largest response it has ever been my pleasure to answer. Today I’m able to see the fallacy in that. Yes, it was widely read by race fans but down in Daytona Beach it must have given them a good laugh. They knew that it would be “what it is” long before the rest of us had a clue, but so what? There is nothing left but the “Show” and I don’t care about that.

(Editor’s note: The original link given had been dead since a server crash at Insider Racing News in 2007 consigned every word I’d written there to the cyber scrap heap.)

Earlier I mentioned that I had not had a chance to read for a couple of days. Yesterday and the early part of today (Still Friday) we here in north Georgia were busy entertaining an unwelcome guest named Ivan. Throughout that time we’ve been under every weather watch and warning known to man, watched untold amounts of rain fall sideways on a hard wind and experienced some five tornadoes just in my immediate area. It’s over and we are fine.

By the same token and perhaps explaining my foul mood, I have friends that live on Dauphin Island, one of the Barrier Islands in the Gulf of Mexico. (Just south of Mobile Bay) They chose to ride out the storm rather than leave their home. Dauphin Island is now reported to be the hardest hit area along the Gulf coast. Of course, there is no communication available, as there is no power and no phones working. There is only prayer.

Something like this tends to put things in their proper perspective in a hurry and I have to tell you that when one truly looks at “The big picture”, racing is far down on the priority list and the “Show” doesn’t come close to being on it.

(Editor’s note: My friends on Dauphin Island, Chris and Sussi, were fine; most of the severe damage was to the western end of the Island, and they are on the eastern side. The following year, they would again cause me near heart failure when Katrina came calling and they took the tour boat up-river to ride out the storm. Today, both are still members of my Fantasy Racing group.)

I thought it would be fun to go back to the beginning of the end and see just a bit of what thoughts were rolling out of my mind and through my fingers to my gentle readers back then. Now, the predictions made in other articles back then have all come to fruition; the crowds are gone; the TV ratings are in the proverbial toilet, as is what’s left of a once proud sport… and the water is swirling.

Today we’re offered demonstrations of Mixed Martial Arts and other non-racing additions to the “Show” that must go on, even if it plays to an empty house. In the depth of my mind, I hear over and over the closing words offered by Don McLean in “Vincent” (Starry, Starry Night)… “They would not listen, they're not listening still. Perhaps they never will.”

Time now for our Classic Country Closeout, which continues to show those early TV Country shows with the stars of the decade of the 1950s. I hope some of you enjoy these as much as I do. I know Jim does… he only has to set one video, not 5.

Be well gentle readers, and remember to keep smiling. It looks so good on you!


~PattyKay