NASCAR... Now That’ll Preach!
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NASCAR
and religion have been tied together for as long as I can remember.
Maybe it’s because of its Bible-Belt roots.
Maybe it’s because so much of the racing occurred on Sundays after church. For so many growing up in the earlier days of
the sport, Sunday was church, lunch,
listen to the race on the radio and then back to church.
Maybe it’s because when the green flagged dropped the race ended for too many
not at the Checkers but in Eternity.
For
as long as I can remember NASCAR events have always opened with the Invocation,
the National Anthem and the most famous words in auto racing. So religion has been a part of NASCAR and
sometimes NASCAR has been a part of religion.
Some might say a little too much at times. I know it once was in my life.
Last
Pocono weekend, my church, the Forks of Elkhorn Baptist Church in Midway, KY
held its annual Homecoming Celebration.
Homecoming at Forks is part church family reunion, part birthday party, all
celebration for what the Lord has done here all these years. It’s a time to not only look back and
remember but a time to look forward with great expectation.
This
marked our 231st year of continuous service.
To those of you on the Eastern side of the Alleghenies that might not
mean much, but on this side, for a pioneer church that was founded four years
before Kentucky became the first state in the New West, it’s pretty special to
think what it has seen over that time.
This
weekend may have been the first time in its history that NASCAR was used in a
sermon.
Not
that it couldn’t have been used earlier.
Back when I began attending Forks after accepting Christ in 2000,
attending a Sunday morning service had a lot of similarities to a race at Bristol
during its period of explosive growth.
The “Little Church on the Hill” had nearly closed its doors a few years
earlier as a good Sunday may have three dozen in attendance. When we arrived, Forks was being blessed with
great growth. The pews were packed, I
mean packed. After the single service
expanded into two services, it was still packed. There was no difference then between row
seven, left hand side there and Bristol’s Kulwicki, Section T, Row 7 as both
had more humanity there than physically able to fit in the available
space.
You
got there early to get a seat. You made
room for others who, like you, just had to be there. Jammed in shoulder to shoulder, standing to
sing a hymn required a coordinated effort by the entire row which was not much different
than what it took to stand to see “Trouble in Turn Three” at Bristol. Folks should have been miserable crammed
together that tight for that long but truthfully no one cared. Everyone just had to be there and there was
such an air of expectation. In so many
ways, there were more similarities between Race Day and Church Day than one
might think.
So
maybe it wasn’t a stretch to finally hear NASCAR from the pulpit.
This
year’s Homecoming speaker was Dakotah Euton, the
Assistant Area Director of the Central Kentucky Fellowship of Christian
Athletes. Dakotah had been to Forks many
times, holding basketball camps in our multi-purpose recreation center. This was the first time he would share his
message from the pulpit.
FCA Assistant Area Director, Dakotah Euton delivers the message at Forks of Elkhorn Baptist
Church’s 231st Homecoming Celebration
Oh
what a message he delivered!
Homecoming
speakers will often present a “Past-Present-Future” message for this
occasion. Dakotah did as well... but his was different. Although, he and his family are not members
here and attend church in a neighboring county, you’d never know it. On his “Past” point he told the “Forks Story”
as well as any long-time member. On the
“Present” you would have thought he worshipped weekly with us. He was spot on.
It
was his third point, the “Future”, when his message took an interesting turn
and NASCAR appeared. Before you jump
ahead and think it was like one of Rev. Joe Nelms
invocations where he prayed that “we
get fired up, go three wide into the turns for His Honor and Glory” or
his world famous sponsor laden prayer that concluded with him channeling his
inner Ricky Bobby and gave thanks for
his smoking hot wife-it was nothing like that. Instead, Dakotah turned our attention to the
dual screens and allowed this video
to play (with proper editing of sound of course) to make his final
point.
Here
we see the infamous Pepsi Max commercial in which four-time Cup Champion and 93
Cup race winner, Jeff Gordon dons makeup to become the wimpy “Minivan Mike” and
takes “Car Salesman Steve” (poor fella) on the test drive ride of his
life.
In
it we see Gordon playing his part to the T, awkward around the car, hesitant to
even pull away from the parking spot in the powerful, solid black Camaro. But with gentle coaxing from Steve, the test
drive is soon underway and as our hero quickly “gains confidence” and puts the
Camaro through its paces, Steve believes his customer is rapidly “losing
control” if not his mind.
Steve’s
conversation quickly goes from an encouraging “it has a little power” to “you
are liable for any damages so please stop the car” to “you’re going to wreck
this car and you’re liable if you wreck it” to “Mike! Stop the car right now!” to “You’re an idiot
and I’m going to kill you”, to finally as Gordon
gleefully broad-slides and backs the car into its original parking spot, Steve
quickly unbuckling and exiting to “Who do you think you are? I’m calling the cops!
It’s
only after Gordon sheds his disguise and reveals his true identity to the irate
and terrified Steve and explains he’d been pranked that Steve utters his final
words that are almost lost at the end of the film, yet make Dakotah’s
final point...
“Can
we do it again?”
Here
is Steve, who moments earlier when he was riding with “Minivan Mike” was
begging, threatening, doing everything he could to bring this life-threatening
ride to an end, was now gleefully asking to go on that same ride again now that
he knew that it was Jeff Gordon behind the wheel.
The
difference was trust. Steve barely
trusted “Minivan Mike” out of the parking lot with the powerful Camaro and
before it was over wanted to kill him for making his life flash before his eyes
yet anxiously wanted to repeat the harrowing “test drive” with Cup Champ Jeff
Gordon in control.
As
the lights raised, Dakotah brought his point home that “Isn’t that a lot like
life?” When we don’t have “control” or
are put in a position of having to trust someone (including ourselves) or
something we don’t fully trust, can’t the “ride” get harrowing... isn’t the
“ride” unbearable? Yet, when we place
our trust in One who is truly in control and we know it, the “ride”
changes.
He
closed by charging us that going forward we should pursue Christ, trust Him and
in that way when we all get to the end of our “ride” and find out Who was truly
behind the wheel we won’t have to ask, “Can we do that again?” when there is no
chance to do it again.
Dakotah
did it much, much better. Hopefully, you
see his point.
In
the days following Homecoming, I continued to look back on the truth in his
final point, not only in life but in the sport.
In reflection, one of the things I’ve experienced over the years in my
NASCAR fan journey is an erosion of trust.
I look back and think of the folks in the sport who though I may not
have agreed with, I trusted. For
whatever reason, I don’t find so much trust in the sport anymore.
Reclaiming
fan trust may be the biggest challenge facing NASCAR going forward-bigger than
overcoming aero dependency, stage racing, the Chase/Playoff/Whatever, schedule
shakeup, sponsorship exodus, diminishing car counts, rising costs and whatever
else is out there.
If
the trust is there, existing fans will hang on for the ride, no matter how
harrowing things might get going forward.
Lose
that trust, lose the fans.
Restore trust. Restore the sport.
NASCAR... Now that’ll preach.