Why Isn’t NASCAR Looking at the “Big Picture”?
By: Andy Kondratick
NASCAR has completely lost their minds. They are going to screw around and kill this sport. Yes, I said kill. In their infinite wisdom, Bill France and the boys have decided that they need to tweak the points system. Why? Just because Matt Kenseth is having the best season a driver could hope for so far and he is so far ahead in the points they are going to change it. Quite ironic that the man who created the original points system is dead two weeks and Matt Kenseth is blowing away the competition and almost has the last nail in the proverbial Winston Cup coffin and NASCAR announces they are going to change THE VERY POINT SYSTEM THAT HAS BROUGHT THIS SPORT TO WHERE IT IS TODAY! I thought NASCAR was the group who always claims they look at everything real hard before they react. Leave it alone. Quit screwing with a good thing.
What’s up with our new sponsor? We haven’t heard a thing from them. NEXTEL SCHMEXTEL. Why don’t you just let Budweiser take over the series like it was originally planned? Sorry to have to blow the whistle Mr. France but the fans have a right to know. I found out a while back before this NEXTEL thing that Anheuser-Busch originally was going to announce that they wanted to be the sponsor for NASCAR. The Budweiser Cup or Bud series would have been grand. As always it was a big secret but there was a problem. NASCAR wanted too much money. Imagine that. It isn’t enough that they sponsor the titled Busch series and was willing to shell out more for the title series in NASCAR. They still wanted more. Take, take, and take. That’s all NASCAR knows how to do right now.
The fans are pissed and so are most of the drivers and teams. Winning races on fuel mileage is not how I remember auto racing to be. Sure it can be a part of racing every now and again but it doesn’t have to be every week. The new body styles along with smaller fuel cells have not reduced serious injury accidents either. Nadeau comes to mind when I think about how an accident with serious injuries could have been avoided. If only they had put the soft wall technology in place at Richmond when they were scheduled to instead of wasting time at the R&D lab, Nadeau would probably still be racing today.
Safety has gotten much better in NASCAR but I still see a trend of not looking at the big picture. They are more apt to make changes by cost than the actual necessity of the sport. How about instead of changing the points you hire some emergency personnel to travel with the series. I hear there is a Ready Rapid Response Vehicle out there just waiting for you to take a look at Mr. France. If it works in their favor and it doesn’t cost to much they will do it. Kind of sounds like politics doesn’t it? That is what I believe NASCAR has turned itself into. A political circus if you will. Drivers like Michael Waltrip and Jeff Burton will say anything NASCAR wants them to because their careers are hanging on by a thread and they all want to keep their families fed.
I enjoy this sport so much but yet every time I try to focus on my job of bringing all of the fans the best, most insightful, common-sense look at the sport that is NASCAR, they pull the rug out from under me and do something really stupid. The “Big Picture” is a very simple formula Mr. France. Let the racers race and the fans will come. The fans that come will spend money and support the sponsors who support the teams. NASCAR gets bigger, better and stronger. What does that equal you ask? The same thing you have been doing for years but now all of a sudden you up and add stuff to the mixture which makes for a bad after taste in most people's mouth. You get a great and profitable sport where the fans and competitors are all happy. This sport was great for so long and now I feel its best years are slipping away instead of just arriving.
I want to hear from you. What ever you like or don’t like about the current state of our sport, let me know. I will forward all to Mr. Helton. At the very least he will listen or hit the delete button but it’s worth a shot. Thank goodness for you Big Guy. As Fans we need to let NASCAR know what we think and I encourage all of the drivers to continue to do the same. By the way, Spencer, you da man! Rubberhead needed a wake up call. Maybe not so hard next time Jimmy. Hey and at least let the guy get out of his car first.
This has been just one race fan's opinion.
Rogue Reporter Andy
August 21, 2003 -
The very fact that I am writing this article should tell you that there is a problem with NASCAR in its present state. So many things have been blundered up by NASCAR and its upper management this year that it would take me a couple of weeks and a whole lot of Teleconferences to get through it. I will try and get it all out though. Here goes.