Daze of slumber

NASCAR has lost sight of its rubbin' is racin' roots

The story is more than 50 years old. It's been told, twisted, tweaked until it's become a caricature of itself. Good ol' boys running moonshine from the feds argued over whose souped-up Mercury Coupe was fastest. Eventually, the races made their way to the sand/asphalt Daytona Beach track, the birth of a sport. And the rest is history.

That is where today's NASCAR is missing the point: history. It's not about the "young guns" or any other moniker the marketing whizzes wish to push upon the paying public. The sport's roots run deeper than Madison Avenue's ever-changing topsoil.

Whereas a generation ago fans could get a handshake and a look in the eye from a favorite driver, today's made-for-TV pedal pushers are kept at more than arm's length from the people who made it possible for NASCAR's $2.4 billion TV contract payout from FOX, NBC and Turner Sports.

And should a fan have the good fortune to get an audience with a modern day driver, most likely the thing he or she will come away with is an up close and personal look at the button on top of the sponsor's cap. The hero will be too busy -- head down, keep moving -- to give that moment of a lifetime to a fan who put off a needed car repair in order to pony up the ticket price for the chance at this meeting.

It's time NASCAR took stock of its product -- and the purchasing public. Yes, there are record merchandising sales because its fast and furious imagery is selling plenty of T-shirts, caps and 1/24th-scale model cars, and for the umpteenth year in a row the sport's popularity is growing. But beware: If NASCAR continues down its current path, dead man's curve lies in wait.

Throughout the 53-year history of NASCAR, the cars have been transformed from road-going, true "stock" cars into the sleek, technologically advanced machines that we see today. NASCAR History.

One bump in the road is the sentiment that Winston Cup racing is staged. Pundits reached a fever pitch in July 2001 after Dale Earnhardt Jr. dominated in winning the Pepsi 400 at Daytona, four months after his dad's death at the track. It was too good to be true, they reasoned. But with controversy come increased ticket sales, bigger TV ratings and memorabilia sales that have moved past $1 billion annually. All that adds up to more money in the stock car coffers.

Another less sinister complaint is aerodynamics, which uses airflow to push the car's body down on the wheels and add traction. The wide-body Mercurys, Plymouths, Buicks and Oldsmobiles of yesteryear cut huge swaths through the air, lending themselves to side-by-side racing complete with slingshot passes. It even bore the "rubbin' is racin'" routine used by many of the old timers who banged around the track to the full-throat delight of fans.

Even NASCAR's resident bad boy, Tony Stewart, fuels the fire: "This sport needs to go back to simpler times, go back to racing for what it is," he says. "It's all about entertainment now instead of racing. It seems we're getting more like WWF wrestling all the time."

However, Former Winston Cup champion Dale Jarrett argues, "You read stuff that maybe our racing isn't as good as what the expectations are. But it's been pretty good as far as not knowing who's going to win these races at the end. If you're a fan and you're sitting at home watching it, or you're sitting in the stands, you can't get up with 20 laps to go."

No you can't, because you don't know when NASCAR is going to throw the red flag, guaranteeing a dash to the finish, thus keeping TV viewers glued through commercial after commercial after commercial. But Winston Cup rules are even more mind-boggling than the dynamics of aero push, and not worth taking issue with.

Still, nothing lasts forever -- and that includes this sport's upswing. There are several adages that apply, including what goes around comes around. Fans hope the days of less glitz and more racing are roaring through Turn 4 and making their way back to the front of the pack.

NASCAR has gone from being easily related to by blue-collar fans to a must-watch only if you have Webster's close at hand. Or Dennis Miller, the terminology -- and commercialization -- is that intrusive. Also gone are the days of "Win on Sunday, sell on Monday," a catchphrase used by manufacturers after taking the checkered flag on race day.

And gone are the days of a fan buying a 1989 Pontiac Grand Prix and rolling up 317,000 miles on it simply because it was the car Rusty Wallace won the points championship with. Nope, this last time I opted for an Explorer.

B. Duane Cross is a senior producer for CNNSI.com.

 

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