4LT GS Roadster
Empty seats are on display on a race day in 2009. NASCAR officials and their counterparts at tracks
are pinning hopes on improved perceptions and performance as a new season nears.
You can't fool NASCAR fans, not the real ones.
I'm talking about fans who bow their head every time somebody invokes North Wilkesboro and drop to one knee before they enter Darlington Raceway.
I'm talking about fans who drink one brand of beer, buy one brand of motor oil and shop at one home-improvement store because their driver endorses it.
I'm talking about fans who supported NASCAR long before it became (temporarily) trendy and who handed their passion down to their children the way some families hand down furniture or jewelry.
These fans understand.
So the contention of team owner Jack Roush on Tuesday was ludicrous.
Roush said fans did not complain about Sprint Cup racing in 2009. It was the media that complained. He singled out ESPN commentators Rusty Wallace and Darrell Waltrip as well as former crew chiefs.
Of course racing fans will respectfully listen to ex-champions such as Wallace and Waltrip and to a former team owner and crew chief such as Ray Evernham.
But most fans have reached the age where they can decide all by themselves whether they like a race. They're independent like that.
NASCAR's signature Sprint Cup series took substantial ratings and attendance hits last season. Of course the economy was a factor. Fans might drive from Raleigh for a Carolina Panthers game and from Weddington for a Charlotte Bobcats game.
But they'll drive from Pennsylvania for a race at Charlotte Motor Speedway, and stay all week. Road trips are expensive, and many fans had to give them up.
Unless the repo man snuck in and stole the television, however, fans still can afford to sit in a chair and watch a race on TV. So why did the TV ratings tank?
Cup racing was as predictable and as bland in 2009 as I remember it.
There are places I go where racing is one of the subjects people talk about. Last year it came up primarily when I asked why nobody was talking about it.
Roush says the “complaints come from reporters and from the media that have maybe a vested interest.”
What's our vested interest? I have never gone to a sporting event wanting to be bored. I want to get excited.
Roush also said Wallace and Waltrip and the former crew chiefs might have an “ax to grind.”
Sure they do. NASCAR made them rich and famous and put them in position to enhance their riches and fame by talking about racing on network TV.
No wonder they're angry. I understand Roush's frustration as well as the frustration of drivers, owners and officials who spent the past three days of the Speedway media tour praising their sport.
It's tough to do something you love and have it ignored or criticized. Trust me, I know.
But racing's critics want the same thing proponents do.
They want drivers to leave the track with their brains and bodies intact and fans to leave mesmerized by what they witnessed.
To contend that fans were mesmerized by what they saw last season mocks their intelligence. Fans know. Fans always know.
Fans know - www.thatsracin.com
