November 25, 2012
By Kim Roberson
Kim Roberson
|
It is amazing how time flies when you are truly having fun. I have just wrapped up my ninth season as a NASCAR fan -- I became a fan the same year as the Chase began. That same year, I pitched a story idea to the editor here at Insider Racing News about what it was like to watch and report NASCAR from a rookie fan's point of view.
So, as I enter my tenth season as a fan, just what have I learned from that rookie year, oh-so-long-ago? I have a long list, but here are just some of the highlights.
First off, I don’t think there is a fan as passionate about a sport as an old school NASCAR fan is.
To this day, there are still fans who track who would have won a Championship under the old Winston Cup points system (Carl Edwards and the No. 99 team would have four championships, Kevin Harvick and the No. 29 team one, Jeff Gordon and the No. 24 team would have six, and Jimmie Johnson and the No. 48 team would only have two.
Brad Keselowski and the No. 2 team would still have won this season, Greg Biffle and the No. 16 team would have come in second instead of Clint Bowyer and the No. 15 team.)
Old school NASCAR fans will argue with you until they are blue in the face about how the “old days” are so much better than the racing we watch today. I have discovered that, like many fishermen with the stories of how large their catch is that some of those great old stories have grown a bit more dramatic with the passing of time, but the stories about the old rivalries are still a great joy to listen to.
There are times when I wish I could have been around to see the pass in the grass, or the fight between Donnie Allison, Bobbie Allison and Cale Yarborough, or witness Alan Kulwicki win his first Championship with the underbird (Thunderbird) and Davey Allison beat and bang his way against Kyle Petty to a win the All-Star Race in Charlotte, and then crash so hard he landed in the hospital.
Old school fans have told me how much better the racing was with the old car. Any old car. Anything but what they have been racing for the last six and a half years. Some fans still wonder why NASCAR ever strayed away from buying a stock car off the showroom floor in the first place, but many would just like to go back to having cars on the track that actually look like the car they can go buy at a dealership. (Allegedly that is going to change some next season as a new car is brought to the track.)
Other fans miss the variety of cars racing each weekend. Sadly, Dodge captured the Championship with Brad Keselowski and Penske Racing in what was their last official race in NASCAR, at least for now. With Dodge’s departure, there are only three factory-sponsored manufacturers left in the sport: Chevrolet, Ford and Toyota.
Oh, and don’t forget about how upset many old school fans were when NASCAR allowed a foreign manufacturer onto the track by approving Toyota’s request to get into the sport.
There are still many to this day who will root for anyone not in a Toyota, and actively cheer when a Toyota is taken out of the race. Then again, there are also Ford fans that do the same thing when a Chevrolet is taken out of a race, and vice-versa. I have learned that Ford can stand for “First on Race Day”, or “Found on road dead”, depending on whom you ask.
Old school fans are also passionate about their race tracks, especially the ones we don’t race at anymore. I have heard all about the old races at North Wilkesboro and Rockingham, and how racing would be better if we went back to the old tracks like those.
The good news is, we are back and racing at Rockingham after a seven year hiatus, thanks to the love and dedication of Andy Hillenberg listening to the fans and working to restore the track to conditions that would entice NASCAR to return to the one-mile high banked track.
However, going back to the old days of old race tracks doesn’t mean fans want everything to go back to the way things were. I have also heard of stories of the men’s bathrooms being nothing but a trough in the ground, and the women’s bathrooms weren’t much better, and the stands were old wooden benches that oftentimes might leave you with a splinter or two in your backside if you stood and sat too many times over the course of a race.
One thing that many fans, new and old, agree upon is the ability to follow the sport anytime from pretty much everywhere in the world. I have been told of the days when you had to wait by the mailbox for an edition of National Speed Sport News to be delivered to find out what actually happened in the race the weekend before because races weren’t televised, and radio coverage was spotty at best.
When NASCAR DID come to TV, you had no idea what channel it would be on, and if you even got the channel to watch the race.
Fans DO miss the men that used to be in the broadcast booth: Neil Bonnet, Ned Jarrett, and Benny Parsons, just to name a few. These days, we watch Sprint Cup racing on three networks, and each broadcast team, whether it be Fox, TNT or ESPN, has their sets of fans and haters.
You also now have the ability to not only read all about the races on the internet, but interact with drivers, crew chiefs, and other members of a race team one on one thanks to Facebook and Twitter. (There is even a group of NASCAR “Inanimate Objects” that have twitter accounts, such as @theorangecone, @thecatchfence, @theSAFEbarrier, @startfinishline, @NASCARjetdryer, @theMiniChad, @theinsidewall, @infieldgrass, just to name a few!)
If you have a favorite member of the NASCAR media, well, we all pretty much have twitter accounts as well, and you can even argue live during a race with certain members of the media if you are so inclined.
Another thing that most (but sadly not all) fans are able to get behind is that no matter how ugly you think the new car is, or what manufacturer you root for, the cars not only go fast, but they save lives. Back in the day, so many drivers were seriously injured or even killed racing for our enjoyment.
The day that Dale Earnhardt died in the 2001 Daytona 500, all of that began to change. NASCAR didn’t let him die in vain, and set about to ensure that every driver who straps themselves into a race car will be as safe as possible for every lap they are on the track. NASCAR hasn’t lost a driver in its top three series since that February day, almost 12 years ago, despite some spectacular crashes.
There are still injures, as we were reminded back at Talladega when Eric McClure crashed and was out for a month recovering from his injuries, and at the end of this season when Dale Earnhardt Jr. was forced to sit out two races with a concussion.
I don’t know that there will ever be a way to make racing a car at close to 200 mph completely safe so long as they hit each other and the walls, and I still detest that people cheer loudly when a driver slams into a wall, leaving their car in pieces, or look forward to the “big one” like we saw when Tony Stewart made one mistake and took out 25 cars back in October, because you never know when a hit might be just at that odd angle to cause actual harm.
Each one of these men and women who climb into these cars and trucks each weekend love the sport, but are also out there to keep us entertained for a few hours as we watch them drive at speeds and in conditions 99.9% of us will never experience in our lives. We should never wish any of them harm.
Another thing I have loved about the past nine years is my ability to share this sport with others. I have met some wonderful friends through racing, and have been delighted to find out some of my oldest friends were NASCAR fans and I didn’t even know it until I became a fan myself.
I have also enjoyed taking my family and loved ones to their first ever races and seeing the light go on during a race as if they finally understood what makes this sport so great to watch. It isn’t just about going around in circles for hundreds of miles. It is the combination of sound, smell and the hum of energy from everyone around you that pulls you in. It is watching the cars go by in tight packs two, three, and even four wide, just inches apart at somewhere between 100 and 200 mph, and thinking that a wrong move by any of them could be disastrous to their day.
It is seeing them find the one person on the track that they decide they want to root for, whether it is because of the design on the car or the name over the door or the face behind the helmet, and cheering that person on to victory, or commiserating in their defeat.
My dad wasn’t a NASCAR fan until I became one, and now every Sunday I wait until the end of the race to call and chat with him, so we can talk about the race, how his favorite drivers did, and where everyone did in the Championship points. Even my mom, who isn’t a sports fan in general, will occasionally get sucked into the excitement of watching a race and talk with me about something that happened on the track before passing the phone off to my dad.
New fan or old, there is something about this sport that draws you in, grabs your heart, and makes it tough to let go. I am so glad I became that rookie fan so many years ago, and am still here today to share that love of NASCAR with anyone who will listen.
Follow Kim on Twitter: @ksrgatorfn
The thoughts and ideas expressed by this writer or any other writer on Insider Racing News, are not necessarily the views of the staff and/or management of IRN.
You can contact Kim at..