NASCAR: Five Things Fans Were 100 Percent Right About
Peter Casey-USA TODAY Sports
NASCAR fans and sports fans alike always have something to complain about. Whether is has to do with their driver or team, or something else in the sport. While these complaints are always compassionate, they aren’t always on the mark, but sometimes they are.
Some of the things that NASCAR fans gripe about range from drivers, to teams, to rules, to tracks, to rain delays and the list goes on and on. Sometimes NASCAR arguments come from the wrong place which makes it hard to take some fans seriously. A NASCAR fan who hates Kyle Busch will say he “sucks” despite the fact that he has won more races (in all three series) than any other driver not named Richard Petty.
Other times NASCAR opinions come from a place of stubbornness. Some NASCAR fans do not like the Chase and regardless of what NASCAR does to it they will always hate the Chase. These kind of close-minded debates are often hard to win or find reason in.
That being said, NASCAR fans are not always wrong. In fact, many times more reasonable fans tend to be right more often than they are wrong. Here is a look at five consensus ideals that the majority of NASCAR fans believe in and are correct in believing in.
Kelvin Kuo-USA TODAY Sports
Jimmie Johnson Will Never Equal Dale Earnhardt Sr.
It’s no secret that NASCAR fans are very protective of the legacy of Dale Earnhardt. Not only do they exemplify this by tearing apart every unlucky soul that makes the mistake of comparing the legend to one of today’s young guns, they also show it by voicing their displeasure anytime someone breaks one of Earnhardt’s many records in the sport.
For example, let’s go back to 2007, where Jeff Gordon had just surpassed Dale Earnhardt in career wins in the Sprint Cup Series. While Gordon handled the moment respectfully and did a wave to the fans during his cool down lap, he was greeted with flying rolls of toilet paper and beer cans from a flurry of angry Earnhardt fans in the stands.
Although Jimmie Johnson’s 77th win at Auto Club Speedway in 2016 was received a lot better by the fans than Gordon’s win in 2007, it still ignited a firestorm on social media about whether Johnson was now the next Earnhardt or not. This of course angered fans of The Intimidator, who argued that although Johnson has matched a lot of Earnhardt’s records, he didn’t have the personality that Earnhardt had.
With that being said, this is one of the things that Earnhardt fans actually have a point about. While Johnson is a very talented driver and will no doubt go down in history as one of the most dominant drivers in modern history, he still lacks the personality and intensity on the track that Earnhardt showed the world throughout his career. Johnson might accomplish a lot of the things that Earnhardt did, but he will never be the same as him.
Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports
Kyle Busch Never Gets A Fair Shake
This one is hard to admit, but it’s pretty obvious that it’s impossible for Kyle Busch to get a fair shake with the media and the fans. While the Nevada native did gain a lot of fan support after winning the championship last season, especially after coming back from a brutal leg injury at Daytona, NASCAR still seems unable to resist the temptation of painting him as a whiny brat having a temper tantrum.
Take for example the closing laps of the Richmond race this year, where Kyle Busch was bumped out-of-the-way by his teammate for the victory. Although Busch did keep his composure after the race, the fans and the media still decided to dissect his post-race interviews and claim that he was just being a whiny baby and throwing a tantrum again. In fact, it was NASCAR.com’s top story for an entire day!
It pretty much goes without saying that Busch would have been criticized by the media no matter what reaction he gave during the press conference, but to make it a top story is just asking for attention. In fact, it shows that NASCAR has a sort of reliance on Kyle Busch for controversy and interesting stories, which isn’t very fair to other drivers looking to make a name for themselves and gain media attention.
Busch can get into enough trouble by himself with fans and media making non-stories into huge stories.
Randy Sartin-USA TODAY Sports
NASCAR Is Overly Obsessed With Dale Jr.
Does this really come as a surprise to anyone? While the obsession would be justified if Dale Earnhardt Jr. had actually turned out to be as talented and successful as his late father was in his heyday, it now just looks like a desperate attempt by the media to keep a driver with average talent relevant and constantly in the headlines.
The obsession is even more blatant on race day, where the broadcast booth devotes huge chunks of time of their race coverage to Jr.’s progress on the track. In fact, one could argue that Jr. is one of the only drivers on the Sprint Cup circuit that receives a huge amount of coverage on a weekly basis regardless of where he qualified, how he’s performing and if he qualified for the Chase or not.
Take the spring race at Bristol for example, where the Fox Sports One booth constantly updated fans on Dale Jr.’s progress after he missed a shift on the opening lap of the race and went two laps down. Sure, it was a big deal at the beginning of the race, especially since Jr. had qualified near the front, but it became less and less relevant as the race went on.
While the obsession will Dale Earnhardt Jr. will probably never end, especially considering how big his fan base is, hopefully he will eventually be able to justify the obsession with some broken records and a championship. Until then, it’s not deserved and takes away from drivers that are actually accomplishing major feats on the track.
You could argue NASCAR did the same with Danica Patrick her first couple of years in the series but even that has died down in 2016.
Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports
The Caution Clock Was Never A Good Idea
While the caution clock was a step in the right direction for leveling the playing field and allowing for more exciting racing action, the way it was handled and how it was implemented by NASCAR was just ridiculous. Yes, fans want to see the teams have a chance to adjust their cars and compete with the leaders, but they didn’t need to create a caution clock in order to achieve that.
In all honesty, NASCAR would have been better off taking one of their previous All-Star race formats from the Cup Series and adjusting to the Truck Series. Not only would that create the intense restarts that fans want to see, especially in the closing laps of the race, it would also be a way to pause the racing action more seamlessly and allow teams to tune up their cars before the next segment.
Sure, fans might hate it, especially since a caution clock really doesn’t belong in the world of auto racing to begin with, but with the chance it creates for teams to make adjustments to their cars and the added amount of restarts throughout the race, it is almost guaranteed to be a mainstay in NASCAR for years to come. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if they transferred the rule to the two top tier series’ as well.
Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports
The Chase Hurt The Sport
It goes without saying that NASCAR basically sold out when they announced the Chase format in the spring of 2014. Not only was the new format a pitiful attempt at creating a playoff system that resembles that of mainstream sports, it was also a huge departure from the way NASCAR used to decide its yearly champion. The format also featured intense eliminations periods, which only muddled the post-season further.
While younger fans flocked to the new format with open arms and mouths wide open in excitement, the older crowd felt that they have had the NASCAR they loved snatched away from them and given a poor substitute in its place. If anything, the addition of the new Chase format in 2014 was NASCAR’s way of telling older fans to get with the times and embrace change.
Unfortunately for NASCAR, that didn’t happen and now older fans are leaving the sport they once loved in droves and it doesn’t look like they will ever come back. Not only is that apparent by NASCAR’s continued changes that would make better sense for a demolition derby or a monster truck show, it’s also obvious by NASCAR’s multi-million dollar switch to NBC and NBCSN in late 2015.
Can it change? Yes! Will it change? Hell no! NASCAR has too much money invested in this new NBC sports deal and would be dumb to change the Chase format to something else, especially since NBC and NBCSN hold exclusive broadcasting rights of the entire Sprint Cup post-season. In fact, one could probably argue that a change to the format would greatly damage the relationship between the two.
With that being said, there’s really no hope for the future of NASCAR. At least for those that long for the days of the old championship format. Sure, NASCAR could pander to the old fan base and eliminate the championship at the end of the year, but doing that would alienate their new and younger audience.
Agree with our picks? Let us know in the comments below and have a wonderful day!
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