It's Time to Put an End to NASCAR Stereotypes

I’m very frequently disappointed in people. It’s probably something that I should get over or learn to live with, but I have high standards for everybody (and shouldn’t we all?). Generally I’m disappointed in things that fall on one side of a spectrum. For example, I’m disappointed in those who oppose certain rights, such as gay marriage and I side with the supporters of such rights. However, on Sunday came an issue in which both sides equally disappointed me. It’s not an important issue overall by any means (like gay marriage), but it’s something that means quite a deal to me.

By the way, this is a topic in which some people might not be interested in from the start, but please bare with me and hear me out.

Before Sunday’s season-finale NASCAR race at Homestead-Miami Speedway the First Lady of the United States Michelle Obama and the Second Lady of the United States Jill Biden were on hand to give the command for drivers to start their engines. Mrs. Obama and Mrs. Biden were also at the racetrack to support their charitable campaign to support military veterans and their families.

As Mrs. Obama and Mrs. Biden were being introduced for the command to fire engines the two were booed by some throughout the crowd. Based on the noise level I would say that the booing was done by the minority of people attending the race.

The booing of the First Lady and the Second Lady is honestly not surprising too me because the majority of NASCAR fans are conservative, though I myself being a huge NASCAR fan am not. I can understand why some in the audience would want to boo the First Lady because of differing politics, but I’m thoroughly disappointed that they chose to do so, especially giving the fact that Mrs. Obama was there to support military vets, something that the majority of conservative NASCAR fans should seemingly be approving of.

It’s not appropriate to boo a First Lady of the United States under any circumstance – no matter what their political affiliations are. The booing of the First Lady at Sunday’s race, and I reiterate that it seemed to be a minority of the crowd, was 100 percent classless and uncalled for. Some people might argue that, but when it comes down to it I think you have got to be respectful to the First Lady under all circumstances.

For the individuals at Sunday’s race to boo Mrs. Obama does more than just make themselves (faceless individuals) look shameful and like complete idiots, it also casts that image upon all NASCAR fans (the majority of them being fine, upstanding people) and furthers the negative stereotypes of the sport.

I am disappointed in those NASCAR fans who made the rest of us look like idiots.

I am also disappointed in many (and believe me there were many) of the people who took to social media sites, like Twitter, following the booing of the First Lady on Sunday to lay down the boom on NASCAR fans.

As I’ve previously stated, those fans were idiots. It’s easy to see that they are idiots and I agree with the many people who said as much. The only problem is that many of those people didn’t stop there. On Sunday following the incident I saw hundreds, if not thousands, of disparaging remarks aimed toward NASCAR fans on Twitter. Because I’m a NASCAR fan it frankly and obviously was upsetting to me. 

Among the terms used for us were: rednecks, hillbillies, methheads, racists, bigots and right-wingers. There were many more epithets hurled toward us, but most of the others were too disgusting and vile to print. The one that bothered me the most was equating all NASCAR fans to racists. That’s the equivalent of equating all Catholics to child molesters. It’s not accurate, and not even close to being so.

Everybody reading this already knows who I am, so there really isn’t a reason for stating this, but here it is anyway … I’m not a redneck. I’m not a hillbilly. I’m not a methhead. I’m not a racist or a bigot. I’m not a right-winger. I probably lean farther left than anybody I know and I’m a hardcore NASCAR fan.

Once again, I understand the disappointment these posters had in the actions from some of these fans, but they fail to see that their statements are just as flagrant. They are calling NASCAR fans bigots because a few people chose to boo the First Lady, but they are in fact themselves being bigots in calling all NASCAR fans rednecks, hillbillies, etc.

Over the years I’ve had people – frequently people who I consider to be friends – use some of these disparaging terms toward me (almost always they use “redneck”) for being a NASCAR fan. Generally when this happens I either completely ignore them or laugh it off and joke back and forth with them. In all truthfulness it hurts me (and until now I don’t think anybody but my girlfriend has known this). Some people are honored to be called “rednecks” and they wear it as a badge of honor. However, “redneck” is a derogatory term and when someone calls me that because I’m a NASCAR fan (even if they mean it in jest) it bothers me, because the very last thing I ever want to be considered is ignorant.  

Surely some of you will think this is making mountains out of molehills, but I take it to heart because for me the things I love, like, admire, respect make up who I am. It might be idiotic on my part, but knocking something so beloved by me and important to me (and this certainly goes for other topics than just NASCAR) is taken by me as a personal slight. I know some of you will understand this, because I’ve seen how much some of you identify with the things you love and adore. What we like and love really does make up a lot of who we are.   

Some NASCAR fans are ignorant, rednecks, racists, etc., but you know what, so are some football fans, basketball fans, baseball fans, etc. However, only NASCAR is so closely affiliated with those terms. Maybe if some of you have previously thought these thoughts you should ask yourselves why?  You’ll probably see that it doesn’t make a lick of sense. 

I’m completely sick of all the negative stereotypes that surround one of my favorite sports and it’s long past time for these horrible stereotypes to stop. Please open up your minds a little and put an end to it.  

    

Cardinals Hiring Matheny is Big Question Mark

 On Nov. 13, the St. Louis Cardinals announced that their former catcher Mike Matheny, who played with the ballclub from 2000 through 2004 and won three Gold Glove awards with them, had been hired as their new manager. 

Thus in the span of three weeks the Cardinals went from having the manager with the most experience in the entire league and likely one of the best greatest managers in baseball history to boot in Tony La Russa to having the manager with the least amount of experience in coaching. In fact, Matheny has zero managerial or coaching experience at any level in baseball, majors or minors.

To say the least, the St. Louis Cardinals are taking a gigantic risk with Matheny. It’s a risk that could work, it’s seemingly worked well for Joe Girardi with the New York Yankees and the Florida Marlins before that. But, I’d say the odds are against it. Matheny is beloved by Cardinals nation and many Cardinals fans seem to be happy or at least OK with the hiring for that reason, but hiring Mike Matheny over such candidates as two-time World Series champion with the Boston Red Sox Terry Francona and Cardinals third base coach Jose Oquendo doesn’t seem to make a whole heckuva lot of sense to me. I think that Francona would have given the Cardinals the best opportunity to win and keep a championship-caliber team at that level. I think that Oquendo would’ve given the Cardinals the best shot at re-singing free agent and franchise player Albert Pujols.

The Cardinals are likely enjoying their championship right now, but in my opinion they’re going to be starting off their next season with a big question mark.

Reutimann Gets Screwed by Waltrip, NASCAR System

Michael Waltrip, co-owner of the NASCAR team Waltrip Pastrana Racing, announced last week that veteran driver Mark Martin would be driving the #00 Toyota Camry for a part-time schedule in 2012 and 2013. Any time you’re able to put a living legend like Martin in a car it’s a good thing, but unfortunately it means that the three-car team had to drop a driver. That driver was David Reutimann and in my opinion Reutimann got screwed. 

David Reutimann was screwed for multiple reasons. The first reason is probably the biggest reason. Reutimann is one of the older drivers on the circuit at 41-years old and Reutimann is also not one of the more attractive drivers. You’re probably thinking to yourself that that shouldn’t matter over driving ability and you’re absolutely right, but in a sport that relies on sponsors for success the better looking you are the easier it is to find sponsors … this is why Kasey Kahne will never have a problem securing a ride.

The second reason why Reutimann got screwed is that there is a worse driver on his team … Martin Truex Jr. Over the last four seasons, Reutimann has outperformed Truex. Reutimann has won twice in the last four seasons (both wins are the only two wins that Waltrip’s team has ever had in the Sprint Cup Series) compared to Truex’s big goose egg, nada, zero wins. Reutimann has 12 top 5s over that span, which is five more than Truex. The two drivers have the exact same average finish in the points standings over the last four seasons averaging a 21^st place finish, but Reutimann has one more top 20 finish in the standings than Truex over that span. I will admit, just to be fair, that Truex does have more top 10 finishes over the four-year span than Reutimann.

All of these stats, in my opinion, prove that Truex should be the driver looking for a new ride in 2012 and not Reutimann, but fortunately for Truex he’s got the looks and is a full decade younger and evidently that matters more than skill. As for Michael Waltrip, you’d think he’d have more respect and loyalty toward the only man who’s ever won races in his cars, but I guess it’s the money that truly speaks.   

LSU/Alabama Could Be Sporting Event of the Year

In sports you never can truly guarantee things before they happen, the greatest of matchups on paper can turn into blowouts or snoozers and a matchup that might not seem worth watching to begin with could turn out to be one of the year’s best games or events.

Despite knowing this, there is a matchup this weekend that could set up to potentially be an epic matchup and possibly the best sporting event of 2011. That matchup of course is between the #1 ranked college football team in the country the LSU Tigers and the #2 ranked college football team in the country the Alabama Crimson Tide. This game is not only a matchup of the two clearly best college teams in the nation, but it could also possibly be 1) a matchup of the BCS title game in January or 2) better than the BCS title game in January will be. It will also be a game that brings to an end the potential undefeated season of one of these two powerhouses (which unfortunately could keep one of these two teams out of the BCS title game if it’s determined that an undefeated Oklahoma State or Stanford or some other team deserves it more.)

All of the season’s marbles are potentially on the table for this great matchup that will be broadcast on CBS at 7 on Saturday night. If you’re not going to be tuning in for this matchup, I simply have to ask … what kind of sports fan are you?

Game Six Postponement Could Potentially Sway Things in Cardinals Favor

MLB’s postponement of game six of the World Series could prove to be the moment during the series that completely changes things, even more so than “bullpen phone-gate,” Derek Holland’s masterful game four appearance or Mike Napoli’s great series.

The postponement, which now seems like it was overkill on the part of Major League Baseball, could wind up having a massive positive effect on the St. Louis Cardinals, down 2-3, and massive negative effect on the Texas Rangers, who on Monday night seemed on the verge of their first ever franchise title.

The postponement of game six due to rainy weather in St. Louis could halt the momentum the Rangers had going in Arlington that might have traveled with them back to St. Louis. The extra day off might help to cool off some of that good jive the Rangers had going for them. It’s a decent concern, but it’s definitely the least concern of them all.

The biggest concerns have to do with the possibility of a game seven, which is why the Rangers better hope their little hot streak of winning two games in a row, the first team to do so in this series, doesn’t cool off.

Of course, all of which I’m about to discuss is irrelevant if game six starter Colby Lewis and the rest of the Rangers can go out there tonight and beat Jaime Garcia and the Cardinals. For their sake the Rangers really need to win this game, because if they don’t I’m pretty confident the series goes back into the upper hand of the Cardinals.

There are two reasons why I think the Cardinals have the advantage if the series goes to game seven, and neither of them have anything to do with home-field advantage.

The first reason is that the rain out on Wednesday gives the Cardinals the opportunity, and one I think they’d definitely take advantage of, of pitching former Cy Young winner and ace Chris Carpenter in game seven on three days rest. Now, you never know exactly what you are going to get with a pitcher, even one as great as Carpenter, on three days rest and historically it hasn’t been very successful, but I think a Chris Carpenter on three days rest beats Kyle Lohse, the original intended game seven starter, on full rest. Carpenter is a bulldog and one tough competitor and I think he’d come out for game seven in similar fashion to his game five dominant performance over Roy Halladay and the MLB’s best Philadelphia Phillies in the National League Division Series. The rain out on Wednesday really sets up the perfect game seven possibility for the Cardinals on Friday if they can get through game six alive.

The second reason that I think the Cardinals would have the upper hand if the series goes the full seven games actually has more to do with Rangers manager Ron Washington’s stubbornness than the rain postponement, though because of the postponement Washington had the perfect opportunity to make what I think would be a better decision if the series goes seven games. The postponement means that Derek Holland, who pitched so brilliantly (really all time great) in game four on Sunday, would be available on Friday for game seven on complete rest. It’s a situation that should prove ideal for the Rangers, but Washington won’t budge on Matt Harrison, whom he’s always said from the start would start game seven. Harrison certainly isn’t a bad choice to start any game, but Holland’s simply been better the second half of the season and was worlds better earlier in the series. While Holland pitched 8.1 scoreless innings of two-hit ball in game four, Harrison only went 3.2 innings in game two giving up five runs. If I were the Rangers skipper this would be a no brainer decision for me … I’d be giving Holland the ball.

Baseball is the sport where a decision by a coach/manager probably means more than in any other sport. I think the combination of luck in the Cardinals being able to throw Carpenter in game seven and the decision Washington is seemingly going to make could really alter this series and have us thinking and talking about it for a long time.

Baseball has just as much action, downtime as football

I’ve always wondered why a regular season NFL game would draw more viewers than a tight, postseason Major League Baseball broadcast or even more preposterous why a televised NFL preseason game would out draw a regular season MLB game.

The answers that sports fans have always given me have never seemed fulfilling. The answer is usually as simple as: “football is just better.” Every now and then, I’ll receive the more elaborate: “football is more exciting and just has more action than baseball” or “there is too much stoppage time in baseball or time when nothing is happening.”

Well, the facts are that football honestly doesn’t have any more or less action then baseball. There also isn’t any more stoppage time or time when nothing is occurring. This is going to sound either funny, stupid or too philosophical to some, but each sport has action except for when there isn’t any.

What I mean by this is that the action in baseball starts with the pitch, which means there is constant action once the pitch is made, even if the ball isn’t batted into play. The action in a football game begins with the snap of the football. The time between the pitch in baseball and the snap in football is what I’m referring to as stoppage time and the amount of time in between the two is roughly the same. In between the pitch and the snap are mind games being played between the pitcher/catcher and batter in baseball and the offense and defense in football, which leads to a different action.

If any argument could be made as far as having less action, it could be made that there is actually less constant action in a football game, because in football you have halftime, which is roughly 20 minutes long, as opposed to the mere two to three minutes in between baseball innings.

Some fans also make the argument that baseball games are longer than football games and that baseball doesn’t fit into the increasingly small attention span of most Americans.

Sure, a baseball game doesn’t have a game clock and could essentially last all day long if it had too, but in most cases a baseball game is three hours long, which is also roughly the same length of a football game with the halftime, timeouts and commercial breaks thrown in.

This probably seems like a lot to think about and many sports fans don’t want a whole lot of thinking thrown into their sports. However, these reasons seem better to me than the ignorantly cliché “football is just better” statement.

When it comes down to it the two sports are similar in the amount of action that actually occurs during the timeframe of the event. This brings back the question: why do more people prefer meaningless, regular season football games over important, postseason baseball games?

The answer would seem to be a subjective one: the majority of sports fans just prefer football over baseball. Each fan will have their reasons why or why not, but one thing is certain in my mind: “just because” just doesn’t cut it.

The Race I Never Wanted to See

My passion for motorsports began 10 years ago – I can’t remember exactly why, but it probably had something to do with me being bored on Sundays or either that my best friend, Bobby, was a NASCAR fan.

I started out simply watching the Sprint Cup Series (then it was called the Winston Cup Series) each week and over the years my racing watching spread to the two others NASCAR touring series: Nationwide Series and Camping World Truck Series. A few years after that I started tuning into the open wheel racing world of the IndyCar series. Today I watch almost every single race of all four of those series (and a few here and there of other series) – that comes out to around 120 races a year.

I knew that racing was dangerous and potentially life-ending … who doesn’t? It’s rather obvious that someone driving a car at speeds around 200 MPH or higher could be killed in a crash – and they do crash, sometimes rather horrifically. I had never witnessed it though … I started watching NASCAR in the months following Dale Earnhardt’s fatal crash on the final lap of the 2001 Daytona 500.

After that crash NASCAR went all out on safety – mandating the HANS device that protects a driver’s neck, instituting SAFER barriers in the walls and making the cars themselves safer. Because of these inventions and additions to the sport I’ve seen many wrecks over the years that should have been worse, end up in driver after driver walking away without a scratch. One of these very wrecks happened on Saturday night (Oct. 15) when Jimmie Johnson’s number 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet got loose while running under Ryan Newman’s number 39 Stewart-Haas Chevrolet and snapped wickedly to the right and hard into the Charlotte Motor Speedway wall in the NASCAR Sprint Cup race. The impact was likely the hardest of the year and of Johnson’s career, but he climbed out without a scratch and though he definitely said he felt it he likely doesn’t feel any effects from it today.

I figured Johnson’s wreck would be the worst of the weekend … unfortunately I was way wrong.

I think because of seeing all of these drivers walk away from impacts like that I had become convinced that tragedy and motorsports wouldn’t be used in the same sentence very often anymore, and thankfully that may be the case for NASCAR.

Despite thinking the worst would never happen, I did get scared for the safety of drivers. The first time I can ever remember being scared for a driver was when Elliott Sadler took his M&Ms number 38 Robert Yates Ford for a wild ride in 2004 at Talladega Superspeedway. Over the years there probably hasn’t been a single driver (whether I rooted for them or not) where I haven’t felt at least momentarily frightened for. I’m not a fan of Jimmie Johnson, but I grimaced on Saturday night.

I always knew that Indy cars weren’t as safe as NASCAR cars, but I guess it was something I never really thought much about. I guess I took it for granted. Much like with NASCAR, I’ve seen some pretty bad IndyCar wrecks over the years. Just over a month ago Tony Kanaan had a pretty serious wreck at New Hampshire Motor Speedway where his number 82 KV Racing Technology – Lotus overturned. Kanaan climbed out safely.

Much like my NASCAR heroes, my heroes of the IndyCar series seemed larger than life and invincible – I think they have to feel that way too, if they didn’t I don’t think it’d be possible to do what they do.

I guess I’ve been naïve about motorsports and death over the years. Today more than ever it seems possible that a driver could begin a race full of life and never reach that checkered flag at the end.

Watching every race of the IndyCar series season is something that has come to me pretty recently, I can’t remember the exact season I started watching full time, but this season was the first in which I caught all 17 races. For years I’d just watch the bigger races, mainly the legendary Indianapolis 500 (which every sports fan should see yearly, whether they really like motorsports or not – it’s that kind of event).

The first Indianapolis 500 I remember seeing was in 2005. That year the Indy 500 was a bigger deal than usual as Danica Patrick was debuting at Indy and people held big hopes in her. She became the first woman to ever lead laps at the Indy 500 that year and ended up finishing a record fourth. Her fourth place finish garnered most of the news. The next day people probably could’ve told you where Danica placed, but wouldn’t have even known the winner’s name. That pissed me off, even then before I became the fan of IndyCar I am today. The winner was Dan Wheldon and he was dominant that year. The Indy 500 title was his fifth win of the season and he would go on to win the series championship that year, the only of his career.

The greatest Indy race I’ve ever seen was this year’s Indianapolis 500. It was one of those race endings that I’ll always remember – no matter how old and senile I get. It looked like rookie J.R. Hildebrand had things in the bag, but as sometimes happens the young 23-year old (good gracious these boys running out here are younger than me) made a rookie mistake and crashed coming to the yard of bricks that marks the Indy start-finish line. Hildebrand’s major gaffe was Wheldon’s incredible gain as he passed the kid’s damaged, but still moving forward car to win his second career Indianapolis 500, becoming just the 18^th driver to win the storied race multiple times. Even more incredible it was Wheldon’s only race of the year at that point, as he didn’t have a full time ride (despite being one of the sport’s greatest talents) due to lack of sponsorship.

Wheldon was a brash driver, but never in a way that made him seem full on arrogant or unlikable (in say the way it does NASCAR star Kyle Busch). It just meant he was confident and you’d be hard pressed to find a more confident racer than the British lad. In fact, Wheldon was one of the more likable drivers in the sport – among both fans and fellow drivers.

I think it was that confidence of Wheldon’s that led him to the season finale IndyCar race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday (Oct. 16). IndyCar CEO Randy Bernard had offered $5 million to any non-regular driver who could enter the Vegas race and win it. Half the $5 million would go to the driver and his team and the other half would go to a fan. The promotion was in hopes that a big star from another series (most likely NASCAR) would enter the race and be a huge spectacle for the sport that once was the motorsport in the country and now has sunk far behind NASCAR and become sort of a fringe sport in America. That didn’t happen. In fact, Wheldon (who at the time I didn’t think should be eligible for the award because of his stature in the series) was the only driver willing to take the chance.

I had been anticipating this race, the first IndyCar race in Vegas since 2000, for weeks. My personal favorite IndyCar driver Dario Franchitti held the points lead over Will Power, but his lead wasn’t comfortable. The race would not only be for the championship, but it would also be the final regular Indy race for the league’s most popular driver Danica Patrick before she goes full time to NASCAR in 2012. As a fan there couldn’t be any more excitement in the air.

The drivers, however, didn’t feel right – and we’d soon learn with good reason. Las Vegas Motor Speedway is just too fast for 34 cars to be running around in a large pack at over 200 MPH. If two cars make contact there is the potential for a massive melee. It’s the same thing that happens with pack racing at the NASCAR restrictor plate races at Daytona and Talledega, but IndyCar cars aren’t as equipped for big pileups. The race was a potential disaster waiting to happen, and it didn’t take long.

On just the 11^th lap of the 200 lap race the car of rookie Wade Cunningham got out of control and the car of Hildebrand ran into him ramping off of him and into the air. There was nothing that could stop what would happen next. At 200-plus MPH in a large two-by-two pack there is absolutely nothing you can do but hold on and hope for the best. Fifteen cars were involved in the wreck, multiple cars got airborne and overturned, others caught fire and the track literally looked like a war zone with all the debris strewn about. Fourteen of the drivers involved came out of it in the best situation, including Will Power who we can only chalk up to being lucky when we see how far his car flew through the air after ramping off of another. Wheldon, the man who just minutes before strapped into his car in hopes of winning the $5 million prize, didn’t come out. His car, like Hildebrand’s and Power’s, ramped off another competitor’s (Paul Tracy’s) became airborne, flew an incredible amount of distance and crashed into the catchfence with the cockpit side making impact.

Two hours later IndyCar officials announced that Wheldon died of “unsurvivable injuries.” The race was canceled, upon the insistence of the drivers and the remaining 19 cars not involved in the wreck formed a three-wide formation and drove around the track in a five lap salute to Wheldon as the track PA played a bagpipes version of “Amazing Grace.” Before, during and after the tribute drivers, friends of Wheldon’s, were visibly upset and in tears.

Dan Wheldon was a great champion of the sport, but the cruel hand of racing death shows no prejudice, Dale Earnhardt taught us all that.

Dan Wheldon didn’t take the checker flag at Las Vegas on Sunday, but instead became the fastest to life’s checkered flag. A racer’s death was one of the few firsts I’ve never seen in my years as a sports fan and it was the one first that I always hoped I’d never see. I don’t think I’ll ever watch a race the same way again (in any motorsport) and I’ll probably flinch a little more when I see a bad wreck knowing what the possible outcome might be … I take no comfort in that this week as NASCAR’s top series goes to Talladega (the sport’s most scary and probably dangerous track, where the most horrifying wrecks generally take place). I doubt I’ll ever see another IndyCar race where I don’t think about Dan Wheldon, that may hurt a little bit today, but in the future I’m sure I’ll see that Dan Wheldon won the race before everyone else, he just did it a little bit faster, after all that’s how he lived.

Drivers ... Pack It In ... Johnson Knaus Has This

Attention NASCAR fan of the other 11 Chase drivers that are not named Jimmie Johnson ... turn off your TV sets for the last six races of the Chase for the Championship. It's already locked up.

The combination of Jimmie Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus are unbeatable. In fact, I can't think of a more dominating duo right now in all of sports. They are a Murderers Row all to themselves, Ruth and Gehrig, Montana and Rice.

They haven't even had a great year, in fact, they've had their worst year, only winning their second race of the year this past weekend in Kansas ... yet they are right there at the top, only four points behind current points leader and eventual loser Carl Edwards. Johnson Knaus, I've combined them into one robotic person, is a machine ... give up the nickname Albert Pujols ... it's rightfully theirs.

Edwards, Busch, other Busch, Harvick, Gordon, Keselowski, Stewart, Hamlin, Earnhardt, Newman and Kenseth don't even bother starting those engines at Homestead in November ... it's all for not.

Johnson has this clinched. Six in a row will be one of the most impressive things I've ever seen ... but God almighty I'm sick of it.