What's Wrong With Sports - NASCAR

I’ve let this one fester for a week now, and enough is enough. I need to speak my mind.

I am sick of NASCAR. I am sick of everything it stands for. I am sick of hot shot drivers thinking they’re tough. I’m sick of their fans thinking it’s so much better and more challenging than other racing.

Most of all, I am sick of restrictor plate racing.

I am sick and tired of seeing 30 cars within a few yards of each other. I have had enough of tandem drafting, where the only way to the front is to get pushed. I don’t care for “the big one” where 20+ cars are involved in a huge crash because they cannot get away from the carnage.

It needs to stop. Now. (If you haven't seen the video, look below at how ridiculous this looks)

Let me be fair and say that all racing has flaws. Let me be even more fair by saying that NASCAR is not my cup of tea at all. I find it very tough to enjoy racing where the best car and driver don’t win more often than not; where 30 laps of green-white-checkered changes the whole strategy of the race; where your car creates such a hole in the air that you are just a sitting duck when you’re in the lead; where you can smash into the wall at 180+ mph and be back on the track with your car held together by duct tape and only go 2 mph slower…  There. Now, if you didn’t already know, you now are very aware of my dislike of stock car racing.

Now, let’s take a look at last weekend’s Chase race (which I think the Chase is garbage too, but I’ll stay away from that today) at Talladega. It’s a restrictor plate race. That means great things for fans as cars are packed together. It also means anybody can win. However, it means that many who are competing for the championship will undeservedly get caught up in that “big one” and not have a chance to score significant points towards the championship. And, surprise surprise, it happened.

And the outcry was dramatic.

Graham Rahal (IndyCar) tweeted: “I just hope everyone is ok. This style of racing is stupid.”

Ryan Briscoe (IndyCar) tweeted: “Restrictor plate racing is so dumb. Hope no one got hurt... #nascar” and then got into some conversations with other fans regarding the stupidity of restrictor plates in NASCAR vs. push-to-pass in IndyCar. One makes your car slower and less safe, the other increases the performance of your car. You tell me which one is dumb….

Ryan Hunter-Reay (IndyCar 2012 Champion…ya I’ll bet you didn’t even know his name nevertheless that he just won the IndyCar title. Shame.) responded nicely to a tweeter who took a stab at Rahal’s tweet. One fan responded with to Rahal’s tweet of “this style of racing is stupid.” with one of his own that read: “They have the balls to do it though...” Hunter-Reay made a point right back: “Really dude? Balls? Full body car & roll cage vs open cockpit. Balls?”  Especially now with it being just short of a year removed from Dan Wheldon’s tragic death, I think it’s quite obvious what is more dangerous.

Now, I honestly don’t remember which race it was earlier this year (or if it even was this year), but there was a nasty restrictor plate crash on the last lap of a race. In this crash, many drivers ended up going upside-down, flipping multiple times (I think it was Jeff Gordon who did four flips) and ending in carnage. One driver (I wish I remember who) came out of the crash saying “that was a lot of fun!” Are you serious? I was hoping everybody was safe and okay, he comes out saying it was a great time. That sort of attitude just leads to more reckless driving, which certainly doesn’t lead to wreck-less driving. That is even more true when you put in restrictor plates.

Fast forward back to the Talladega race last week. Dale, Jr., spoke loud and clear (finally) after the race criticizing restrictor plate races.  In his post-race interview, he said that “If I had to race like that every week, I’d find a new job. It’s ridiculous. Just ridiculous. I don't even wanna go to Daytona or Talladega next year, but I ain’t got much choice.” I about rejoiced after hearing a racer FINALLY speaking up against such a stupid and dangerous race style. Fans like pack racing and like the big crash. And, sad to say, but unless something like Dale, Sr., happens again, that mindset won’t change. So I was ecstatic to hear the sport’s most popular driver call out the race and threaten a boycott.

Then a couple of days later he comes out and says he didn’t mean it? (I can't find the specific quote now of course...)

He’s out for two weeks now with a concussion. On a separate note, Jeff Gordon said that if he was in a title race that he’d hide a concussion. More NASCAR air-headed-ness.


Like I said before, enough is enough. NFL had to make changes for the integrity of the sport and to be role models for the young fans out there.  What do we see from NASCAR officials and drivers? That it’s obviously not important to keep the drivers safe, money grows on trees (or at least needs to at the rate that teams need to rebuild cars), and your personal safety is unimportant.

What’s wrong with sports? NASCAR.