A NASCAR fan from childhood, but now NASCAR through the media eye.
The are so many ways and so many opinions on this past Sunday's NASCAR race at Martinsville Speedway. The thing is, who is right and who is wrong. Heck no one even knows that answer.
This I do know, I grew up watching drivers like Cale Yarborough, Donnie and Bobby Allison with Darrell Waltrip along with Dale Earnhardt rubbing and banging lap after lap. A last lap crash in Daytona and seeing a fist fight on the infield. Racing was racing and drivers had rivalries against each other. I loved making the trip to Richmond and Martinsville to see races with my Dad. Once the race was over the pit gates would open and you could go find your favorite driver. Richard Petty would always be the last one their. trying to give the fans time to meet him. Drivers and teams stayed at the same hotel. It was nothing to go to your car in the parking lot and see Darrell Waltrip parked next to you.
Now days five to ten foot is the closest you as a fan will get to a driver sometimes. And those fans now days are the ones who are buying their merchandise and supporting them as drivers. I was impressed with seeing fans allowed close to victory lane Sunday in Martinsville to share Jeff Gordon's win. I even saw him stay around much later and shake hands and high five fans who hung around outside the infield tunnel. That is what fans and drivers need to be about. Give the fans their time and let them feel the excitement of meeting you and getting an autograph. I even had a friend who stayed around Sunday in the infield and was able to get up and close and help several teams with their cars.
Video links here: https://www.facebook.com/silas.smithies/videos/943354925734781/?pnref=story
and https://www.facebook.com/silas.smithies/videos/vb.100001808474374/943354145734859/?type=3&permPage=1
From a media stand-point the first race I covered was Rockingham the week after Dale Earnhardt's death. I took about 30 rolls of film. I was overwhelmed to say the least. After many races at many different tracks, I felt like part of the weekly work crew and now I can only shoot 200 photos per race. Most driver are not even recognized in street clothes by fans, another reason fans can relate to their sponsors. You can see a golf cart coming, but when you see the FedEx logo, you then hear: "here comes Denny".
Now this past Sunday many fans celebrated when Matt Kenseth who was nine laps down appeared to take out the race leader Joey Logano by wrecking him. Sure as a race fan, who doesn't like to see crashes as long as drivers don't get hurt. To me that makes some good action racing. You never want to see anyone get hurt, but lots of banging and crashing is cool right. Well those drivers are doing their job to win the race and championship and racing side by side at high speeds is dangerous. Lots of money is invested in those race cars and teams have lots of backers with many employees that depend on winning and a great finish.
We all love to see a good rivalry as well, but not deliberately taking another team or driver out is not racing. Now if it was the last lap and each driver was racing for the win, it is on and should be free game. That was the case two weeks ago when Logano tapped and wrecked Kenseth to earned the win. Kenseth didn't see it that way and just appeared to pay Logano back Sunday. NASCAR is waiting until Tuesday to make anymore statements or punishments about Sundays event. Don't be surprised if NASCAR sets an example with Matt Kenseth for his actions. Out of the car and in the pits pushing and shoving is a different matter, but on the track put lives in danger.
Either way, there are race fans that loved it and race fans that hated it. Lets all just sit back and see what happens next week if they both are in the field you might see more fireworks. See you at the track. Don't look now but Joey Lagono's dad is running through the pits headed to visit someone and give his opinion. Got to love it. I bet you have at least seen the wreck at least once or even many times and now you want to tune in Sunday to see what Texas holds.