Once again, the folks at Yahoo! Sports have opened up Pandora’s Box. Anytime you you ask fans what they’d do to change NASCAR for the traditional fan base, you’re gonna get about the same five answers you’ll get all the time. “Let’s get rid of the Chase,” “Let’s get rid of the new car,” “Bring back ‘The Rock’” and “Can’t the networks do a better job of covering ALL the drivers and not just the top 12?”
What I’m about to say is small consolation, because the truth is sometimes hard to swallow. I will no dispute some drivers get tons more coverage than others. I may be newer to becoming a NASCAR Kool-Aid drinker, but I have the perspective of somebody who followed stick and ball sports passionately for 30+ years and and on again off again career as somebody who has covered sport professionally.
The complaint raised here runs all throughout sports. Offensive linemen rarely get noticed unless they commit a penalty. Once in a while, a savvy announcer points out how a great block opened a hole for the star running back or QB. Watch the the World Series, and you’ll hear a lot about (using the Tampa Bay Rays as an example) Evan Longoria, B.J. Upton and Carl Crawford. Gabe Gross will have to do something VERY spectacular to get more than a mere mention of his name. Same goes for the middle innings relievers and such. If you watched the Chicago Bulls during their great run in the 90s, it was Michael Jordan this, Scottie Pippen that and Dennis Rodman doing something outrageous. You heard virtually nothing about the heady play of Jud Buechler off the bench or the sharpshooting of Steve Kerr.
My favorite athletes over the years have included the less spectacular likes of the NFL’s Ed Mc Caffrey, Portland Trail Blazer Larry Steele (a defensive stopper during the Blazers glory days of the 70s), and Brett Butler- a name famiilar only to serious baseball fans.
That’s to say, I understand. Among my current favorites is former NASCAR champion Bobby Labonte. It’s be nice to see him get some attention besides those occasions when he gets hung up in a collision. Trust me, I feel your pain.
What I’m saying is sports coverage generally sticks to the most popular. If they do well- it’s a story. If they’re slumping, it’s an even bigger story. Right now, the Tennessee Titans are 6-0 and SportsCenter devotes more time to Tony Romo’s broken pinkie. Why? It’s a matter of popularity. How many of you can actually name who’s starting at wide receiver, a high visibility position for the Titans? If you know, I’ll bet you’re a major football fan, or you live in Tennessee.
NASCAR isn’t a heck of a lot different. The go or go homers do get a lot of love during “knock out” qualifying, and you have to admit they at least try to run “through the field” at least once during the race. Sad to say, unless Dale Jr. or Jeff or Kyle are running 40th, the idea that Tony Raines is running 40th is only a story to a hardcore fan. Honestly, most sports coverage (right or wrong) is not aimed at the hard core fan, but the casual fan.
Thank God we have driver websites, the Internet and online chat communities to discuss the exploits of Kyle Petty or Scott Riggs. We didn’t even have that until about 15 years ago. Go back a little further, and forget about watching an entire race. My introduction to NASCAR came from the little cutaways they did during Wide World of Sports back in the late 70s when you might see about 50 laps of a major race if you were lucky. Myself- I just began on this website a weekly profile of NASCAR Cup drivers, and I’m going in alphabetical order. So you’ll get everything from A.J. Allmendinger to J.J. Yeley.
If you listened to my radio sportscasts, you’d likely be disappointed during the week. NASCAR gets love about once an hour for two hours on Friday and Monday. During the week (Tuesday thru Thursday) NASCAR only gets any press if there’s a major announcement- usually bad news. It’s the reality of living in football country and a place where golf, high school sports, college sports, and baseball have more of a following. I’m working on converting Medford, Oregon into the latest pit stop on NASCAR Nation, but it the conversion will come more likely following the exploits of Junior, Shrub or Carl rather than those of Joe Nemechek or Jason Leffler.
As Bruce Hornsby would say, “That’s just the way it is.”
