Jr.-Mears Ruling Consistent, But Sends Wrong Message

Well, here we have it folks- NASCAR’s decision to put Casey Mears and Dale Earnhardt Jr. on probation is “Exhibit A” for what Larry Mc Reynolds was talking about in his column last week- that NASCAR is “lawyering” itself to death. Coming from the stick and ball world, I remember when football players derided the NFL as the “No Fun League” for all their rules on how players hit each other and all the rules that limit end zone celebrations. What makes this sports great is the personality of it, and here they are neutering the participants again.

I mean I get WHY NASCAR ruled as it did. It’s perfectly consistent with how they handled the Kyle Busch- Carl Edwards “love fest” at Bristol last summer. If you think about it, it really is no big deal. All NASCAR has really done have their bony fingers in the faces of Junior and Mears and said in their best Granny Clampett voice “No you boys stop it, or I’ll cut a switch for you.”

You know, NASCAR could have said absolutely NOTHING and at the end of the day, I think the two would have left each other alone. This present situation is nothing like the Tony Stewart- Kurt Busch feud a couple of years ago.  All Junior was really doing was taking out his frustrations on Mears after another run gone wrong, and all Mears was saying “I don’t have to take that crap from you.” With both drivers languishing mid-pack in the standings, it’s safe to say Casey and Junior have bigger fish to fry than to focus on  firing up NASCAR’s next big rivalry.

Some believe that NASCAR ruled as it did to quell the perception that Dale Jr. gets to play by a different set of rules than the other guys. Poppycock! That perception will always be out there like it was for Michael Jordan in the NBA. This decision will do absolutely zero to change that. It’s a waste of time.

Any of you who know me know I’m an optimist by nature, and even with the somewhat mediocre races we’ve had out there, I’ve found entertainment value in the story lines that have come out of the races and camaraderie with the fans in this forum, and in the numerous fan communities I’m a part of. Having said that, I have a list of gripes that may look somewhat like your own.

At the head of the list is this maddening tendency on the part of the NASCAR brass to say one thing or do another. Maybe I had biscuits in my ears and heard the wrong thing, but I could have sworn I heard Brian France say before the beginning of the 2008 that NASCAR would loosen things up and allow drivers to show more emotion. A year and a half later, I’m still trying to figure what that’s supposed to look like. Drivers complained about the cars and they were told to “shut up and drive.” Then you have these probations handed out for anything that happens on the track.

On this issue, here’s what I’d do if I ran NASCAR: I’d let the drivers exercise their right to free speech. If the drivers want to trash each other, fine. If they want to gripe about the car, they’ve got to drive it, so why not let them? I would however, put in writing a rule similar to what the NBA has that the line is drawn at derogatory and inflammatory speech directed at the (in this case) track officials. You can say you disagree, but there’s a line and failure to adhere would result in a fine. Nothing more.

As far as the on track stuff goes, if a driver wants to be an idiot and wreck his car to make a point, let that be between him, his owner, and his opponent. Back in the days at Joe Gibbs, I’m quite sure Coach had more than one heart-to-heart talk with Tony Stewart about trashing his investment. The opponent in question would have every right to retaliate. If the incident incurred “collateral damage”, I’m quite certain they would want to have their own say in it, and I’m sure there are ways to get the message across that it had better not happen again.

This is where I’d draw the line: when the safety of the driver, his team and the fans becomes endangered- this is where NASCAR needs to step in, and I’d make the penalties pretty steep- right down to parking the driver for a race or two. I don’t think what happened Saturday falls into that category. In fact, oddly enough, the only places I;ve seen that seem to fall into this category would be the incidents we’ve had in recent seasons at…not the short tracks, not the plate track…but the road courses.

In the grand scheme of things, with all the issues out there, this is really a very small thing. However- when you throw this into the pot of all the other issues NASCAR faces, this is yet one more area where the fans have become disenchanted with the powers that be.

There’s certain things that cannot easily be fixed: the economy is beyond the sport’s control, some of the track reconfigurations that I  would like to say take more money than I know some places have, plus there’s all the issues pertaining to the viability of a number of struggling teams. It takes brilliant minds, innovation and lots of scratch to make all of this happen quickly.

On the other hand, NASCAR could do a lot to deal with the small truckload of other issues. I won’t go into all of them right now, but for today’s purposes, I submit NASCAR can take a few moments to spell out what is and is not acceptable displays of emotions with a common sense approach instead of the old “because I said so” mentality. These aren’t children we’re dealing with here.

This is what I’m saying: if you say you want to allow real emotion and you say you want the drivers to be themselves- HOW are they going to do that with a muzzle on their mouths and a glass bubble around their cars? On a lot of the minor stuff, the teams are capable of policing themselves in the sense that you know Rick Hendrick will be having a SERIOUS employer/ employee chat if Junior keeps using his cars as battering rams.     

More than one fan has suggested that the problem with NASCAR leadership is that they don’t have real racing people at the top who have any clue of what really draw fans to the sport.

Issues like this do nothing to help.