Well, Now That It’s Over….

Editor’s Note: If you read yesterday’s article by Jeremy Sellers, you got a pretty good representation of the frustration traditional fan. It’s also true, that if you’ve visited more than one fan forum, you know that NASCAR fans come in a variety of shapes and sizes.

Today, the lovely and talented Miss Mustang Jackie opines on her very own set of concerns regarding the state of today’s NASCAR. I can tell you, speaking from experience, I share some of those same concerns. You may disagree and that’s o.k., but as you do so, I expect it to be done respectfully. I think passion can be expressed without engaging in insults and personal attacks. So feel free to weigh in- all I ask is that you not engage in an online form or “road rage.”

Here’s Jackie:

The 2009 NASCAR season will definitely be something to remember. Of course the big story is Jimmie Johnson collecting four championships in a row. Regardless of your opinion how and why it happened, it made history and it’s in the books. And we shouldn’t forget that Ron Hornaday also made history by winning his fourth championship in the Camping World Truck Series, and no matter what you think of Kyle Busch, he broke numerous long standing records in the Nationwide Series.

There was some big surprises during the season, like how well Stewart-Haas Racing did even though the #14 and the #39 was brand new teams. Or how the “Tasmanian Devil” Marcos Ambrose gave such a impressive showing much of the season? On the other side of the scale, it was a surprise and a disappointment for the Ford fans to see how Roush-Fenway pretty much fell flat on their face all season long in the Cup Series.

And just to note, 2009 was the last season since 1971 that a Waltrip will be driving a full schedule.

There was some controversy like the continuing Jeremy Mayfield episode and Allmendinger’s DUI. Or how Mike Helton effectively shot NASCAR in the foot with the infamous “no bump in the corners” ruling in the fall race at Talladega?

But for me, I think what I will remember the most about the 2009 NASCAR season is the bickering and fighting among the fans. Almost every week there seemed to be something to make people feel like that they had to choose sides in issues.

Racing is a passionate sport, no doubt about that, and emotions will run high sometimes. And like they say, opinions are like a certain part of the human anatomy….everybody has one. But that is part of the fun of being a NASCAR fan. On the weekends you have the races to watch and during the following week you can go to numerous websites and message boards to post your opinions.

There has always been a small handful of obnoxious trolls and mean spirited people that will take an someone’s opinion of a driver, race or track and turn it into a name-calling fest. But in the 2009 season, blame it on Obama, the economy or too tight underwear it seemed that the naysayers were coming out of the woodworks to slam other people’s opinion no matter what the subject.

Some of their complaints are based on fact. For example, no one can deny that the COT probably saved a few lives in 2009 i.e. Carl Edwards, Ryan Newman, Jeff Gordon and Joey Logano. But it does leave a lot to be desired during some races. Does it need improvement and refining? Yes it does, but for a weekend armchair racer to think they have the answers when NASCAR and race team engineers are struggling with the COT is ludicrous.

The week following the fall race at Talladega, the armchair racers suggested everything from smaller restrictor plates to putting V-6 engines in the cars. Some even suggested drastically reducing the banking of the track. Maybe I’m wrong, but I always thought the whole idea behind racing was to go faster. Something does need to be done to keep the cars from going airborne but that may take a lot of work, since even a brick will fly a considerable distance at 200mph. But to butcher the track or choke the cars back to 150mph ruins the whole character of Talladega and will lead to even more boring races.

Some people seemed to take joy in pointing out that during some races the grandstands were only half full of spectators. Yes, the attendance to a lot of races was down considerably due to economics, weather or even bad racing. But I would like to point out that even if a track with 160,000 capacity like Lowe’s is half full, that’s still more people than a lot of NFL stadiums or MLB ballparks will hold.

A lot of people want races pulled from certain tracks and given to others, especially some of the old tracks like Wilkesboro or Rockingham. And they are real quick to suggest taking races from western tracks like Texas or California. Stock car racing may have been born in the Southeastern U.S. but why deprive those of us that live west of the Mississippi river of our chance to go to races?

But by far the biggest disappointment of the 2009 season was the outright rudeness concerning fans and their favorite drivers. Whether you like or dislike certain drivers doesn’t give you the right to belittle my choices and call me names. Don’t get me wrong, good-natured teasing or even serious constructive criticism is what it’s all about when discussing drivers but to make it personal and criticize a person’s choices takes it to a level that does not belong in our sport. Several times in the 2009 season, I saw posts on different message boards where a so-called fan wished that a particular driver would get hurt or die so they wouldn’t have hear about him anymore. To me that is way beyond rude and a terrible thing to say and those kind of people have no place in NASCAR as a fan.

There are things that have taken place in NASCAR that with other than minor tweaks will not change. And the Chase point system is one of them. Does it need to be improved? Yes it probably does. But it is here to stay and the old point system is long gone. And to say that Jeff Gordon or any other driver would be champion with the old system is absolutely pointless. And the top 35 qualifying rule isn’t likely to change any time soon either. But NASCAR has made changes that improved racing, like the double file re-starts, and will have fuel and tires in one pit stop in the Truck series, so changes can be good.

Do I have the answers? No I don’t, but I have confidence that NASCAR and everyone connected to it is working to solve the problems and trying to improve the sport. And so instead of constantly griping and complaining, for the 2010 season why don’t we all take NASCAR for what it is, a fun and enjoyable sport.

And so even with all the negative things that took place in 2009,I will be watching and just as excited as ever when the first green flag falls next February in Daytona.