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Going in Circles: Condemning Political Nonsense in NASCAR

Standing beneath the evening clouds at Bristol Motor Speedway last weekend, I performed a dangerous act. I will trust my authorship on this site is in its infancy to the point I can confess my blasphemy without a huge email backlash. Maybe not, but we’ll see.

I laughed during the national anthem. Not a disruptive outcry of rambunctious immaturity, but more a small chortle accompanied by a small headshake. I was probably the only one in a field of 165,000 spectators not teary-eyed over Lee Greenwood’s one-hit wonder and the seemingly endless parade of American tributes thinly veiled as pro-right war propaganda.

Not that I’m pro-left. I’m not pro-anything, at least not when it comes to covering Nascar. The only thing I’m for is kicking out the things in sports which don’t belong, and politics is one of them.

Not more than a month ago, there were rumors abound that Barack Obama would be throwing money at a team whose car would be piloted by Ken Schrader. The rumor was unfounded and inaccurate, but still garnered a minor backlash with most critics agreeing that politics and racing should be kept separate.

This is where my little innocent laugh comes in.

More honestly, most fans of Nascar feel that left agendas and Nascar should be kept separate. If the problem was politics as a whole, then there would be a public outcry for Darrell Worley’s cash cow simpleton anthem linking September 11th attacks with the current state of Iraq, performed on the front stretch last Saturday. Mr. Worley is welcome to play twangy hack songs all evening if he sees fit, but the second he turns it into a biased xenophobic vigil, he’s in the wrong place. Nascar racing, like other forms of blessed enjoyment, is largely escapism.

The only war I care about is between Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards. Jack Roush and Toyota. Take that other junk somewhere else.

In the fall race of 2006, country “artists” Montgomery Gentry shouted into the crowd that if anyone ever messed with the United States, that “we would kick their ass!” Not even bothering with the obvious ravaging of the family atmosphere Nascar events should be uplifting, it’s a shallow, uninformed and unprogressive statement that would be laughed at and dismissed at an NHL game, an NFL game and in any other arena that contains intelligent people that know the difference between deserved patriotism and dangerous nationalism.

I can’t count the number of fans I’ve met in the stands who’ve been turned off by Nascar’s encouragement of diversity (aka drivers who aren’t white; not that the fans are ready for it. I haven‘t been to an event in the last two years where I didn‘t hear some half-breed shame the human species by making a Juan Montoya/green card joke), their strictly Christian pre-race rituals, and their outside-the-track face that welcomes everyone, but within the grandstands, shuns everyone who isn’t a saved Caucasian.

Politics have no place in racing. Right or left wing. Period.

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54% - Percentage of a full-sized every-week field that will run the Budweiser Shootout next year. Sponsorship issues have mangled the format into a manufacturer’s battle that no one will pay attention to. The better option would’ve been to have the manufacturer’s choose their drivers that compete (as another would you rather have in the race, Ryan Newman, possibly the greatest qualifier in history or David Reutimann?

100% - Odds that Chip Ganassi is on his way out of Nascar if he doesn’t make some huge gains in the next two seasons. Reed Sorenson jumped an already sunken ship this week, moving to Ray Evernham’s decent operation. This was an easy choice to make for Reed, who will no doubt do better there no matter WHAT equipment or personnel he gets. My only hope is that Patrick Carpentier gets to stay in the series as he has done a fantastic job with what he’s been given. Additionally, I hope Juan Montoya can land a ride that showcases his talent rather than smothers it.