Welcome to a special addition of “Fuel It Up”! The racing world is chock full of intriguing stories, but sifting through them to get a good general sense of the landscape can be challenging. In Fuel It Up, I usually take the biggest, more interesting storylines and present them to you in a quick, compact 300-words-or-less format but due to the recent events in NASCAR I’m changing the format a bit this week.
In what should have been a great week for NASCAR as it enters the final 10 races of the Chase, turned into perhaps its blackest hour. Clint Bowyer’s spin, Brian Vickers call to the pits and purposely driving slow has at worst questioned the integrity of the sport and at best questioned the ethics and sportsmanship of some of its participants.
ESPN and CNN ran major reports of the story. ESPN’s Outside the Line, devoted a half hour to the story. The loyal and enthusiastic NASCAR fans took to social media to voice their opinions. The sponsors of Bowyer, (5-hour Energy), and Truex, (NAPA) released statements that they were reviewing their sponsorships given these events. All of this has tarnished the image for the sport.
NASCAR nation seemed to be dominated by fans of Jeff Gordon calling for more penalties for Michael Waltrip Racing (MWR). They also have called for further penalties for Joey Logano for getting cars to allow him to pass them. The Clint Bowyer crowd wanted to quickly move on. Most battle lines were drawn around which driver you rooted for. Many fans, however, offered fair and impartial opinions.
Twitter user and avid NASCAR fan, Ric the Magnificent (@NASCARNAC) argued that penalizing Logano and awarding Gordon wouldn’t be fair as Gordon is winless this year and Logano has won a race. He tweeted, “Winning needs to be incentivized. Advocating for non-winners over minimal point minutia is absurd.”
@Boodog4849 who has attended 31 races since 2001 is contemplating a personal boycott. “When people like me drop thousands of dollars yearly going to races and buying merchandise your damn right this crap ain’t over.” He had planned on attending the Chases’ final race at Homestead but is reconsidering.
There were several others in Boodog’s boycott camp. @hpjohn1 tweeted, “Boycotting remainder of (NASCAR) season.”
@Ruthf448 was sick of the deal making. “Get the owners away from spotters, Do away with Start Box let flagman do his job, Stop the deal making & make them race!”
NASCAR fans are extremely loyal and sometimes see things through their own driver’s glasses. That’s one of the things this sport has going for it. To hear fans talking about their disgust and anguish which we witnessed Saturday night should get NASCAR’s attention. It seems to have gotten the attention of MWR sponsors, 5-hour Energy and NAPA.
There is a problem with this sport. Ric the Magnificent is right when he states that winning needs to be more of an incentive. This issue is not about Gordon or any one driver. It is about preventing a Clint Bowyer or any driver and his team to manipulate (a nicer word for fixing) a race which many fans spend their hard earned dollars to watch. Like Ruthf448 may have said it best when she said, fans just want to see racing at its best. We don’t want to see let’s make a deal.
Bowyer’s television interview tour was painful to watch. Most NASCAR fans, unlike the fans of Bill Clinton, do not think it’s cute or funny to giggle yourself out of a jam that you and your team helped create. As my column earlier in the week indicated, the penalties to Bowyer and MWR should have impacted not only this year’s Chase but next seasons as well.
We’ve all heard that Clint Bowyer and Michael Waltrip are good guys. I guess good guys can be ethically challenged as well, or maybe they’re not such good guys. Here’s hoping NASCAR can fix this. If not this sport may not survive.
On to Chicago we go where Clint Bowyer will likely smirk his way around the boo birds which will surely follow him for the rest of his career. It should be interesting to see what the reaction of his fellow drivers will be…………… The winner of this week’s paint scheme award goes to Kevin Harvick who’ll be driving the #29 Budweiser Chevrolet………. Danielle Bradbery will perform the National Anthem prior to the Geico 400 Sunday at Chicagoland Speedway…………… The weather forecast for Chicagoland Speedway calls for a 30% chance of a shower with temperatures near 70f (21c)…………… The race can be seen ESPN and on TSN2 in Canada at 2pm EST.
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Main Photo Credit: teamleaks.com, cc
