Let's Boycott The Race
By M.L. Morgan
Well, race fans, we are amused by some of the media puppies who have suggested the Winston Cup drivers might boycott the next race at Loudon, NH, the New Hampshire 300, because of safety reasons.
Of course the notion is prepsterous. But we listen. But we don't support this kind of crap. Never have supported this kind of knee-jerk reaction. And we never will. Might get some of that stuff on our boots.
Nascar faced a boycott when the track at Talladega first opened. What do you think happened ? The race went on as scheduled. A bunch of no-name drivers, including a gas station owner named Bill France, Sr, made up the starting field. Race wasn't particularly eventful, but it's been the fodder for a bunch of trivia questions ever since.
That was more than 30 years ago. Nascar is big business now. Can't afford to have negative publicity. Might scare off our new fans in Podunk. Can't have that.
So Nascar wakes up all their rocket scientists and puts them to work solving this latest image problem. We think it's pathetic the P.R. buffoons are in charge of regulating safety issues. But Nascar is limited to its particular brain-trust. Racing is secondary to putting butts in the bleachers.
The not so closely guarded proposals are quickly leaked to the media puppies. How about padded walls ? [we suspect many in this brain-trust know a lot about padded walls]. That's why they are forced to write their suggestions in crayon - objects as sharp as pencils are dangerous. The padded walls have been used for years in the open-wheel competitions, and seem to have proven their worth. O. Bruton "P.T. Barnum" Smith went as far as staging another of his spectacles, dropping a Cadillac from a crane onto a pile of the material used to pad the walls. Very cogent. The next time I see Dale Earnhardt about to drive his race car off the boom of a crane, I'll mention the test results to him. He'll be appreciative. He'll say thanks, boy - that's why I signed Helen's damn t-shirt.
We have heard other puppies suggest a fan's boycott - which is unlikely, or a boycott of the sponsors. Equally unlikely. We will continue to buy our beer at Home Depot. We were buying it there long before Home Depot started sponsoring a punk like Tony Stewart. We know that was just a bad marketing decision. We overlook that kind of stuff.
But we don't overlook safety issues which affect the lives of our race drivers.
All the b.s. about boycotts comes mostly from people who have no influence whatsoever on the business of Winston Cup Racing. They have their little pages to write. We pity them.
Now we hear rumors about restrictor plates at NHIS. We can't imagine even a wuss outfit like Nascar would stoop to that kind of cop-out. Talk about trading a headache for an upset stomach.
But we have no sympathy for Nascar. They continue to sponsor races at tracks which are not suited for today's speeds. Bottom-line mentality. Nascar takes race dates away from tracks which can't make the required payments. But never because of safety.
Boycott this ! Nascar Rules
Mike Morgan
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