It’s that time of week again – the time for you to sound off on all things NASCAR.
If you’ve got an opinion you’d like to share – and the more diverse the opinion, the better chance you have of getting published – you can be a part of Your Turn by emailing us your rants right here.
We’ll give the first word to Jeremy, who’s on active duty in Afghanistan:
I’m currently doing a 1 year tour in afghan and one of the bright spots for me is Sunday when I get to watch the race. I get lots of crap for being a NASCAR fan and I attempt to defend the sport as much as I can. After watching Jimmie Johnson win last Saturday nights race at Lowes I felt a sickness in my stomach that NASCAR was losing its integrity the same way baseball has.
Then after reading countless columns where you so-called experts were force feeding us to admire the greatness I realized the integrity is gone.
The only trips Jeff Gordon is making to victory lane these days is to congratulate teammate Jimmie Johnson. Prior to Jimmie Johnson winning 3 championships in a row only one driver did it before. Petty, Earnhardt, Gordon, and countless others couldn’t do it and now what was so improbable 5-6 years ago is not only probable but going to be a streak with no end in sight.
I’m sorry I didn’t watch Barry Bonds and tell myself admire his greatness. Something was wrong because something that couldn’t be done before was being done with such ease.
Jimmie isn’t cheating like Bonds did but a system is in place that gives him a huge advantage over the rest of the field. I compare it to letting Duke play every game at home during the tournament. They would still have to go out and win
the game but the advantage would be in their favor and if they did lose it would most likely be consider an upset. Same for Jimmie. Only a wreck or mechanical failure could slow Jimmie down at any of the 10 tracks in the chase.
NASCAR sold its soul for ratings with the chase and except for the first year the chase has never given us that dramatic ending to a season they wanted it to. How many championships in a row does Jimmie have to win before NASCAR does something?
Better yet how many championships does he have to win before you so called expert questioned the integrity of what he has done?
If he won 8 in a row and passed Petty and Earnhardt would you just go along with it? Like I said he is great driver a future HOFer but I didn’t buy him as a 3-time champion and now I have to accept him as a 4-time champion and going into next year there is no reason we wouldn’t believe he wouldn’t win it again.
Maybe they’ll change the Medal of Honor requirements while I am here and I can get 2-3 of them and if anyone questions it I can just give them the NASCAR answer: admire my greatness don’t question the integrity of it.
Phyllis S. of Webster, N.Y., has had enough of 2009:
After the race on Saturday, I decided that pretty much that is the end of watching anymore NASCAR for this season. And from what you can see by the empty seats at Charlotte I am not alone.
What a bore the races have become. Another year of watching Jimmie Johnson take it all just doesn’t cut it for me. There is no excitement. I got more excitement watching the Yankees/Angels baseball game which I finished watching.
Shannon Peery of Fort Wayne, Ind., thinks the talk surrounding the Hall of Fame has been misdirected:
The hall of fame needs to be about the celebration of the honorable nominees who made the cut, not a full blown outrage about who did not.
While Richard Petty will be a part of NASCAR’s inaugural Hall of Fame class, much attention was put on a driver who isn’t. There’s no argument that David Pearson was more than worthy of making the cut; however, I like to think of it this way: Pearson has had a long history of standing in Richard Petty’s shadow. Being left out of this year’s class, he’ll more than likely get in next year and won’t have to share his celebration with Petty. He’ll get to stand out on his own and have his accomplishments recognized on a more personal level that won’t have to rival the likes of Petty and Earnhardt.
Carter Chamberlin from New Hampshire is sick of hearing the “races are too long” argument:
Oh dear, the ‘races are too long’ rant again. Half the races have been shortened already (and your ticket price, well, wasn’t) and I have this vague suspicion that the complaint comes from recently-arrived fans (and spoiled drivers).
Tell you what, you want shorter races, you should have started by attending your local short track and working your way up to the big events.
Me, I like the longer events and have upped my attention span to be able to enjoy them more.
If you want excitement, put Digger and Rusty Wallace in a paper bag together and … no wait, I wasn’t supposed to say that out loud. Never mind.
Roberto Castillo of New Albany, Miss., gets a little sarcastic:
Please stop interrupting my commercials with the race!!!!!!!!!!!!! Way too many commercials, other than that I love watching NASCAR!!!!
Regular emailer Catfish Myers of Buford, Ga., has a few questions for NASCAR:
What is NASCAR looking at when they watch a race? Do they see the terrible fan count in the seats? Do they see that the racing has become a lap fest? Do they see that the same few guys are at the front and the rest need a caution just to stay on the lead lap/or the lucky dog bone. When I think of what some of these races used to be and what they are now I just have to ask, what do they see?
Brad Masson of Duluth, Minn., think a lot of the ranters need to chill out:
Man all you hear about today is negativity towards the sport and such, what ever happened to just sitting back and enjoying a race. You go to the race track, and people are just drinking cold ones and chillin’ with their friends and family.
Hell I rarely go to the race track, but I’ll tell ya what I do. If the race is on Fox, I’ll turn the TV on, because I like hearing the insight of DW and Larry and Mike Joy, they are good announcers in my opinion. And when Fox quits covering NASCAR, I turn on MRN on the radio, and listen to Barney Hall cover the race.
Most of the time I’m not even watching the race, I’m doing work. And the people that don’t sit on these posts and constantly complain about the sport, that’s what they do also. So basically, just shut up, listen, open up a cold one, kick back, and just watch and/or listen, and be thankful that the sport is even still around.
We’ll end things with this short but sweet gem from Terry Reese of Owasso, Okla.:
Sorry to say, but BORING as usual!! Need more rants less ranting per rant.
