NASCAR definitely needs conflict to stir the drink. One of my favorite moments of 2007 was seeing what would come of the Juan Pablo Montoya/Kevin Harvick scrap at Watkins Glen. But let’s stop pretending that the guys who bump, cuss and aggravate a little more are so much more “grassroots” and “real” than their supposed CEO-butt-kissing counterparts. Sorry, but when Tony Stewart wins a lackey is still putting an Old Spice towel across his shoulder in a strategic signage-placement gimmick. Everybody who straps in has sold out to “the man” a little.
Complaint: I hate NASCAR, so why am I covering it?
A: No, I love NASCAR. If you disagree, the people I work with who I badger with unwanted info would let you know otherwise. There’s a difference between loving a sport blindly and loving it enough to point out its flaws. Before too long you’ll see a feature from me about a Long Islander who wrote a book about the first African-American of NASCAR, Wendell Scott. As is the case when I wrote about Richard Petty’s comments about female drivers in 2006, I’ll be dismissed as a raging affirmative-action liberal trying to take the sport down by mentioning some reasonable social benchmark the sport has failed to attain. But ironically, those complaints will largely be made by the same types who get so offended when they are supposedly pigeonholed as Southern white trash.
Not exactly a warm and fuzzy message, huh? But as Collin Raye said, “That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. ”
| 
|