It has been a week filled with complaining from the NASCAR fans that seem to thrive off negativity. Those are the fans who will scrutinize every little discrepancy in the NASCAR system, or way of doing things.
Apparently, Brian France and his cohorts paid off the rain gods in order to soak the Daytona International Speedway, after all, they can control the weather. It rained for heavens sake. I would have loved to have seen the full 500 miles. Sure, I think they could have given it more time before calling off the end of the race. The track does have lights and they could have raced until 2 am if they needed to, but NASCAR officials felt the need to call off the race. Perhaps they had more information at the time regarding the forecast. These fans quickly forgot that just a week earlier, they witnessed an electrifying finish to the Bud Shootout. However, fans refused to focus on the fantastic finish of that race. Instead, they bemoan the fact that the race began at four o’clock in the afternoon instead of noon.
Of course, you had the conspiracy theories flying around after NASCAR did not penalize Dale Earnhardt Jr five laps after the notorious incident with Brian Vickers. Just a day earlier, NASCAR officials penalized Jason Leffler in the Nationwide Series for a similar incident. Basically, the fans claim that NASCAR favors Earnhardt Jr because of who he is, and because of his last name. They quickly forgot about the previous two pit road penalties that NASCAR levied to Earnhardt Jr and the No. 88 team. They could have let one of them penalties slide if they were really as inconsistent and biased as everyone seems to claim.
How about the top 35 rule that everyone is up in arms about? You sure do hear a lot of complaining about the rule, but no reasonable suggestions are provided. The rule is in effect to protect the top 35 teams and sponsors. Sure, there is probably a better solution than the top 35 rule, but it is not ruining the sport, as some try to claim. With that said, I disagree with NASCAR allowing the points swapping between some of the teams. That must end in my opinion.
The champion’s provisional receives plenty of criticism as well, but it really is a good way to pay homage to past champions, especially the ones in the latter part of their careers. They earned the right for a freebie. Heck, Tony Stewart may need to use the provisional before it is all said and done.
The television coverage receives a bulk of censure from fans that expect perfection from networks and broadcasters. They could not wait for ESPN to re-enter NASCAR, but they have been horrible if you listen to most fans. They complain about FOX, and I have even read where the fictional cartoon character ‘Digger’ is played out. Fans, the guys at FOX are just trying to have some fun. They are just trying to add some extra entertainment to the broadcast. If you do not like it, well, that is fine, tune it out. Pretend it is your children making unnecessary noise. You learn to tune them out. There is room for improvement within the three television networks, but give them a break, and stop looking for stuff to complain about. It really gets old.
Richard Paul writes nascar racing articles for http://www.nascapper.com and handicaps nascar weekly. Check out his nascar racing picks in his articles.
