Bobby Allison and Cale Yarborough fight after an on-track incident during the 1979 Daytona 500.
Martinsville Sound Off By: Rob SimonI could hardly believe the interviews I heard after the running of the Goody’s Fast Relief 500 at Martinsville Speedway on Sunday. An elated Denny Hamlin exited from his car with nothing but praise for Jimmie Johnson, who had just moved the young driver out of the way to capture the win. Race announcers spared no time during the race reminding viewers how hungry Hamlin was for a win. So I am certain a lot of fans were expecting a verbal barrage from the driver during the interview. Instead we got:
"I’m honored to be on the race track with guys like Jimmie (Johnson) and Jeff (Gordon) and Tony (Stewart). Those are the guys who are the best in the business. We came up short. That was short-track racing. I would’ve done the same thing to him, and if it comes back around, I will do the same. It’s just the way it is. In Martinsville, you have to battle for every inch, and I was trying to protect a spot, and he was trying to get it at the end of the race. That’s the way it goes."
Back up even further in the race and we could hear Jeff Gordon sounding off against Denny Hamlin. Fox aired the radio communication between Gordon and his team after he and Hamlin raced hard for the lead. Gordon was clearly heard sharing how angry he was. But after the race we got:
“Jimmie (Johnson) is just so good. That whole team is just so good, and so is Denny (Hamlin). I was just really impressed with him today.”
Racing purists will be happy that drivers are able to tangle on track and brush it off as racing incidents. No offense to racing purists but it was the personalities and the controversy that has helped NASCAR become as big as it is today. Case in point is the running of the 1979 Daytona 500 when Bobby Allison and Cale Yarborough broke out in a fight after an on track incident. NASCAR proudly marks that moment in its history as a defining moment. It helped put the sport on the map.
Fast forward a decade or two and the news following races at times was filled with reels of drivers getting angry with one another. Helmets and Hans devices were thrown, drivers would rant about their competitors and an occasional pit road brawl would break out. Then came the hammer of justice called NASCAR and the penalties started flying. With the implementation of the top 35 points rule and the ever-important Chase format, drivers found it hard to share their true feelings at risk of getting a penalty. That brings us to what we have today.
It’s an era of media savvy drivers, driven by the almighty sponsor. NASCAR put sponsorship over entertainment and began implementing rules, becoming the babysitters of the sport. As a business decision, protecting the sponsors seems to make sense. But as viewer ship drops at an alarming rate I wonder whether they have gone too far. Minus a few exceptions, the personality has almost become non-existent in the sport.
So as analysts look at the current ratings of the sport and wonder what has happened to its popularity they don’t have to look too far back to see when things started to change. One of my favorite expressions is “If it isn’t broke, why fix it”. NASCAR was nowhere near broken when they ushered in a new age of political correctness but it sure seems like it is broken now. The only fix as I see it is to bring back the good old days. They can start by tearing up Bristol Motor Speedway and rebuilding it the way it should be.