NASCAR had a couple events that took it down a huge step each time ... Big Bill handing it over to Little Billy in ‘72 started the “modern era” thing and in a few years Little Billy got CBS to cover the Daytona 500 flag to flag and “in car cameras”. He didn’t release at the time he even got the Yarbrough vs Allison Brothers Battle Royal at the end. Little Billy made his Daddy proud and carried on the “modern era” thinking but didn’t sell out its southern roots and flavor. Cut to 2003 and Brain (I meant to spell it that way) France who decide to take it uptown and fancify it ... leaving a lot of it’s roots and loyal fan base aside each time he changed something. He cut short tracks and took race dates from southern tracks to spread NASCAR across the US. He start the Chase for the Cup playoff system in ‘04. He and the others started using the “actions detrimental to NASCAR” the to penalize drivers, owners, crew chiefs, etc if they spoke out against something ... got into skirmishes with other drivers (he forget the Yarbrough vs Allison Brothers of ‘79 put Cup on the map) ... and other stuff they didn’t like. Then the last major idiotic mistake The Car of Tomorrow or as some called it the POS of Today. Boring single file racing and no real action started cutting attendance and rating so France became PT Barnum and began having concerts, fireworks and such to try and drum up the numbers but the loyal southern fan base was then priced out of the events as ticket prices doubled and interest just kept drifting.
NASCAR is on life support and it’s only a matter time before the plug gets kicked out. Today’s teams are heavily dependent on sponsors for multi-million dollar deals along with race to race sponsorships to fill in the gaps and if NASCAR cuts ties with a sector after they had lost tobacco and the breweries ... let ‘em. Only the big boys race now ... the small teams do the start and park then move on the the next race with their couple of cars.
Gone are the characters we loved or loved to hate. Gone is the weekly who got caught doing what in tech inspection. I loved Smokey Yunick, Junior Johnson, Dale Inman, Jake Elder and such “explaining” why that part was in the gray area on the rules. Gone is the pass in the grass, Earnhardt knocking Waltrip into the wall and so on. Gone was the fun and stories behind the race itself.
I don’t no when NASCAR really caught the cancer but those various flare ups along with Earnhardt’s death caused me to stop wasting my time and money over 15 years back on Cup and other national series ... only real racing is Saturday Night locals ... LONG LIVE BOMAN GRAY SATURDAY NIGHTS!
