Nascar

[Uncle Bob]

The notion that all NASCAR fans are mullet headed, toothless, beer swilling, morons is about as accurate as the notion that all Porsche owners are snobbish, perpetually single, infantile and meticulously boring people.

I went to my first NASCAR race at Riverside in the 60's. I went to my most recent in '05 at Sonoma. I've watched them almost religiously since the mid 70's, becoming even more involved when I went to work for Texaco. I admit that there are many things about the sport I detest:

Confederate Flags (Hey, you lost the war, give it up already)
Tobacco spitting (Do I really need to say anything)
Waaaaay over marketed (Not unlike most motorsports)
Fans are a little rabid (Still, it's not as bad as soccer, if your driver looses, you still shake your neighbors hand and nobody riots)

OK, I'll just stop before I get on a rant.

What I do like is this:
It's accessible (You can still talk to the drivers in person)
It's competitive (No Dynasties)
It's affordable (I can't fly to Monaco, much less watch a tiny part of the race)
It's understandable (The cars are semblances of street vehicles)

What is tough is, seeing the sport gain so much in popularity in recent years while other forms (CART or IMSA??) have all but disappeared. Did you see the last F-1 (farce) race at Indy? What NASCAR is, is well managed and extremely successful. It started on the backwoods with moonshine running weekend warriors. It hardly resembles that anymore.

Yesterday Jimmy Johnson won over $6 million in purse and endorsements. There were over 250,000 in attendance [i]on raceday alone[/]. That's 200,000 fans and 50,000 folks selling stuff. It makes PT Barnum's notion of "The Greatest Show on Earth" pale by comparison.

One of the most popular tracks is in Bristol TN, a .533 mile oval (soup bowl) with turns banked at 38 deg. It seats over 160,000 and has been sold out for over 10 years

Hard to argue with those numbers...and if you ever sat there the excitement is palpable.

Is it the Mulsanne straight? Hell no, but its in our backyard. I don't hate it or defend it, I just take what I want and leave what I don't, but I don't knock it.