Why America Loves NASCAR (Hint: Because it's not black.)

The Village Voice ^ | 10/14/.2005 | David Wright

[Colonel Kangaroo]

"By saying NASCAR isn't black, I mean it isn't African American. And NASCAR is not at all black: Not in the cockpits of the stockcars; not on the pit crews; rarely, if at all, among the multitudes filling the 160,000-seat speedway stands...."

[geezerwheezer]

I've been to a NASCAR race and you couldn't get me to another one on your life! Too much noise, to many rednecks, fights everywhere, too much beer being drunk, and way too many tatoos!! I did not enjoy it at all, but the 159,999 others did, and I say, "good on ya'!"- ain't my sport of choice. Same with pro basketball, pro baseball, and the NFL. I like free sports, like high school & college, where they do play for the school and not the paycheck, and quite honestly, I don't care if you are red, white, or black! Do your best and have fun doing it. This article goes way past the true meaning of sport and casts a pall on us. The author is dumber than a box of rocks if he cannot see past his version of racism, but that is his problem, not ours!!

[Colonel Kangaroo]

I'd say he was a creative writer to make such a point out of people who happen to like car races, but for the fact that we've heard that tune before from leftists. But Mr. Wright should get points for his sheer gall in the magnificent breath of his thesis.

[leadpenny]

Psssst,

Redneck: Informal, derogatory term for a working-class white person from the southern US, especially a conservative one.

Source: Oxford University Press Dictionary.

[Blueflag]

Having raced for YEARS myself, I really doubt any professional driver ever causes a yellow. Trust me.

Blocking, stalling, weaving, etc etc. But not a yellow. It might be an indirect result of "take out so and so -- keep him busy", but not "go hit the wall"

Just my opinion.

[OldFriend]

And here I thought it was because Americans love to see fast cars, really fast cars racing, and even crashing on occasion.

Who knew we were all racists!

[Fzob]

I have never watched more than 10 minutes of NASCAR in my life of nearly 50 years.

After reading this article, I have discovered this is in reality a statement to the world that I am taking a stand against the institutional racism of those that like to watch cars go around in circles for hours.

[Coldwater Creek]

You are correct. Stock car racing does have it's roots in moonshine running. Thunder Road!!!!!!!!

[bobjam]

What makes these elites angrier: the fact that unsophisticated racist homophobic gun-toting Southern culture NASCAR dared to show its face in the Land of the Ivy League, or the fact that that unsophisticated racist homophobic gun-toting Southern culture NASCAR draws more than anything the elites have to offer?

[Coldwater Creek]

Joe Gibbs has done everything possible to include Black owners, etc. in NASCAR. If they do not want to be there, what else can be done. IMHO black drivers do not want to start at the bottom and work up like everyone else.

[Recon Dad]

If I could ever figure out how to paste to this web site I would have added a picture, but I am too dumb.

But think about these NASCAR teams without restrictions. 1000 horsepower engines, 200 plus MPH in the turns. Wings so big on the back of the car and ......... only the strong would survive. Then I might be a fan. I wouldn't actually go to a race but, hey I'd be a fan.

[sgtbono2002]

In its original conception NASCAR was great. It was competition between the manufacturers and the drivers, With todays rules all the cars have to run about the same speed or they change the rules to make them all the same. None of the cars are close to stock, Teams can run and gang up on others teams it just isnt the same.

No owner should be allowed more than one car and those cars should have to ruin 90% stock. Thats right if the maker doesnt make a taurus with rear wheel drive or a Monte Carlo with rear wheel drive it runs front wheel drive or not at all.

[pageonetoo]

If I could ever figure out how to paste to this web site I would have added a picture, but I am too dumb.

It's really quite easy, once you learn how. You can get some good hints at Webmonkey. There are also the HTML Bootcamp threads.

A picture is worth a thousand words, but also takes a thousand times the bandwidth (+/-).

[OpusatFR]

And here I thought is was all about waiting for fenderbenders...and beer.

[Blueflag]

"Teams can run and gang up on others teams"

Believe me, that happen before there were multi-car teams. Among the driving community there were/are drivers that are liked and not liked, cliques, and informal alliances. When you are out there, there are people you will let by, people you will crowd, people you will block etc, etc.

If the others guys in the draft wanna see you win or do better, you have a shot at getting by and being let back in from the apron. If they think you are an a$$hole, better watch out for that tap on the quarter panel as you enter turn three.

[KateatRFM]

When the Philadelphia Flyers joined the NHL, they were advertised as an "alternative" to the NBA, in a way that everyone I know took to mean "come and hang out with white people for a change." We didn't find this particularly startling; we were there to hang out with Canadians (in the 1970s that's pretty much what all of the players were).

I too am a fan of sports car racing, or what the NA$CAR people call a "Nigel" -- people who dress well and prefer wine and cheese to beer and wings, according to them. Clearly they have never been to either Le Mans or Sebring, where beer flows freely, especially if you know anybody who belongs to the large Jan Lammers fan club, "Drinking for Holland."

I'm tired of hearing people whine that if you're not lined up with a black person on either side of you, you're a racist.

[B4Ranch]

Northern is a direction, Southern is a way of life.

[Caramelgal]

The stereotype of NASCAR fans being male white southern rednecks wearing wife-beater tee shirts and swilling Bud is just that – a stereotype. Yes there is that base but NASCAR has grown in popularity in northern states and on the west coast. There are a growing number of women and educated professional people who follow the sport. You can see that from the companies that sponsor and advertise and the audience they are trying to reach. I would not call myself a big fan but do watch races on TV now and then and I like Tony Stewart – he’s cute. I went to a software training class recently. The instructor was African American and he had just come back from the race in Dover. I saw on his computer a file named NEXTEL Standings – so he was obviously a fan and interested in tracking the points standings. Isn’t Clarence Thomas a NASCAR fan? Oh that’s right he doesn’t count because he’s really white.

[N. Theknow]

Moonshiners outrunning "T-Men."

Let me tell the story, I can tell it all
About the mountain boy who ran illegal alcohol
His daddy made the whiskey, son, he drove the load
When his engine roared, they called the highway Thunder Road.

Sometimes into Ashville, sometimes Memphis town
The revenoors chased him but they couldn’t run him down
Each time they thought they had him, his engine would explode
He'd go by like they were standin’ still on Thunder Road.

(CHORUS)
And there was thunder, thunder over Thunder Road
Thunder was his engine, and white lightning was his load
There was moonshine, moonshine to quench the Devil’s thirst
The law they swore they'd get him, but the Devil got him first.

On the first of April, nineteen fifty-four
A Federal man sent word he’d better make his run no more
He said two hundred agents were coverin’ the state
Whichever road he tried to take, they’d get him sure as fate.

Son, his Daddy told him, make this run your last
The tank is filled with hundred-proof, you’re all tuned up and gassed
Now, don’t take any chances, if you can’t get through
I’d rather have you back again than all that mountain dew.

(CHORUS)

Roarin’ out of Harlan, revvin’ up his mill
He shot the gap at Cumberland, and screamed by Maynordsville
With T-men on his taillights, roadblocks up ahead The mountain boy took roads that even Angels feared to tred.
Blazing right through Knoxville, out on Kingston Pike,
Then right outside of Bearden, they made the fatal strike.
He left the road at 90; that’s all there is to say.
The devil got the moonshine and the mountain boy that day.

Movie theater, or picture show, in the little town I grew up in used to show this movie twice a year. Most of the kids wanted to grow up to be race car drivers like their idols, Freddie Lorenzen and Fireball Roberts.

Muscle cars like the Chevy 409, Ford 390, Pontiac 421 kept tire companies in business with black streaks on county roads that if you dropped a glass on the roads it would only bounce there was so much rubber left on them.

[N. Theknow]

The best moonshine running movie is "Thunder Road" starring Robert Mitcham.

See Post #58.

[junta]

I'm to understand that NASCAR has huge ratings in NYC and that is why they are hot to put a track on Staten Island. One can assume they then attract their fair share of the non-redneck population of the area.