Nothing is the same as it was in 1996 as far as the pop culture and
spectator sports goes.

NASCAR was the darling of the fans and the darling of the teevee networks
and even the darling of Wall Street and Madison Avenue during those halcyon
days.

But that was then and this is now.

Back in the good old days you had your Dale Earnhardt and Bill Elliott and
Mark Martin and Darrell Waltrip and Rusty Wallace and Terry Labonte and you
know who.

In 2007 you have the semipopular Jeff Gordon and his California clone
Jimmie Johnson and Tony Stewart and about ten Busch-Kahne-Newman-McMurray
ciphers. NASCAR teaches the new drivers to all be clean shaven and not use
tobbacy and not use cuss words and not fight and not fuss and to be totally
dull. So they are losing fans right and left.

NASCAR had it but they went and ruined it. The hard core fans like us will
watch every race until the last one in spite of all of the nonsense and they
have absolutely no chance of attratcting any twenty-somethings to any five
hour teevee shows.

How can people who are so smart be so dumb in terms of decision making?

Let me point out a little factoid that may be insignificant to most of you.
Back when NASCAR has a short pregame show the audience was growing and in
the recent years when they went to the long silly pregame show and the long
caution periods and the extra caution periods in favor of Junior not losing
any more laps the audience is shrinking.

Do not get me wrong. I am not feeling sorry for billionaires such as NASCAR
and ISC not making many more billions quickly enough. I am just thinking
that they could do even better with fewer rules and more characters.

RickyBobby wrote:
I am a relatively new NASCAR fan. I was drawn to the sport by Tony
Stewart and the things he said and did. I became even more hooked this
year because of John Paul Mountain. My other favorite is the openly gay
driver (who nobody here has seemed to realize is gay).

I can't stand Jeff Gordon or Jimmie Johnson. Not because of where they
are from, or even that they win so much (although I am convinced that
there is some rule bending going on). It's because they are boring.

You're right. The sport needs more characters. NASCAR needs to promote
Tony Stewart, not penalize him at every turn and try to muzzle him.

NASCAR has an absolute goldmine in guys like Tony Stewart, Johnny Hill
and even newer loudmouthed, classless pricks like Kasey Kahne and David
Gilliland.

-Thomas