Following every breaking tid-bit on the Jeremy Mayfield vs. NASCAR case, with the sanctioning body accusing the driver of meth use, has gotten me thinking about the whole situation and the way people are reacting to it. There are lots of people out there supporting Mayfield’s side of things and bashing the daylights out of NASCAR. The more I see, the more I wonder why.
Historically, Americans have pulled for the underdog and we like to celebrate our famous lost causes. The Alamo and Custer’s last stand have special places in our history as moments where people fought to their last breath, despite the fact that the odds were totally stacked against them. In Mayfield’s case, he’s either the most bold liar in recent American history or a guy who is truly standing his ground against a monolithic opponent in NASCAR.
He’s failed two drug tests and is now being accused of lying to a federal court. I’m pretty sure that NASCAR’s legal team is not going to introduce information like that to the court unless they have everything they need to support it. Despite those things, though, people love to attack NASCAR’s position on this issue and then that normally leads to pages of Internet blather about how badly the racing sucks, how the series has been ruined, and how it’ll never be like the “good old days.”
No sanctioning body raises the ire of the Internet chat room, bulletin board, or discussion forum dweller more than NASCAR, and I don’t get it. This is still the most popular racing series in America. It garners television audiences that are larger than all other series combined. Is attendance down? Yes, and please find me a series (other than the free-ticket ADRL) that isn’t. Are the TV ratings off? By a range of 10-15 percent, you bet they are—but remember this: the networks are paying NASCAR billions of dollars to air these races. Other series are on second-rate networks like ESPN2 and Vs., and often have to buy the airtime to boot.
I can’t claim to be a big NASCAR fan, but I have attended a race or two and if I’m looking to kill a Sunday afternoon at home, flipping on the race provides a couple hours of entertainment, more than I can say for most other stuff on TV.
So which one is it? Are people rooting for Mayfield to come through this process victorious because they are dedicated fans of his and want to see him competing back on the track? Or are they simply hoping to see NASCAR get humiliated in court?
Let’s say they do get humiliated in court. Who wins? Mayfield, certainly, but after that, what’s the benefit to John Q NASCAR hater? NASCAR will take a small wad of bills out of its giant pockets, Mayfield will walk away a rich man, and a sport that has its athletes careening around a race track at high rates of speed won’t be able to test those same people for drugs?
The “good old days” of racing are dead and buried, along with lots of the competitors from those days who were killed in cars with substandard safety equipment that raced on substandard tracks. To hate NASCAR because it essentially perfected the way to market a form of racing to the masses is dumb in my opinion.
They’re certainly not perfect, with decisions that seem to defy logic occasionally and policies that are at times draconian and at others far too loose.
It seems most of the people who are the loudest NASCAR haters opine for days they never lived through and want to see races that they can only watch in snippets on YouTube.
A failing NASCAR may be a dream to some, a sign that they are getting their comeuppance, but let’s face it. If that series crumbles, how far behind can the NHRA, IRL, SCORE, and others be? The answer is not far. No one says you have to like Stock Car racing, and lots of poeple don’t. I’d argue that a strong NASCAR leads to a strong string of series, one of which you may actually like.
If you derive all your pleasure out of NASCAR’s pain, be careful. The sport you love to follow may be next in line and you know what they say.
Karma’s a bitch.
