List of the Week: Worst Trends in NASCAR
June 2, 2008 by Tim Zaegel
Filed under Racing
Image details: Aaron’s 499 served by picapp.com
5. “Boogity, Boogity, Boogity!” - It was pretty catchy at first, and then it just became tolerable for awhile. Let’s face it, though, at this point it’s just redundant and played out, and it brings serious question to the vocabulary range of Darrell Waltrip. Let’s find something new, shall we?
4. Retired Drivers Not Retiring – These days, I just don’t know anymore what it means when a driver says they’re retiring, because for a large handful of these guys it really just means that they’re moving to a part-time schedule. Mark Martin had a farewell tour two years in a row due to his highly publicized retirement, though two years later he’s still running a 24-race schedule. Bill Elliott has made 51 starts in the five years he’s been “retired”. And, now, Terry LaBonte and Sterling Marlin appear to be following the same trend as well. What’s going on?
3. Ticket Scalping – I’ve never had a problem with folks standing outside the stadium or the race venue trying to turn a quick buck on the tickets that they no longer need, but it’s become nearly impossible to get tickets for certain races because they’ve all been bought up by companies that will then turn around and sell them on E-Bay. Suddenly you’ve watched the price for tickets go from $85 to $250.
2. Composure During the National Anthem - It’s an issue that doesn’t get addressed nearly as often as it should, and it’s gone overlooked for far too long now. As patriotic as NASCAR is, it’s amazing that some of the drivers and teams can be caught on camera week after week talking and joking during the singing of the National Anthem. It’s also sad that folks such as Delana Harvick still haven’t figured out that they’re supposed to remove their hats during the ceremony.
1. Trash Getting Thrown on the Track – I love this sport, and I defend it nearly everywhere I go, but there are certain times that I find myself truly ashamed to call myself a fan. There’s no room in NASCAR – or, any sport, for that matter – for fans to be throwing trash such as full beer cans out on the track just because they didn’t like the driver that won the race. The most notorious of these incidents was in 2007 when Jeff Gordon won the Aaron’s 499 at Talladega Superspeedway, but that wasn’t the only incident. Once is too many times, anyway.
Re #4, what’s going on? Simple they want to race and not have to tolarate the 10 month pressure cooker called the NASCAR “season.”
Re #3, I assume you refer to the ticket outlets. If so there’s about zero NASCAR can do except restrict the type and number of tickets sold to everyone. That will never happen. If you have seen non-ticket sellers doing it I wish you’d post a lict because they need to be exposed for the scam artists they appear to be.
Re #2, From * ETIQUETTE for Hats and Caps*:
A woman may leave her hat on indoors or during the playing of The National Anthem, unless it is considered unisex like a baseball cap. When wearing such a unisex cap, a woman should follow the same guidelines as for men.
I don’t know what she wares, ’cause I fail to be interested in anything ’til the green falls, bt it obviously depends on what she or any other woman wears.
Re #1, you’re preachin’ to the choir brother. TMS and a couple others allegedly banned some of these idiots a couple years back and that’s exactly what should happen.
delana should remove her hat for national anthem. it doesnt matter whether or not shes a female its called RESPECT!!!
Mary,
4 – Point taken. I guess I just still take issue with a 24-race season being called “retirement”.
3 – I know that there’s nothing NASCAR can really do about it, but I would think that there would be some sort of legal ramifications to it. I know there have been times that I’ve seen E-Bay step in and actually not allow tickets to be sold overpriced at times, but it seems that the legal way around it is to simply buff up the s&h or add in a trader’s card.
2 – I actually tend to side with Adam on the hat issue. But, my disappointment is also with a large part of the folks in the garage in general. As a former serviceman, I expect a bit more respect to be given to the nation’s colors.
1 – No disagreement there. It doesn’t make it hard to figure out why many people refer to it as a “hoosier” sport”, eh?
I’m a second-year NASCAR fan.
First year, I was utterly confused as to what Boogity-Boogity was all about.
Then I got to watch races on TNT, ABC, and ESPN…. and I realized… only FOX really cares about NASCAR.
Boogity may be hokey… But I know when I hear it, I’m about to see the best race coverage available.
I don’t know, I think there’s a lot of people out there that would be willing to disagree with you about FOX’s race coverage. I, myself, was sorely disappointed with them during the first leg of the season, but they seem to have gotten it back on track over the last 3 or 4 races.
My personal preference lies with ABC.
I watch nascar and agree with the removing of the hat, of course i don’t know her, but her personality shines in the “i don’t care what you think” category. I have my favorites, and Jeff Gordon is on the short list, and it makes me very angry hearing the booing in the stands, most don’t even remember why they still boo him .. the booing was from winning so many races and even beating Earnhardt, but that was many years ago.. C’mon people ! the only thing gordon ever did was win races.. if you want someone to boo at, boo at Kyle Busch, now he’s a piece of work.
It’s funny, Pat. Now that Kyle Busch has come crawling onto the scene and Jr’s joined HMS, most people have actually forgotten the fact that they hate(d) Gordon. Did you happen to notice that they actually cheered him during the driver introductions for the All-Star Race this year?