NASCAR running thread

Which NASCAR drivers can the average fan relate to?

 

Some people think Junior's win at Daytona in July 2001 was a work.

 

Today's drivers? None come to mind for me. That's why, in my opinion, NASCAR has lost its soul. In times past, Harry Gant might have been the guy you hired to roof your house on Wednesday then cheered for him Sunday afternoon at Wilkesboro.

 

Can't that be said for every sport?

 

Not that I'm disagreeing with them (or you), but "some people" think a lot of crazy ***t!

 

When I went to my last Cup race as a writer (at Talladega in the spring of 1988), I knew I was probably getting out so I did a bit more fan-like stuff ... like taking snapshots in the infield during practice days. Somewhere in my boxes of junk from those days I have a picture series of 1) Richard Petty walking along carrying a pair of front springs; 2) Petty standing there signing an autograph with those springs sitting on the ground; and 3) Petty back on his way carrying those springs again. I suspect you wouldn't see many Cup drivers -- and certainly not the upper echelon -- doing something similarly now.

 

Which has already been pointed out, several times. Knighthawk was saying they didn't need the wins to validate them.

 

Oh I know!

 

Jimmy Spencer was the one leading the race-is-fixed stuff.

 

Yes but in stick and ball sports it probably went away in the 60s where in NASCAR it was still true in the mid 90s. It's still the case many times in NHRA.

 

This string of posts would fit well in dreunc1542's thread about authenticity. NASCAR, like rap, has built its image on authenticity, but the support has grown to no longer support it.