You Asked For It! ~ "Are The New Fans Now The Old Fans?"
5/02/2014
PattyKay Lilley
I bid
you welcome gentle readers, to the somewhat scrambled ramblings of an aging
mind attempting to sit atop the mountain and play guru to an old friend. A warm
and sincere welcome as well to our assigned reader, snugly ensconced somewhere
within the glass palace we know as the Fan and Media Espionage Center in
Charlotte, North Carolina.
"We
kid because we care." ~Chris Myers
Not so
very long ago, someone asked me that question and it got me to scratching my
head. Oh, I knew what he meant, and the conversation to that point had to do
with racing at the track now known as Auto Club Speedway in Fontana California,
or as the older Southern fans call it, "The track that stole the Southern
500." That track it seemed, went from bad to
worse, at which time NASCAR inexplicably assigned it a second race, though the
track couldn't come close to filling the seats for a single race. Recall,
"They're all downstairs shopping", a candidate for quote of the
century, uttered by Gillian Zucker, the gal that runs
the Fontana show.
The
second race didn't last long before it was given to Kentucky... or maybe it was
Kansas; there was a double switch there involving Atlanta also losing a race
but winding up with the Labor Day race and all the spite that
goes along with somehow being seen as having stolen it from Darlington via
Fontana. However, for the past two races, the track surface has aged and
the racing has greatly improved, much as a stew will respond to proper
seasoning. This year's race claimed to be a "sellout" before race
day. We won't go into that particular definition today except to say that
theirs differs somewhat from mine, but the fact remains, there were fannies in those seats, though a lesser number of seats, and
they belonged to, for the most part, the younger fans. Hmm...
is it possible that young and old are becoming one and
the same?
First, I
want to make it perfectly clear (She says, doing her best Richard Nixon
imitation) that while I’ve sometimes described new fans (Read ~ young fans) as
“fickle”, I’ve never meant to imply that youth is somehow a synonym for stupid.
Quite the contrary, youth is a time for investigating, sampling, experiencing
and filling the senses with all sorts of new sensations. I love youth and the
young people that live within it. Heck, once upon a time I was even one of
them. Was it really that long ago?
It’s
only natural for the young to want to try everything that’s available. How else
would they ever learn what they do or don’t like? They will always move from
fad to fad, much as a bee moves from flower to flower. Some will move on
permanently, seeking something more to their liking, but others will stay and
learn all they can, once having found something that truly takes their fancy.
So it is with stock car racing; as predicted, some will and indeed, already
have moved on, but those that have stayed have made it their business to learn
more about the sport that has caught their fancy.
I can’t
begin to count the number of young fans that have written to thank me for
articles designed to acquaint them with the colorful characters and stories
that abounded in the early days of NASCAR, but with learning, comes knowledge.
Once they know what it used to be like and compare that to what it is today,
they almost have to feel cheated by the glitzy product presented for the masses
now.
The
sport of stock car racing springs from roots buried deep in Southern soil and
was populated by tough old rum-runners that lived to beat and bang on each
other around a dirt oval somewhere, anywhere! That was the beginning, but as
with everything else, evolution ensued almost immediately, with the onset of
paved tracks, beginning with the sweet old “Lady in Black” we call Darlington...
named, of course for my alter-ego of the same name. (Ahem!)
As the
tracks grew in length and the surfaces changed from dirt to asphalt, the method
of racing necessarily changed with them, especially after the addition of two
high-banked monster tracks called Daytona and Talladega. It didn’t take drivers
long to figure out that frammin’ and bammin’ at those tracks could lead to unpleasant
consequences, so the racing became smoother and less aggressive, but it was
still racing and the idea was still to win the race.
With the
advent of television, it was inevitable that the sport would grow from being
merely a redneck southern sport to a more widely viewed entity. But what
endeared many “new” fans of that day was when the very first race telecast from
flag to flag, the 1979 Daytona 500, ended with a fistfight between Cale
Yarborough and the Allison brothers, Bobby and Donnie. That tough underbelly of
the sport was still alive and well, despite the scrutiny of the TV camera.
NASCAR racing was introduced to the masses and a star was born.
I
realize that probably 96% of those reading are at this point thinking of the
little fisticuffs episode that just resulted in fines and probation for Marcos
Ambrose ($25K) and Casey Mears ($15K) after the race at Richmond last Saturday
night. Before you cast the first stone in that direction, this is a quote from Bobby
Allison on further goings-on after that 1979 Daytona 500.
"Then
NASCAR fined us $6,000 bucks apiece and I had finished 11th in the Daytona 500
and I had only won $4,000 bucks. So Judy had to write a check at home for $2,000
bucks for me to pay my fine so we could race the next week. So then we were
good boys for a few weeks and NASCAR refunded the prize money withheld. They've
still got Judy's $2,000 bucks."
(The next time someone tells you that things aren't
like they used to be, don't believe him until you investigate for your own
self.)
Through
the 1980s and into the 1990s, we still saw fierce rivalries between drivers and
we still saw drivers with diverse personalities that didn’t necessarily cotton
to being interviewed on camera and would never have consented to being wired
for sound while they were racing because they knew their own shortcomings. Then
somewhere in the mid 1990s, things began to change. I’ve tried over the years
to pinpoint an exact time or date and the nearest I can come is the closing of
North Wilkesboro in 1996 to ensure race dates for a track in Texas and one in
New Hampshire, a travesty that happened with the complete blessing of NASCAR,
though they disclaimed any part in it.
Once
that happened, more changes were right down the road, including sweeping
changes within the sanctioning body itself, until today one can hardly recognize
the sport of perhaps only a dozen years ago. By far, the most disappointing to
the fans became the homogenization of the drivers themselves, who were no
longer permitted to have personalities of their own or voice likes and dislikes
about anything race-related within earshot of a microphone or range of a
camera. No, the little corporate soldiers of the new millennium had to spout
the company line at every opportunity, whether the “Company” be
NASCAR or a deep-pocketed sponsor. That made them appear
bland and colorless compared to the likes of Fireball Roberts, Lee Petty or Joe
Weatherly.
The idea
that a driver was fined and docked points for uttering a four-letter word is
somewhat ludicrous to me in light of comparison to some of those Good Ol’ Boys
I’ve watched over the years. Somewhere in my mind, I can hear Curtis Turner and
Smokey Yunick laughing hysterically at what NASCAR might consider an
unacceptable word today. Now, those boys could and did utter words that would
literally turn the air blue, and somehow, everyone loved them, either for it or
in spite of it.
For the
past couple of years, some of that changed with the advent of "Boys, have
at it", but even that is at the discretion of NASCAR and things such as
"secret fines" for "Tweeting" for Heaven's sake, tend to
sully the meaning of that phrase.
These
young fans are bright enough to see the difference between somewhat bombastic
but definitely charismatic drivers such as Dale Earnhardt, Darrell Waltrip,
Cale Yarborough and Buddy Baker and the sterilized versions we have today.
Almost unerringly, these new fans flock to drivers such as Dale Earnhardt Jr.,
Tony Stewart, Kevin Harvick and yes, the Busch brothers and Brad Keselowski
too, since these sometimes "bad boys" occasionally act up as though
they had minds of their own. Fans, both new and old, sense something of the
past in these drivers and it’s something they obviously like.
I don’t
think it’s so much about the tracks as perhaps it is about the ambience.
Today's youngsters can go to a rock concert cheaper than they can go to a race.
They do not come for the “Show”, though it may have started out that way. These
are the “stayers”, if you will, and they are there for the race, just like the
old fans. Given that, it's not surprising that they’d prefer Darlington or
Bristol to the wine and cheese laden show that was Fontana, but when the racing
improved, so too did attendance at the track.
There’s
actually nothing wrong with the racing at Fontana or any other track on the
circuit, save for maybe New Hampshire, that couldn’t be cured by losing the
perfect aerodynamics in which they’ve managed to cloak those 3200-pound
behemoths we call stock cars. Despite the “image” that NASCAR wants to project,
this isn’t F-1 and the fans don’t want it to be, either the old fans or the new
fans. You remember the old ad campaign that proclaimed, “This isn’t your
father’s Oldsmobile?” Well, maybe it should be!
In
answer to my friend's question, I don’t think the “new” fans are necessarily
becoming “old,” I think they’re becoming “fans.” They’ve been to school,
learned the difference between yesterday and today and feel cheated by today.
It would be nice if simple truths such as that were understood by today's
specialists that call themselves "Marketers" but alas, all things now
are computerized and depend on numbers, ratios, percentages and demographics
rather than common sense.
Oh, and
I do have a few scattered answers for some questions that arose the other night
when some good ol' boys gathered around the hot stove for a little racing
conversation. Firestone is still the tire of record for the Verizon IndyCar
series through 2018. Perelli, an Italian tire maker,
holds the F1 contract through 2016. Bridgestone, though it may sound British,
it actually a very old Japanese company founded by a man named Ishibashi. In 1988, Bridgestone bought Firestone and now
operates on our shores as BSAM or Bridgestone Americas, and retains the
Firestone trademark here. Michelin gets a bit muddier to describe, as it is
under the control of partnerships world-wide. It was and is French in origin,
technically owned by a gentleman named Rollier and located
in Clermont-Ferrand in the Auvergne region of France. Michelin has, however
been a U.S. corporation as well since 1907. No other company owns Michelin as
was stated. Together with Bridgestone, they comprise the two largest tire
companies in the world today.
And then
there was one last question, this regarding the NASCAR Hall of Fame voting.
"Who's on the ballot?" Really? Really?? You can find the answer to that question by
clicking right about here.
And on
that note gentle readers, I do believe it's time for our Classic Country
Close-out for today. Everyone has favorite singers that he or she will always
go back to again and again, and I'm no different. My all-time favorite Country
singer, or any other kind of singer for that matter, has been Red Foley, from
the days of my childhood and listening to him on WSL Chicago. This is a song
Red not only sang, but wrote, circa 1936 I believe. In one box set, which
shares its name with the song, I have six versions of it, from the original up
through the years. It's been recorded since by a veritable plethora of artists,
as varied as Walter Brennan and Elvis Presley. Tissue alert! If you've never
heard "Old Shep" or haven't heard it in
years, it will jerk your heartstrings... guaranteed! Oh, and just as a side
note, no, Red did not own a dog named Shep when he
wrote this, nor did he ever... before or after. No one ever knew for certain
where the thoughts and idea came from, but the song is a winner, many times
over. Please enjoy:
Be well
gentle readers, and remember to keep smiling. It looks so good on you!
~
PattyKay