As a NASCAR fan, I follow the official NASCAR social media accounts. No matter what the organization posts, the comment section will be hijacked by people saying, “NASCAR is dead. I don’t even watch it.”
Now the latter half of that statement always confuses me. If you don’t watch a sport, why are you following the social media page and commenting. I do not watch tennis. Therefore I do not follow nor comment on any tennis related Facebook page.
Let’s now look at the original comment, “NASCAR is dead.” Translated, that means, “NASCAR is different than it used.”
As long as I can remember, my Sundays have been dedicated to church and NASCAR. I can remember listening the radio broadcasts of races because our TV antenna only picked up one channel which rarely aired the race.
My first visions of the sport were of Richard Petty’s famous No. 43 along with the rides of the original Elliott and Earnhardt, Harry Gant, Darrell Waltrip, Bobby Allison and the rest of the biggest stars of the 80s.
NASCAR grew along with me in the 90s, reaching mainstream America. No longer considered a southern secret, the high speed parade of brightly colored, ground shaking machines captured the country’s imagination.
And that’s when they started. Murmurs of, “This ain’t real racin’,” turned into roars almost as loud as the engines as the decade rolled on.
Over the past 20 years, NASCAR has gone through several changes. From different championship formats to the failed Car of Tomorrow, organization officials have shown they are not afraid to try new things. Apparently new things are bad.
The addition of Toyota was going to be the final nail in the coffin. When that proved to be untrue, switching to fuel injected engines would for sure cause everyone to toss the sport aside. The racing kept happening and then came along digital dashboards. That change was again met with blow back.
I wish I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard, “How can they call them stock cars? There’s nothing stock on them.” The irony lies in the fact that the changes which produced the most negative comments were actually making these custom machines more like the cars sold at the dealership. Don’t believe me? Go to Jacky Jones Ford and try to buy a brand new Mustang that doesn’t have a digital dashboard and isn’t fuel injected. It’s 2020, surely you don’t think they should be lining up 1984 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supremes for the Daytona 500.
Here’s a hard truth, NASCAR isn’t in the business of making sure you can live your nostalgic dreams. They have to change and adapt because that’s what society does.
The NASCAR of today is nothing like the NASCAR of the 80s. I acknowledge that while enjoying both periods. If you can’t, then your NASCAR is dead, but the sport will roll on.