Jun 12th, 2009 by T.C.
People.
Just like any other sport on this planet, the basis of NASCAR is the people involved. The only real difference between NASCAR and other sports being the means in which the competition happens. In one, it’s guys chasing around a while ball trying to hit it the fewest times possible. In another it’s about putting a frozen piece of rubber into a net more times then the other team. And in NASCAR it’s guys duking it out for several hundred miles, behind the wheel of 3,400 lb stock cars, to see who is the fastest.
When you turn on your TV each week and tune in to watch a race, you are given a small glimpse into the lives of some of these people. You watch how they perform on the track, how they perform in the pits, and what they do and say when they have a camera and microphone in their face. And from watching these things, you form an opinion about what kind of person each individual is.
For example, you know that Jimmie Johnson is a great driver, but he’s “kinda vanilla.”
And, you know that Kyle Busch is also a great driver, but he is anything but vanilla.
But if you were being honest with yourself, do you really KNOW these things about these guys?
Unless you are best friends with them, of course you don’t.
This idea of reality vs. perception is not a new topic, but it is an underlying theme in a lot of the current hot button issues in our sport. Whether we are talking about Jeremy Mayfield, Carl Long, Dale Jr., or Kyle Busch.
There was a piece written by Matt McLaughlin that appeared on the website “The Frontstretch” on Tuesday this week about NASCAR’s new Citizen Journalist Corps. In it, McLaughlin offered up some advice that was given to him early in his journalistic career that caught my attention. Here is an excerpt:
[My boss] told me something that was going to stick with me for life. He told me that the more access I got to the garage area, the more I learned about the people who ran the sport and the people who made up the sport, the less I was going to like it. You look behind the curtain and you risk learning that the wizards are only mortal men. I was naive then, I never thought it could happen. It did.
I thought this was interesting because McLaughlin was being warned about his preconceived notions of the sport and the people involved. Like many others, he had this grandiose picture in his mind about the way things were, and he was about to find out that this picture was actually quite different. And apparently, he didn’t like that.
But where he was disappointed to find out that the “wizards” were actually “mortal men,” I personally was amazed.
Having been a long time race fan before I got involved in the sport, I had my own perception of the way people were. But the deeper I got, and the more I learned about the actual people involved, the more I loved NASCAR.
I found out that some drivers I didn’t really like on TV, I actually really liked in person; and vice versa. And discovering that the stars in the garage and on pit road were just regular people doing amazing things made me respect them even more.
Being active on Twitter has allowed us to have some great conversations with folks about a lot of topics. This week, I took the opportunity to find out what some people thought about the ongoing Jeremy Mayfield/positive drug test saga. I wanted to know why it seemed so many people were quickly jumping up to defend Mayfield. I didn’t understand why a positive drug test wasn’t enough evidence to believe Mayfield did wrong. The most common response I got was “he’s not that kind of guy.” Oh really? How do you know?
These folks have a certain view of Mayfield that they have built up over the years watching him race. They believe they know what kind of person he is because they’ve seen him compete and be interviewed on TV, or maybe they’ve met him briefly in public.
What they fail to realize is, the face these drivers put up and the responses given to reporters are often carefully crafted by the PR and marketing people behind the scenes. You are usually seeing the driver how they want you to see him.
So in the cases of both Jeremy Mayfield and Carl Long, the perception is that the big bully (NASCAR) is picking on the defenseless little guy (Mayfield & Long). And many people are eating it up.
The point I’m trying to make here is, don’t let outward appearances fool you into thinking these guys are anything more then regular people. Drivers, crew chiefs, tire changers, owners, whoever. They are all just normal guys who happen to do something special (and some get paid very well). They have problems and make mistakes just like everyone else.
But instead of letting that fact ruin your view of your favorite driver, or NASCAR as a whole, embrace it! Understanding that these people are real humans should make the sport more endearing. Instead of watching mythical beings at work, wouldn’t you much rather watch common men doing uncommon things? I know I would.
