And now, for a little rant….
Typically the people who get paid to attend races have an awful lot to say about how, we, the people who PAY TO TRAVEL TO THE RACE and PAY TO ATTEND THE RACE and BUY THE DRIVER/RACE MERCHANDISE should feel about a given race. Â WHAT GIVES YOU THE RIGHT??? Â I know what I see. I know how I feel about how I see. Without MY passion for the sport, those guys would have to get real jobs. I am so thoroughly sick of a former driver telling me I should have enjoyed a given race. The former driver is not sitting with me. The former driver has a different agenda. The former driver has a more technical point of view. The former driver is NOT the target audience. I enjoy playing basketball. I don’t find basketball enjoyable television. I believe I would enjoy driving a Sprint Cup car. I believe it would be difficult, technically challenging, physically exhausting, and terribly exciting behind the wheel. As a driver, intimately understanding what is going on in the driver’s set I’m sure I would have a different appreciation of some races. That said. I am not a Sprint Cup driver, nor are most of people watching the race, therefore, what appeals to a former driver may be very different than what appeals to a PAYING member of the audience.
Petty Kyle enjoys arguing with and angering NASCAR fans and NASCAR officials. Has it ever occurred to him that without NASCAR he would have a real job and, most likely, no notion that he’s special or right. His overwhelming mediocrity would provide him with the life he chose and the life he deserves. He should thank NASCAR every day of his life that he has the privilege of participating in some thing special – NASCAR. He didn’t earn it; he was born into it and his father didn’t make his earn it. I often wonder if Petty Kyle isn’t one of the reasons Dale Earnhardt Sr. forced Dale Earnhardt Jr. to work for someone else when he initially decided to drive stock cars. While the younger driver’s last name will open some doors, the sport would be best served if drivers were forced to work their way up through the ranks driving the crappy cars and earning their way into the good equipment. Drivers should develop their skills, utilize their talent, develop their instincts before getting the best equipment. That development time will give them time to mature and allow them a full career in which the driver will flourish. As it stands right now, we keep seeing ‘the sons of’ getting good equipment and making bad decisions, often inflicting career damage on innocent drivers/teams. If one of the Dillon boys does damage to one of the small budget teams the small budget team will always lose a lot more than RCR. And since the boys don’t have to actually pay for the damage and won’t miss a meal because of the damage and will still have a famous grandfather and a famous father to pay for them to do as they please, they will never learn a lesson, never mature as drivers, nor as men.
Whew, glad I got THAT off my mind!