The Difference Between NASCAR Bashers and NASCAR Critics

Greg  Engle by Contributor Written on July 14, 2009
JOLIET, IL - JULY 11: Dale Earnhardt Jr., driver of the #88 AMP Energy/National Guard Chevrolet, stands on pit road before the start of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series LifeLock.com 400 at Chicagoland Speedway on July 11, 2009 in Joliet, Illinois.  (Photo by John Harrelson/Getty Images) (Photo by John Harrelson/Getty Images)

My parents owned a retail furniture store when I was growing up. I learned a lot from my wise old dad. One thing he used to ensure his salespeople did was call their customers after their furniture was delivered.

“We obviously want to make sure that the customer doesn’t have any problems with their new purchase,” he said. “But just as important, it’s a good morale boost for the salesperson.”

I, of course, had to ask how the salesperson got a morale boost. “Because 99 percent of those phone calls will have a happy customer on the other end. And that makes the salesperson feel good.”

He went on to add, “Happy people will hardly ever say anything. Sure they are happy, they may love us to death, but they will never take the time to call and say so. The people who do call though, who will yell the loudest, are the ones who claim to have a problem. And most of the time, the problems they are shouting about don’t really exist, they just need to yell about something.”

Welcome to the world of NASCAR. Just as in society, NASCAR, as do a lot of major sports, have an element of people who seem to spend most of their time yelling about how bad the sport is. How terrible the racing is, the fans are, the drivers, the officials, you name it. These "bashers" will argue until the sun goes down. You say the sky is blue and they will argue the sky is pink.

Recently a former ‘journalist’ now firmly in his senior years, wrote and published a ‘scathing’ ‘tell-all’ book that ‘exposed’ the dirty secrets of NASCAR. Well gang, truth be told most of the ‘secret’s he ‘exposed’ aren’t really secrets at all. Most of what was "revealed" has been around in some form for years.

Sometimes the names change over the years, but the stories, none of which have any basis in fact, have been talked about and laughed at for the most part—for years. But don’t tell that to the ‘ashers. To them, suddenly this old mans’ musings are taken as the Gospel and prove how evil the NASCAR empire is.

Among the stories was that NASCAR was somehow controlled by the mob at one time and even involved in the drug trade. And according to the book, the current CEO was a drug abuser and even busted for drug possession and that the charge was somehow hushed up.

But when NASCAR took a race away from the state where the offense allegedly occurred, officials there were ready to "expose all." Well, one phone call to a police information officer last week, who could find no record of such offense, made that even more laughable. MORE-->>

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written on July 14, 2009 Opinion

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