TRUCK SERIES GETS ATTENTION AT DAYTONA

The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series started off a few years
ago with a lot of fanfare and promise. The first couple of years, it was a
pretty exciting series to watch.

But then NASCAR started messing with a good thing. They
did away with the half time stops so that teams had to perform pit stops during
the race. The natural result of that was that the better funded teams (e.g.,
Hendrick, Roush, Earnhardt, Childress) pretty much stunk up the show.

So, in an effort to get more people to pay attention to
the series, NASCAR decided to run more truck races in conjunction with Winston
Cup races.

The first one took place Friday, and by all accounts was a
great race. Bobby Hamilton, when asked to describe how disappointed he was by
being knocked out early said that he wasn’t really disappointed because he
wanted to get up on the hauler and watch it because it was such a good race.

Racing at Daytona not seen since the restrictor plates
came on the scene. Passing, slingshotting, all the classic moves from the old
days at Daytona. NASCAR’s plan seemed to be working great.

Well, at least until the crash.

Then NASCAR’s plan backfired. The kind of publicity that
NASCAR got after the race was certainly not the kind they were aiming for. News
and sports media that don’t usually even acknowledge the existence of NASCAR ran
the video or featured a story about the crash. I’ve even seen the story on
politically oriented web sites.

ESPN, to their credit, declined to show any replays of the
wreck until they were certain that none of the injuries were life threatening.
But I understand that that didn’t stop CNN from showing it on their headline
news, while the race was still red flagged.

The die hard race fan knows that the story here is not
that there was a serious wreck that injured a driver and several fans. The real
story is that the safety precautions mandated by NASCAR worked perfectly in the
truck race (and in today’s Busch Grand National race as well). But the
conventional news media, in their thirst for blood, only sees the serious crash
that happened. In their eyes, the only thing that would make the footage even
better would have been a fatality.

The upshot is that NASCAR is getting publicity for the
Series, but not the kind they wanted. I’ve seen quotes saying that racing has a
"black eye" because of the wreck.

True NASCAR fans know that there are risks involved in our
favorite sport. While the drivers take most of the risks, the crew and to quite
a bit lesser extent, the fans in the stands are at risk. It’s part of the sport.
I may be showing some naivete here, but I truly believe that most fans watch and
attend races for the racing action. But as long as the conventional news and
sports media treats us as if we watch races for the wrecks, then NASCAR racing
won’t move to the mainstream.