TO DEGA OR NOT TO DEGA

This coming weekend we, the family of
NASCAR fans, will turn on our televisions sets and sit down in the grandstands
overlooking two and two-thirds miles of some of the fastest asphalt on earth and
we will hold our collective breath for 500 miles. Some of us will be scared to
death to even watch and may choose to not to do so this weekend. I think I have
a lawn that needs to be mowed and a go-kart engine that needs to be tuned. And
from the things I’m reading around the net right now, I’m not alone.

Picture this. You’re Mr. Multi-Billion
Dollar Company and you have decided to spend anywhere from $5 million to $20
million of your advertising budget on a rolling billboard that goes so fast that
nobody in the stands can read it anyway. But, in the last year, four times
you’ve watched your company logo slam head-on into a concrete wall and seen four
very nice guys get killed, all for the sake of saying they were faster than the
guy behind them. In the twinkling of an eye your investment has gone from being
a brightly colored blur on its way to Victory Lane with popping champagne corks
to being burned into the minds of those unfortunate enough to see it, as being
the colors wrapped around their Man as he was taken from this life. Not exactly
the promise that was made to you during all those schmooze-fests when the car
owner was trying to separate you from some of that cash.

Although I love Kyle Petty and the whole
Petty family, I can’t watch that black and red Sprint car circle the track
without thinking of the Prince to the throne who was taken from us way too
early. I was all prepared to follow Adam into the ranks of Winston Cup this year
and become a sickening Petty fan all over again. I was prepared to buy the hats,
the shirts, the jackets and the diecasts. There was absolutely nothing to not
like about Adam. He was every father and mother’s dream kid. I still wear my
Adam Petty hat but, the diecast has gone into a box and will stay there for
awhile. I’m sure that Sprint didn’t pay their millions to foster this kind of
memory in NASCAR fans.

I was never much of a Kenny Irwin fan. If
you had asked me to name my top 15 favorite NASCAR WC drivers, I doubt that
Kenny would have made the list. Not that he wasn’t a likable Midwestern kid who
always seemed to be happy about something. He seemed to be a really nice kid.
But, not placing him on this reverent list in my mind in no ways means I didn’t
feel any sense of loss when he was taken from us, mere feet from where Adam went
to heaven. BellSouth can be excused for feeling like they wished they had never
thought of sponsoring a Winston Cup car.

Now it’s on to White Knuckle Weekend as
some affectionately refer to it. The scuttlebutt going through the garages right
now is that some teams may elect to stay home this weekend. Some of the sponsors
paying for those brightly colored racecars are saying that it is just fine with
them and I agree. We may actually see a race go off with less than 43 cars in
it. Probably not but, it’s a distinct possibility. Rumor has it that one team is
adding extra safety gear to their cars and if NASCAR, in its infinite wisdom,
says take it out, they’re packing up and going home.

NASCAR just released an extremely wordy
press release about the Daytona crash that says absolutely nothing of substance.
I get the feeling that Mike Helton is feeling the walls of NASCAR headquarters
squeeze in on him and he never bargained for this when he stepped up as
president. I can almost hear the referee giving NASCAR a standing eight-count
right now and one more solid punch and it may be lights out. Will stock car
racing come to an end? Not on your life but, the center of the stock car
universe may just shift out of Daytona. We’re not going to talk right now about
the supposed secret meetings between Bruton Smith and ABC about a prime-time
racing series. Not yet anyway.

Companies are not going to continue to
pour millions of dollars into the sport only to have their company associated
with the death of a hero to millions. They are demanding that NASCAR begin to
take seriously the threat to drivers and take real, measurable steps to begin
the improvement to safety, which right now seems to be nothing more than a catch
phrase to the big wigs in Daytona. I don’t know if you’re hearing what I’m
hearing coming from the halls of NASCAR but, it sounds an awful lot like,
"Shut up and drive your race cars", and I think a lot of drivers, crew
members, team owners and sponsors are hearing the same thing.

So, here you are, Joe Gibbs, or Andy
Petree, or any other car owner, sitting in your office and you receive a call
from one of your sponsors saying that they don’t think NASCAR is taking this
safety issue too seriously and they want you to ground your jets for the
weekend. They are just not willing to take the chance that the driver they have
become friends with each week in the corporate tent just might end up dead
inside their race car. Okay, as the owner you’re thinking, we’re sitting 30th in
the points, the drivers are not thrilled at all about going to Dega under the
current rules situation and now my sponsor will be slightly less than happy with
me if we race this weekend. It’s decision time folks. You know, two off weeks in
a row wouldn’t be such a bad idea. I can finally get to the treehouse I promised
the kids.

I haven’t yet heard of any sponsors
demanding that their teams stay home but, I am hearing that some are telling
their teams that if they choose not to race then that’s just fine. A nice
relaxed trip out to California would be a great thing instead of a rushed one
with only a couple of days to get going. Besides, if the drivers get out to
sunny L.A. a couple days early, they can schedule a couple more fan
meet-n-greets for the sponsor.

So Bill, Bobby, Tony, Rusty and all you
others, if you decide to take another week off because of NASCARs’ macho
"just drive your stupid race car" attitude, I’ll raise a tall cold
glass of milk to all of you and try to spend about three more quality hours with
my kids doing something other than sitting in front of the television. Holding
my breath.