{"id":263,"date":"2001-11-02T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2001-11-02T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racindeals.com\/wp\/archive-256-don-t-forget-drivers-are-not-supposed-to-be-immune-to-commentary-too\/"},"modified":"2001-11-02T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2001-11-02T00:00:00","slug":"archive-256-don-t-forget-drivers-are-not-supposed-to-be-immune-to-commentary-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racindeals.com\/wp\/archive-256-don-t-forget-drivers-are-not-supposed-to-be-immune-to-commentary-too\/","title":{"rendered":"Don’t Forget – Drivers Are Not Supposed To Be Immune To Commentary, Too"},"content":{"rendered":"

From time to time we get opinion pieces
\ntut-tutting the time-honored practice of fans booing certain drivers. The most
\nrecent comes from Liz
\nAllison<\/a> at NOL.<\/p>\n

In this season, several instances of
\nvicious conduct against drivers and other participants in the sport have
\noccurred. Liz notes fan death threats against Sterling Marlin over Daytona, she
\nnotes death threats against Bill Simpson, and that NASCAR itself has taken a
\nbeating this year. She notes the Fans Against Gordon shirts that are common at
\nracetracks and the hate mail that is inevitable with all celebrities.<\/p>\n

The angle that Liz deplores most is when
\ndrivers’ children see attacks on their fathers. "Insinuating that Sterling
\nshould have lost his life instead of (Earnhardt) – Can you imagine if Sterling’s
\nchildren had seen that?"<\/p>\n

Liz urges that fans support NASCAR and
\ntheir particular driver, but to pause when they author a nasty letter:
\n"send it to yourself and see how it feels because, believe it or not, these
\ndrivers have feelings and so do their families."<\/p>\n

All of this is true enough. What bothers
\nme about this angle is that it implies that drivers and others in the sport
\nshould, in some sense, be immune from pointed criticisms.<\/p>\n

"The drivers are human." Yes
\nthey are. And being such does not, and should not, elevate them above
\ncriticisms.<\/p>\n

That Jeff Gordon is routinely booed is
\nwell known – that there is justification aside from the usual
\ntoo-frequent-winner reason ought to be considered as well. That Gordon got to
\nstock car racing without having to struggle, got the best equipment in the sport
\nat the very start (and of course still does), that then and now he has been
\nGeneral Motors’ designated champion to the detriment of other GM teams – all
\nshould be grounds for criticism. That his driving over the years has been
\npunctuated by exceptionally foolish actions – such as lying about a blown tire
\nat Talladega after wiping out half the field – also ought to enter into
\nconsideration.<\/p>\n

What makes the attacks on Sterling Marlin
\ndoubly troubling is they blame the wrong person for the Daytona crash – it
\nhappened because Earnhardt was crowding up the field behind him so Michael
\nWaltrip and Dale Junior would not have any competition at the end. And Earnhardt
\nhimself has been elevated to the Princess Di of sports – never mind that the
\nreal person, as with the real person of Diana Spencer, bore little relation to
\nthe deified image of present.<\/p>\n

Of course NASCAR has taken a beating this
\nyear, and the worst criticism of it is that it does not stand up for itself. It
\nshould have hit back at its critics much harder and faster than it has.<\/p>\n

I always get pilloried when I take drivers
\nto task over their reluctance to racing four abreast lap after lap. I do that
\nbecause these are the greatest racecar drivers in the world – they are MORE THAN
\nCAPABLE of racing like that. It is the same when I criticize their fire and
\nincentive – I don’t hate the drivers, I hate what they’ve become. They should be
\nmore than willing to race all out for the win.<\/p>\n

The real bottom line is this – race
\ndrivers deserve criticism when warranted as much as NASCAR or whoever. The same
\nis true of NASCAR’s critics – people like Ed Hinton and company ought to be
\nsubject to the same scrutiny they deliver to NASCAR, and they ought to be called
\nwhen they get something wrong.<\/p>\n

Certainly, there is a need to lighten up.
\nThere is no need, however, for immunity from criticism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From time to time we get opinion pieces tut-tutting the time-honored practice of fans booing certain drivers. The most recent comes from Liz Allison at NOL. In this season, several instances of vicious conduct against drivers and other participants in the sport have occurred. Liz notes fan death threats against Sterling Marlin over Daytona, she […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-original-archive"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racindeals.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racindeals.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racindeals.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racindeals.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racindeals.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racindeals.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racindeals.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racindeals.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racindeals.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}