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The difference between NASCAR bashers and NASCAR critics
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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,” he said. “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 ‘basher’s 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 or 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 ‘bashers’. To them suddenly this old mans’ musings are taken as the Gospel and ’prove’ just 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.
The point in this; we have an elderly gentleman, who may or may not have his own hidden agenda, who is spouting old war stories none of which have any basis in fact.
For what purpose though? No one does something for nothing. There’s always a reason. So what could this old guys reason be? Could it be that he wants to ‘expose’ the evil world of NASCAR before he fades off into the sunset, or a retirement home, or could it be that he’s simply trying to sell books. After all there is no pension for most retired journalists, so why not find a way to fund your retirement?
It boils down to this. The entire book, which I refuse to buy, is filled with stories based on hearsay with no factual basis at all. The ‘bashers’ though will continue to eagerly eat up every page while the old man sits back in his rocking chair and counts his royalty money.
So what is the difference between ‘bashers’ and critics? Critics are useful to an organization. They can point out flaws, which people inside that organization may not be aware of, in an intelligent manner and most often offer their own solutions. On the other hand‘bashers’ simply find something to latch on to then see how loud they can yell. They may not have any real clue what they are yelling about, but to them it’s the right thing to do.
Among the ‘bashers’ topics: that Brian France is destroying the sport. The truth? Without the France family we wouldn’t even have NASCAR in its current, successful form. It’s pretty much theirs to run how they see fit. And I don’t care if he had lunch with Betty Ford when he was a teenager or in his 20’s. Guess what? I smoked pot, broke into daddy’s liquor cabinet and have a few more skeletons in the closet, just like we all do. If you were to dig into the past of some of the CEO’s of America’s largest companies I suspect you find people who have done a whole lot worse then Brian France ever even thought of.
My favorites are the ‘bashers’ who put a $ in the word NASCAR. As if to imply that that NASCAR is one big money machine. Well guess what kids. Last time I checked, America is all about free enterprise and a company is supposed to make a profit. I suspect that even if Brian France himself would stand by the gate at Daytona and give people hundred dollar bills to come in, someone would still find something to complain about. You can’t, nor should we try, to prevent NASCAR from making money. If you don’t like it, then go buy some ISC stock so you can get some of that dirty money for yourself.
In the end NASCAR is still the second most watched sport in America and while they are going through some rough times right now, all of the country is. They will recover, just like the country will.
No matter what happens though, the ‘bashers’ will keep on bashing and an old man will still keep telling yarns.
Just hush while the majority of us happy people are watching the race.
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