It’s been awhile since I’ve had the time to write my column and this has been a difficult year, as you may know. I just want to talk to you about some things that I feel has hurt our sport from within.
Sponsors and owners are disappearing from NASCAR. I think that is because they are being treated improperly by their team’s personnel. I believe that applies especially to the owners. And there is more of this going on than the public knows about. In other words, people come into the sport wanting to enjoy the high life using money they’ve made in various ventures and they hook up with the wrong people and then their money just disappears. So when those people are ready to leave the sport the people they have been sponsoring or have been involved with can’t even get their equipment, etc. back and have to go to court to get what is rightfully theirs. I personally know several people within this sport who are going through this. If everyone just acts responsibly and does what they are suppose to it would all work out well, but that – all too often – is not what is happening.
I’ve had people help me, off and on, over the years and when they were ready to leave racing I would either buy their assets or we would make a deal where they would give them to me and I would continue to run their logo.on my cars. We made the deal, shook hands and remained friends. In return anytime they wanted to go to a race we welcomed them. I have always genuinely appreciated anyone who has helped me and if they could only help me one time I never forgot that. I have heard from reliable sources that Tony Stewart remembers anyone who has ever helped him with his career. If they need help Tony helps them. If they have a child racing Tony sponsors them. And I know for a fact that he has helped someone who has raced his entire life and can’t race any more. That makes Tony one hell of a guy in my book.
Too many people in this sport forget where they come from and too many people don’t appreciate what they have. Sponsors pay for a spot on the car and if they are presented well they come out pretty good. It’s the owners who invest all the money in the team. And all too often when an owner has helped a driver and then decides, for whatever reason, to leave the sport, they aren’t treated well or shown the same respect in leaving the sport as they were shown when they entered the sport. In other words when exiting racing many owners get the short end of the stick and that’s why lawsuits happen and why innocent people wind up in court.
It’s very easy for the driver, the team manager or crew chief to become possessive of things they don’t own. Then equipment starts disappearing by people who do not own it but want it all because they use it, take care of it and treat it like their own. I believe owners need to keep everything in their own name. That would prevent many problems we have seen recently. I just can’t believe some people can do what they do and be that cruel. All of this really hurts the sport and is driving owners away. The truth is that racing is a losing proposition if you don’t have outside help, or if you’re not willing to work 100 hours a week with the help of a couple of guys. And you can”t race on the purse money alone. It takes more money to go with the purse. I mean if racing was all that easy and profitable there would be many more big race teams and many more people doing it. Now we are seeing so many people disappearing from this sport. Simply put racing is a lot of hard work and the rewards are not as great as they need to be, not equal to the work involved.
When I got involved with this recent incident I had plenty of support from previous owners, friends in the sport and even some high ups. No one believed the accusations and that’s why I kept my mouth shut through this whole thing. It’s over now but that support meant a lot to me and I find myself at the end of the race season driving to Kansas for another unjust lawsuit against a man who did nothing but help someone. People have asked me why I don’t just walk away but I just hate to see people taken advantage of. Period.
And finally I want to mention the many race officials who left NASCAR at the end of this season. I’ll miss seeing them at the race tracks. In just the Nationwide Series alone their combined years totaled 195 years of experience. Those guys loved what they did as much as we love what we do. The ones that were leaving seemed like the best ones. They walked a very fine line on NASCAR’s side and a very fine line on our side. They did one hell of a job and I’m just really concerned that it won’t be as good now as it was before. After the Homestead race there were more tear filled eyes about this than if there had been a terrible crash. it was very quiet, no one really saying very much with a of hand shaking. It’s like losing an old friend. Those guys did their jobs well, kept our cars honest and kept us safe. We all felt comfortable seeing them there and I’m sorry but these new guys haven’t worked on the cars. They don’t know what to look for like those guys. You can’t replace that kind of experience.
I know everybody has to move on eventually but it seems like too many of the good ones, the ones who have kept us safe for years, have left at the same time. If everything goes as is planned then it will be ok but when something out of the normal happens and the guys with experience are not there, that’s when there will be problems. I’m sorry but I want the guy with gray hair, not spiked hair. They just can’t know as much as older guys. We have come to know and trust those guys. That’s gone now.
Thanks for reading and for your continued support.
