NASCAR 2021: Winter Heat Season

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Sports Argument Stadium > NASCAR 2021: Winter Heat Season

shame on an IGA: Apr 8, 2005

whoa

https://proxy.espn.com/espn/page2/story?id=1095213

Dr. Hunter S. Thompson posted:

The violent death of Dale Earnhardt hit the sport of professional auto racing harder than anything in memory since the assassination of John Kennedy. People who'd never even watched a NASCAR race were deeply disturbed by it, for reasons they couldn't quite explain. It seemed to send a message, an urgent warning signal that something with a meaning beyond the sum of its parts had gone Wrong & would go Wrong again if something big wasn't cured -- not just in racing, but in the machinery of the American nation.

On the surface it was just another bad crash on a racetrack down in Redneck country. What the hell? It happens all the time. But this one had a resonance that echoed all over the country. It was the death of a national hero for no good reason at all -- just an Occupational Hazard of the Speed business, shrug it off, forget it.

But it was more than that. People noticed it, like they would definitely notice if Michael Jordan had been instantly killed by a brutal & deliberate foul to keep him from scoring in the final seconds of a close game.

Or if John Elway had been killed during a routine play in the last two minutes of a scoreless Super Bowl by a 300-pound blitzing linebacker, who knew he would get a big Bonus for knocking a famous quarterback out of the game. Permanently. Dead from a broken neck.

Those ripples would have been noticed far beyond the city limits of Denver. And the killing of a hero like Elway could not have been shrugged off by somebody saying, "Sorry, but that's the way the game is played."

Well, no. That is Not the way the game is played -- at least not for long, as anybody who watched the NFL last season can tell you. At least half of the league's star quarterbacks were injured by violent collisions. The Oakland Raiders alone crippled nine (9) opposing quarterbacks by themselves -- so there was some kind of poetic justice in their being knocked out of the Super Bowl when the Ravens injured Rich Gannon.

Tony Siragusa's hit might have pleased the stupid bastards from the Backyard Wrestling crowd, but it also cost CBS about 15 percent of its TV audience for the Big Game. Millions of fans all over the country lost interest when the Raiders went down.

Watching Ray Lewis play defense might have been interesting -- but it was nothing like watching the highest scoring Offense in the League going against a racehorse team like the Vikings. Savage Defense might be the way to win football games, but it is sure as hell not what puts Meat in the Seats -- no more than losing three of its star drivers in ten (10) months is going to make the NASCAR ratings skyrocket.

Or maybe, God help us, it Will. There is an ever-growing appetite for Violence as Entertainment in this country -- especially among those in the 18-35 demographic that TV is targeting -- that something Dark & Disastrous is going to come of it. There is a good commercial reason why Fox just paid for TV rights to NASCAR, and it is exactly the same reason why every recently built racetrack from California to Maine is designed about 20 feet Wider than tracks were built in the old days, when it was physically impossible for more than three (3) cars to run side by side at 180 mph in the straightaway -- the new & Wider tracks have created the blood-curdling spectacle of four cars running fender-to-fender at top speed.

"It makes the racing vastly more Exciting," say the auto-sport czars. "It dramatically raises the Potential-Disaster factor & whips the fans into a frenzy."

Right. Blood & guts, bread & Circuses, human brains all over the asphalt. The people of Rome demanded more & more Death & Cruelty on their Sunday afternoons at the Coliseum -- until Nobody was left to Sacrifice. They ran out of Victims.

And so will the NFL, the NBA and NASCAR. That is what makes people nervous about the meaning of Dale Earnhardt's death. It is the American Dream run amok. Watch it & weep.

# ¿ Apr 25, 2021 13:39

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# ¿ May 14, 2024 02:09

shame on an IGA: Apr 8, 2005

chamois posted:

I always figured most athletes had some kind of informal agreement in place that they would probably be cheating while they're on the road. I'm always shocked when I find out the spouse wasn't in on it. Hopefully it is just cheating.

Like, if you're even gonna have a shot at competing on that level you have to have already started down the road well before entering the dating scene so why would you enter a long term relationship with someone who's not down to share? When I see athlete cheating scandals, I see someone who made incredibly dumb choices about selecting a life partner.

# ¿ Sep 2, 2021 20:59

shame on an IGA: Apr 8, 2005

I care about nothing except the restoration of Darlington to its birthright therefore this is the best schedule in decades

# ¿ Sep 16, 2021 16:36

shame on an IGA: Apr 8, 2005

omg hax

# ¿ Sep 18, 2021 03:40

shame on an IGA: Apr 8, 2005

how have I never heard the John Ross commentary track

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tbmm-v6IRvI

# ¿ Oct 3, 2021 20:06

shame on an IGA: Apr 8, 2005

hahaha he's also a soundcloud rapper and has a history of securities fraud

https://open.spotify.com/track/4bC2nx7jjQrYwahJHYwaIL

shame on an IGA fucked around with this message at 01:59 on Oct 25, 2021

# ¿ Oct 25, 2021 01:56

shame on an IGA: Apr 8, 2005

https://mobile.twitter.com/torriangray/status/1454680299015524353

# ¿ Nov 1, 2021 21:22

shame on an IGA: Apr 8, 2005

hey so uhhh what are everyone's thoughts on the fact that Brian Vickers' wife is almost as deeply implicated in the Jeffrey Epstein thing as Ghislane herself?

# ¿ Dec 10, 2021 01:56

shame on an IGA: Apr 8, 2005

GD_American posted:

(remembers dodging full beer cans raining from the upper deck at Talladega in 2006) my thoughts are gently caress him

little has changed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tuYIXi6nTQ

# ¿ Dec 10, 2021 04:28

shame on an IGA: Apr 8, 2005

I've only been there on the track and infield for the big auto show/swap meet things and can second being in the sun all day there sucks avoid it however possible

# ¿ Dec 22, 2021 22:26

shame on an IGA: Apr 8, 2005

He was half of the funniest thing that ever happened in nascar and then lost that title to himself (and to bullets. mostly to bullets.)

# ¿ Jan 3, 2022 20:55

shame on an IGA: Apr 8, 2005

I made an important accidental discovery today: old street stock dudes are absolutely spellbound by speedrunner history youtube. Hats were thrown in disgust when AndrewG missed the 4:57.

# ¿ Jan 24, 2022 00:44

shame on an IGA: Apr 8, 2005

make them race their haulers

# ¿ Feb 1, 2022 04:00

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# ¿ May 14, 2024 02:09

shame on an IGA: Apr 8, 2005

mischief posted:

All I'm saying is I'm watching a stream off MavTV Plus of the Lucas Oil Late Model race, pretty much to have some noise in the living room while I finish some laptop work, and the coverage totally loving dunks on what they gave us Sunday night.

Need more production people who actually watch racing to shoot a short track, otherwise it's just like putting some ADHD local you found outside the track in charge and JUMP CUT JUMP CUT JUMP CUT.

Keep an eye out for the Dillon Motor Speedway New Year's Bash when it hits MavTV in a few weeks I was there and it was an insane wreckfest.

The same street stock series is going to be running The Rock later this year it's gonna be awesome

# ¿ Feb 10, 2022 13:30

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Sports Argument Stadium > NASCAR 2021: Winter Heat Season