How do loyalties evolve in NASCAR?

March 20, 2001
12:09 PM EST (1709 GMT)

Commentary

I'm not quite sure how loyalties develop in stock car racing.

Jim Huber

Are they inherited, like Red Sox and Cubs fans? If your daddy liked Pontiacs, must you? If your grandfather was a Lee Petty worshipper, does it naturally follow that you inherit Kyle? You like Dale because your father liked Ned?

Tell me, did you inherit your intense dislike for Jeff Gordon or did it just come naturally? Do you pull for Bill Elliott because you like the way he drives or because you're a big fan of red?

I ask this because I'm wondering how the Earnhardt nation is sorting out its loyalties these days, now that Dale is gone. Who do you pull for -- Junior or the man who stepped into Dale's seat, Kevin Harvick? You surely can't openly root for the both of them, can you?

Or can you?

I'm told the NASCAR fan is the most devoted in all of sports and I'm starting to believe that. But if that is the case, is the devotion to one man, one car, one team, or to a single memory?

The transition period must be tough. How do you sort it out? There will never be another Dale Earnhardt, but you can only cling to the recollections so long. There are races to be run and fires to be stoked. You can't just watch, sitting on your hands? And you can't pull for two guys, can you?

Can you?

Jim Huber's column appears every Tuesday on NASCAR.com. The opinions listed here are solely those of the writer.

Got a comment for Jim? Write him at write.huber@turner.com.