Last Lap: Is progress inferior to tradition?

Ask any NASCAR traditionalist his opinion regarding the sanctioning body's decision to uproot its most historic event, slap an (officially licensed) UPS barcode on the side and ship it out west, and you'll get enough four-letter words to fill the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Twice.

And neither "cool," nor "good" is among them.

For example: As I departed Darlington Raceway Sunday evening following the final Labor Day running of the Southern 500, I came upon a gentleman just outside the infield tunnel who, with assistance from a homemade poster board and a makeshift easel, perfectly summed up the traditionalist's view.

In the center of the poster board -- traditional white, of course -- he had drawn an abstract human hand with the middle finger extended, underneath which he scribbled a simple yet telling message in large block letters:

CALIFORNIA SUCKS.

Obviously, the line between NASCAR's crucial expansion effort and the dreaded alienation of its core supporters is finer than a frog's hair split two ways. Many longtime fans are already so jaded by the sport's growing commercialism that they've given up on it.

But why? It may not be "how it used to be," but what is? If production cars were what they used to be we'd have no ozone depletion problem. It would already be gone, and we'd contract melanoma as easily as the common cold.

If gasoline were what it once was, I'd be so full of lead you could flip me upside down, smack me on the rear and use my head as a pencil. If the law were still enforced like it was in the old days, we'd just walk around shooting everyone that ticked us off.

And if NASCAR were what it used to be Kurt Busch's eyes and lips would have matched his nose and Jimmy Spencer would have been banging doors at Bristol -- with a case of moonshine in the trunk.

It's simple evolution. And it's necessary. It baffles me a bit that old school fans gripe and moan so much. Take common templates, for example.

Old timers say starting with a baseline of like body styles has taken away from the sport. I ask how? Would you really rather see Richard Petty win 27 friggin' races than see 16 different guys take the checkers in 25 events?

Not I. Not even. And when it comes to sports, I'm as traditional as Yankee pen stripes and nameless Penn State Nittany Lions.

I'm not at all happy about losing Labor Day at Darlington, but I'm not so closed-minded that I can't accept it. The Pee Dee just feels right in early September, but if you get too comfortable you get complacent.

To maximize growth and assure expansion, organizations must be forward thinking and aggressive. NASCAR's hierarchy realizes this, and has developed an infrastructure of executives to assure it.

Marty Smith  Email  Archive

Judging by the response to this week's question, many of you are not impressed.

You think NASCAR is selling out. For the most part, I disagree. But your point is valid. Darlington is simply better racing, and it all comes down to dollars and cents.

Prior to Sunday, the Southern 500 hadn't sold out in five years. Rockingham, eternally plagued by foul weather, hasn't sold out either event in recent memory.

California sells out like Eminem on 8 Mile.

I hate it, but it had to happen. The Los Angeles market is a gold mine, and the opportunity to solidify it twice in a single year is too good to pass up, even at the expense of forsaking tradition.

As NASCAR continues to grow, which is more important to you, tradition or progress?

R61797R: Shall we make all the drivers prove their chops by running illegal drugs (since alcohol is legal)? It's 2003. Time to move forward and make NASCAR world-class racing.

Damn straight. R2D2 brought the high heat this week. This is the perfect answer. New fans often forget that NASCAR evolved from a bunch of outlaw moonshine runners who wanted to settle a score.

Just think, if Big Bill and Junior hadn't been visionaries we'd be forced to watch CART.

STP43: Tradition matters more than progress, because "progress" is almost, without fail, inferior to tradition. Can anyone name one area of "progress" that was better than tradition?

What matters in NASCAR most are two things - tradition, and competition and the sport needs to beef up the ferocity of its competition and to maintain traditions.

	Rockingham

An area of progress that was better than "tradition?" Hmmmm. Let's see. Which of the seemingly infinite possibilities shall I choose? Racial integration? Women's rights? The telephone? I think I'll go with medicine. It's nice to know that chicken pox is now an inconvenience, not a death sentence.

And King, if you're talking only NASCAR-related "progress," how about the HANS device or soft wall technology? Once again, I'm a traditionalist and I agree that certain things should be left alone, but you can't generalize like that.

StreetDreamr: "Progress" is what is taking the Labor Day weekend event from Darlington and moving it to Fontana.

Personally, I think that the decision to do this is totally wrong and quite unjustified. ISC, who owns both of these tracks, sees dollar signs.

Darlington has homegrown, blue collar Southerners, the stars and bars, the stigma, Fontana has the famous people, the movie stars, the moolah.

Just 5 years ago, NASCAR was talking about its heritage and their traditions. How quickly 5 years can come and go and make you forget.

Mr. Everly brings up an interesting point. In 1998, NASCAR made a conscious effort to celebrate its first half-century, going so far as to create a marketing program and logo to raise awareness. Now, some feel as if they want to leave it far behind.

	2002: HANS device

To a degree, that's true. These days NASCAR wants to be mainstream, worldwide, hardcore rock n' roll rather than obscure, regional, country twang. Cynics point to the Nextel series sponsorship as proof, but fail to realize that it was R.J. Reynolds who went to NASCAR and requested they start looking for a replacement title sponsor, not vice versa.

NASCAR wants to recognize what RJR has done for stock car racing. If they didn't, they wouldn't have developed the Victory Lap tour. To some it seems a paltry thank you note to the company that saved you from going under, especially considering the money NASCAR will make from the diecast cars sold through the program.

But remember this: NASCAR was willing to let RJR out of an inked five-year contract deal.

No matter how you cut it, that's a $200 million thank you.

GoDave77: I would have to say that tradition is more important. Sure, you always want the sport to be expanding, but do you really think NASCAR is struggling right now, even with having 2 race dates at Rockingham? Nope.

The sport is huge. And yet, what do NASCAR and the track owners decide to do? They take a race date from a unique track that challenges driver and crew alike, that wears tires like crazy. They give the date to a track that has fairly boring racing, and since we already race twice at Michigan, why do we need to go there again?

Why did NASCAR and all those who made the choice decide to put the date there? Money. Money. Money. Tradition outweighs everything, in my opinion. If your sport has been the largest growing sport for over a decade, would selling out 60,000 more seats make a huge difference? I don't think so.

Tough to disagree with Bootie Barker, here. Bill and Jim France are both billionaires, so what's another quarter-million? I simply can't answer that one. Make no mistake, the LA market is far more beneficial to sponsors than Southern Pines, N.C., but could end up costing them more in the long run.

The added travel will cost teams a fortune. Flights to the West Coast, four days in a hotel for the entire crew and support staff, plus meals and ground transportation, and so on, adds up quickly.

Not to mention the fatigue the crewmen will be forced to withstand. NASCAR wants to run the Labor Day weekend event in primetime on Sunday night, meaning the crewmen will work all weekend long, hop on the redeye home and be off to Richmond two days later. Imagine being a hauler driver.

Plus, as Bootie said, the bottom line is that the racing at California doesn't hold a candle to The Rock.

jasminesmk20: I don't like it, but it seems that some traditions must be sacrificed for the sport to grow. My home in the Blue Ridge mountains of VA gives me easy access to several tracks. This isn't so for many other fans who live in the western part of the US.

Those fans deserve more opportunities to see the races live. I wasn't happy they took a race away from the NC Speedway but I do understand the reasoning behind it. If they should take a race from Martinsville or Richmond though, this bird will be singing a different song. (And it ain't gonna be perty.)

Well done, Aladdin. I grew up in the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia, myself. And if Martinsville were to lose a race date, I wouldn't be nearly as understanding as I am currently.

pleazcrash17: I think growing the sport is a lot more important than tradition. So what if the good ol boys think everything should stay the same? This is 2003, let's move on. However, I don't believe that NASCAR should keep expanding at the expense of the quality of the racing itself.

The fact is, most of the old tracks that NASCAR wants to move away from have the best racing (Darlington and Rockingham), while the new big market tracks usually have boring races (Texas, Chicago, Kansas, Homestead, Las Vegas). Basically, I think we need to build old style racetracks in the new-age markets.

If only it were that easy. All new tracks are constructed as such in order to accommodate multiple forms of racing. In order to offset the huge costs involved in building a new venue, the owners need butts in the seats as often as possible.

oildown: The bottom line is the powers that be at Nascar are going to do whatever the hell they want to regardless of what you or I think. they are accountable to no one.

Oilcan Boyd just spoke the truth. NASCAR can do whatever they please regardless what anyone says. When it's all boiled down, the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing is a private family business.

So what they say goes, whether you like California or not.

Marty's mailbag appears every Tuesday at 3 p.m.

The opinions listed here are solely those of the writer.