The Best Reality Show Not On TV
More and more weekly tracks are bringing in NASCAR Sprint Cup stars to improve their gate at specials, even at weekly shows. Ken Schrader has been racing on dirt forever. Kenny Wallace seems like a fixture with the USMTS. Carl Edwards visits I-80 Speedway in Nebraska every year. Clint Bowyer returns to his roots on a regular basis, racing modifieds on Midwest dirt tracks. In a few weeks, Bowyer, Schrader, Matt Kenseth, and Sterling Marlin will be racing at Eagle Raceway.
For the past several years, it seems like the best shows put on by the NASCAR stars have been on dirt. The 2007 Prelude to the Dream was unreal. The 2008 Prelude and the 2008 Chili Bowl were great shows too. I doubt that never-leave-their-house-to-go-to-a-local- track fans would agree with my assessment, but I wonder what a rational analysis by a site like Jayski might say.
To me, the closer NASCAR’s ties with Wall Street, the further they move from Main Street. Paying lip service to its weekly tracks with a commercial says less to me about the state of the step-child NASCAR Weekly Racing Series than does the dwindling number of tracks sanctioned by Daytona, or how much less a national champion receives in 2008 as compared with five or ten years ago.
While the sanctioning body seems to want to forget its bootlegger, dirt under the finger nails roots, the Sprint Cup stars seem to be embracing grass roots racing. Like him or not on Sundays-well, all too often Saturday nights-Tony Stewart has a strong link with dirt racing. The Prelude to the Dream at his Eldora facility exposes our sport to hundreds of thousands of potential fans. He owns his own sprint car team and races a super late model several times a year. He “gets it” much more than this generation of the France family or others in NASCAR leadership positions.
He isn’t the only one. As I mentioned, Ken Schrader races almost anywhere there is a dirt track, and is partner in a number of “dirty” ventures, including ownership of a Kentucky track with Dale Earnhardt Jr. Kenny Wallace has found he can make a decent living with appearance fees + expenses at U.S. dirt tracks. Bobby Labonte owns a super late model team. These drivers know that racing on dirt is fun, and it is exciting for fans.
If only the NASCAR stars could convince their fans that Saturday night at a dirt track is better than any reality show on TV. If only 10% of the COT-watching couch potatoes would follow us to a local track, promoters around the country would be ecstatic. Tickets cost $10, concessions are reasonable, and many Saturday night tracks have something their more famous cousins don’t. They have side by side racing. Sorry NASCAR fans, you don’t know what you are missing.
Thanks for stopping by.
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