Thursday, July 09, 2015

Hey! NASCAR Drivers! Do Something Or Shut Up!

After the Coke Zero 400, I read and heard driver's comments about the Austin Dillon accident. In case you didn't know, his car was hit, and violently flipped into the catch fence where the fence did it's job of keeping the car on the track and minimum debris going into the grandstand. And for some reason, there were some comments that stuck in my craw. It wasn't about how they all are thankful that Austin wasn't severely hurt. It wasn't about how they were saying that they might have needed to race on Monday during the day. Nope, it was the pot shots that they took at NASCAR and the supposed lack of safety that NASCAR has for their competitors.

Here is Ryan Newman in an interview with USA Today:

“NASCAR got what they wanted, That’s the end of it. Cars getting airborne, unsafe drivers, same old stuff. They just don’t listen.”

Asked whether Dillon’s wreck might effect change, Newman referenced the death of RCR driver Dale Earnhardt on the last lap of the 2001 Daytona 500.

“They’ve had several events since then,” Newman said. “They just don’t pay attention to safety. Simple as that.”

Funny about that. NASCAR has improved their safety edicts tremendously from that dark day in 2001. And if you don't believe they have, then you to can be a stupid asshole like Ryan Newman.

Here is Joey Logano and his stance:

“There isn’t much good to say about what happened here tonight,” said reigning Daytona 500 winner Joey Logano, who was caught in multiple crashes Monday. “It is a product of the racing here."

“I just heard (Dillon) up in the catch fence, and motors were flying out of cars. That isn’t the first time that has happened here and it is just dumb that we allow it to happen more than once.”

Hey Joey, you just continue to make sure that you are being done being walked on, and take your shots with your car towards others you think wronged you.

Kyle Busch has stated that he wants all grass eliminated that are adjacent from racing surfaces. Many drivers have stated that they want SAFER barriers at all tracks and on all walls at every track. They are all squawking at safety and what they want done. Great. NASCAR can pass all the safety ideas they want, but it all comes down to the 43 drivers in the cars not being complete and utter asshats. And you know that isn't going to happen.

I should not have to go into the history of the drivers. They have all wrecked one another on purpose. At the Superspeedways, the sanctioning body has tried to slow the cars down and the drivers bitched about not going fast enough. They tried to make it where the cars worked in tandems and they didn't like that. We have gone back to the pack racing and they bitch about that. They wreck each other with moves that shouldn't be attempted and they blame NASCAR. If you are NASCAR officials, you just have to listen to them and shake your head. I am still waiting for Newman, Busch, Harvick, Logano, Allmendinger, or any other driver out there to go public with their solution on how to make NASCAR safer for them. You know, the drivers get paid more than enough for finishing in the Top 20 in points, they should each contribute 5% of their earnings for the year and hire a think tank that does nothing but think of ways that they could make NASCAR racing safer.


What I am trying to say is that if you don't like how the safety of NASCAR is, you privileged drivers, then do something about it or shut the fuck up. You fucks are the major reason that your fellow drivers get hurt. I didn't see any one of those drivers at 1:40 AM on July 6th deciding that they didn't want to be in the draft and fighting for the win. I didn't see or hear the crew chiefs of those drivers telling them to get out of the draft to make sure that the drivers did not get hurt. No, they want the win, they want the glory, and the spoils. And when it doesn't go their way and one of them decides to punt the person in front of them (Kevin Harvick), there are consequences to their actions. And the lemming drivers will always bash NASCAR instead of their fellow drivers when it comes down to it. Why? Because that driver might decide to dump their ass in a future race into the wall. There again, the drivers are their own worst enemy.

The reason that Austin Dillon walked away is the safety improvements that NASCAR has done to the cars and the tracks doing upgrades to their tracks in the name of safety. He is lucky to not have any broken bones. And yet, drivers are arguing that NASCAR has not done enough. When you decide to spin a car at 200 MPH on asphalt, the car should be basically destroyed due to the laws of physics. But yet, these drivers think that it should be like getting hit with a soft pillow. NASCAR has tried to keep the car on it's wheels, but they do not control the laws of physics. No one does. And when you decide to make a car travelling at high speed go where it meets resistance, sometimes things don't go as planned. Who is responsible for that? It isn't NASCAR as an organization.

Until the drivers decide not to race like a raped ape and actually use their heads, these things will keep happening. There have been 2 NASCAR deaths on the track in the past decade. Carlos Pardo and John Blewitt III. And while we mourn their deaths in the NASCAR Mexico Corona Series and the NASCAR Whelen Modified Series, we all understand that there are risks when driving race cars. The drivers need to remember that and work with NASCAR on solutions not just whining and not doing a damn thing to help protect themselves.

2 comments:

R.J. said...

I agree with Kyle Busch about paving the infields at the exits of turns 2 and 4 on all tracks. But the infield walls also need SAFER barriers as well. If we didn't have both, ARCA's Brad Smith could have easily been another casualty at Talladega earlier this year. Eric McClure could have also died at 'Dega a few years back, too.

The driver need to start driving more responsibly, but my gut tells me it won't happen until either someone dies or the older drivers have an intervention with particular drivers at the driver meetings before races.

But we know the latter won't happen. Guys like Harvick and Kyle Busch are the elder statesmen in the garage nowadays.

Zebster said...

Great rant, Brent, and I agree. I also think the drivers have a right to talk but not whine like this. There are far more constructive ways to deal with this but they are indeed the biggest safety factor.