On Sunday, a host of NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series stars will descend on the NASCAR Sprint Cup Coca-Cola 600 to promote September’s Carolinas Nationals at the still under construction zMax Dragway @ Concord adjacent to The Dirt Track. The lineup includes defending champions Jeg Coughlin and Matt Smith, former motorcycle standout and Top Fuel rookie Antron Brown and 14-time Funny Car titlist John Force, undoubtedly the face of drag racing and the NHRA’s equivalent to Richard Petty.

MOVING ALONG: An arial shot shows the still under construction zMax Dragway @ Concord, adjacent to Lowe's Motor Speedway, earlier this month. (NHRA Photo)

Drivers will get a tour of the facility — Bruton Smith’s “Bellagio of dragstrips" — then autograph and donate their hardhats to Speedway Children’s Charities for auction. Other activities include autograph sessions, fan meet-and-greets and a display promoting Doug Herbert’s BRAKES in Uptown Charlotte during the annual Speed Street festival.

But the crème de la crème will be when Mike Neff fires up his Old Spice Ford Mustang Funny Car prior to the Coca-Cola 600.

It’s nothing new to have celebrities and competitors from other forms of racing at NASCAR events, especially one of NASCAR’s last remaining crown jewel races. But this is more than just showing non-NASCAR fans a good time.

This is sheer marketing genius. This is cross pollination — blending one form of motorsports with another to create a new type of race fan — at its finest.

What NHRA and Lowe’s officials are doing is exposing the NASCAR faithful to another type of racing, and what better way to do it than to do it on NASCAR’s biggest stage in front of the largest viewing available audience?

Only so much interest can be generated from typical marketing means — television, radio and print advertisements, word of mouth, promotional videos, etc. But by having an honest-to-God Funny Car at the track doing a burnout — or whatever — will create more interest and hype than any other strategy LMS and NHRA officials could dream up. And with thousands of spectators packing the grandstands ready for racing action after hours and hours of hanging out in parking lots tossing back frosty Bud after frosty Bud, I’m willing to bet that more than one NASCAR fan is going to find himself hootin’ and hollerin’ when Neff lights ’em up on the front stretch.

I’ll even wager that a few of those fans — fans who may have never watched an NHRA event live or on TV — will purchase tickets for September’s inaugural event.

And that, after all, is the goal.

So, my hat is off to you, NHRA and LMS officials, for creating such a brilliant marketing plan. Let’s pack that drag strip in September and show the NASCAR faithful what racing is really about.

May 15 Oh, The Stupidity

Another week, another victory for Kyle Busch.

Sadly, it was also another week of fans misbehaving badly.

While Busch celebrated his win in Saturday’s Dodge Challenger 500 at Darlington Raceway, spectators in the stands booed and gestured at Joe Gibbs Racing’s newest star. At least one person chucked a beer can at the youngster.

SMOKY CELEBRATION: Kyle Busch plays to the crowd after winning Saturday night’s Dodge Challenger 500 at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway. (HHP/Alan Marler Photo)

Busch, though, has become accustomed to the boos — especially after his late-race run-in with the ever-popular Dale Earnhardt, Jr. at Richmond Int’l Raceway two weeks ago — and tried to make light of the situation during his post-race comments.

“I’m here to win. If I win, it just makes’em (the fans) more upset and crying on their way home,” Busch quipped. “By the way, somebody threw a beer can at me. Next time, just make sure it’s full so I can enjoy it out there, all right?”

It’s easy for Busch to laugh about the situation, but fans throwing objects at a driver has become more and more common lately. In fact, it’s almost become a tradition at Talladega Superspeedway when someone other than Earnhardt takes the checkered flag. That doesn’t make it right, though. It’s a dangerous move that could injure drivers and others spectators at the track.

And so I say this to you beer-can chuckers out there: You’re idiots. You may think that you’re showing loyalty to your driver — Earnhardt or whoever — by throwing objects at another competitor, but you’re not. The only thing you’re showing is that somewhere along the way from getting your first Tonka truck to earning enough cash to attend a NASCAR event you didn’t learn the value of sportsmanship.

I understand that NASCAR fans are some of the most passionate sports fans that exist anywhere. But such antics only prove that you’re childish. You’re immature. You’re an embarrassment to everyone who calls himself a NASCAR fan. You should be banned from all NASCAR events. You are the reason why so many non-racing fans continue to stereotype the NASCAR faithful as uneducated, beer-swilling rednecks.

There are 43 drivers competing week in and week out in NASCAR events. Earnhardt and Jeff Gordon — even Busch — are not going to win every week. The L.A. Lakers aren’t going to claim every game they play. The Dallas Cowboys aren’t going to capture every Super Bowl. It’s called competition. To quote “The Big Lebowski,” “sometimes you eat the bar and sometimes the bar eats you.” A well-mannered sports fan knows this, accepts this and continues to cheer for his favorite team. He doesn’t throw a temper tantrum because Sidney Crosby misses a goal in a shootout against the New Jersey Devils in a high-pressure NHL game.

Perhaps Tony Stewart said it best last season during an episode of “Track Side.” Speed introed Stewart’s segment on the show with highlights of his 2006 season, which included a streak of three victories in the season’s final eight races. When fans in the audience booed images of Stewart hoisting trophy after trophy in Kansas, Atlanta and Texas, Stewart retorted, “You can boo all you want. I still won those races.” 

Therein lies my point: Even if you do launch beer cans, Coke bottles, seat cushions or other objects at a driver you dislike after a race, you’re not going to change the fact that he took the checkered flag first, whatever the circumstances. Unless there is some instance of an illegal part or failure of post-race inspection and NASCAR decides to deny him the win, he is the winner. You’re just going to have to suck it up, wonder what might have been and hope for the best the next time around.

So, go grow up, you beer-can chuckers. If you can’t behave nicely at a NASCAR event, you’d better just stay at home and play with your Matchbox cars in your sandbox and save us all the embarrassment of having to be associated with you.

May 1: You Want Diversity??

First it was Danica Patrick, and then it was Ashley Force.
For two weeks in a row, a female driver has graced the cover of NSSN following a historic victory. Each win was a significant milestone in each series as well as for women in general.
Both of these victories came in series without programs designed to diversify their driver lineups or fan bases. Meanwhile, NASCAR, with its Diversity Council and various diversity initiatives, has yet to see a woman race competitively — let alone win — in any of its major series.

SPEED RACER: Angelle Sampey has 41 Pro Stock Motorcycle victories, the most wins by a female in NHRA. (NHRA)

A message from NASCAR CEO Brian France on the NASCAR Media site says, “NASCAR is committed to making our sport — on and off the race track — look more like America. No other issue is more important for NASCAR to succeed and to grow. NASCAR’s role in diversifying the sport is to take steps to better educate new fans about NASCAR; to provide meaningful opportunities; and to facilitate greater participation within the industry.”
France goes on to say that NASCAR’s efforts, which include the NASCAR Diversity Council created in 2000 and the NASCAR Executive Steering Committee for Diversity created in 2004, “are starting to show positive results. Not only is our pool of drivers, crew members, team personnel and others more diverse than it’s ever been, our fan base is following a similar path as well. At no other time has NASCAR gained the attention of more ethnically diverse communities, and we only see the trend continuing in the future.”
Oh please.
This may be the most diverse NASCAR has ever been, but it is still light years behind other series, including NHRA, the IndyCar Series and Formula One.
F-1 obviously has a mixed bag of drivers and fans from around the world. Last season, Lewis Hamilton became the first black driver to score an F-1 victory, winning four of the series’ 17 grands prix in 2007.
The IRL IndyCar Series is also made of a motley crew of American- and foreign-born drivers ranging from Pennsylvania’s Marco Andretti to South Africa’s Tomas Scheckter. Aside from Patrick, who became the first woman to score an IndyCar Series victory with her win April 20 in Motegi, Japan, the series also includes Milka Duno and Sarah Fisher in its female ranks. And while there have been black drivers to compete in the IRL, none have captured a victory in the IndyCar Series.
Now let’s turn our attention to NHRA. Diversity is all but a non-issue in the series, which, unlike NASCAR, doesn’t need to promote diversity among its drivers and crews.
The statistics for female drivers alone — 37 of which have competed in the series between 1974 and 2007 — consume four pages of the NHRA Media Guide. While Force became the first woman to advance to a Funny Car final, capture the class point lead and hoist a Funny Car Wally, nine other women have claimed victory in NHRA at least once. Angelle Sampey leads the way with 41, followed by Shirley Muldowney at 18. Both also have three championships each.
The diversity doesn’t stop there. J.R. Todd became the first black driver to win an NHRA Top Fuel race at Denver in 2006. Antron Brown, who switched from Pro Stock Motorcycle to Top Fuel this season, already has two final round wins in just six events. Last season at Dallas, Peggy Llewellyn became the first black woman to capture a Pro Stock Motorcycle win. Cruz and Tony Pedregon are of Mexican decent, and Todd Okuhara, crew chief for Gary Scelzi, is Hawaiian, just to name a few of the more notable names in the drag racing series.
So, while NASCAR may go around patting itself on the back for being more diverse now than ever before in its 60-year history, its actual “diversity” is still a joke compared to other racing series.