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A NASCAR BLOG BY Art Weinstein
Do some fans watch races just to see crashes?
I’ll never forget what my aunt told me, many years ago, when I mentioned I’d gone to a NASCAR race.
“That’s just a bunch of people sitting around drinking beer and waiting to see cars crash,” she said.
I didn’t disagree about the beer part – I’d watched that race with my beer goggles on – but I argued there was much more to NASCAR racing than people waiting to see a bunch of crashes. I know I was right that day, but after last Sunday’s Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway, I’m having my doubts.
I’ve read and heard dozens of comments from fans after the Bristol race, and 98 percent seem in agreement: The race was not very good. The culprit everyone blames is the resurfacing of the track in 2007, which makes three-wide racing possible. As many fans point out, at the “old” Bristol, if a driver in a fast car wanted around the car in front of him, he had little choice but to bump that car out of the way. Those bumps and resulting crashes led to some wild moments, most memorably in a couple of Dale Earnhardt/Terry Labonte showdowns in the 1990s.
I was a bit alarmed that so many fans said that racing at Bristol without a bunch of crashes is “boring.”
Are crashes an essential part of a good race?
I don’t believe so, but many fans apparently do. Last Sunday’s race sure wasn’t a Bristol classic – a la Earnhardt spinning out Labonte on the final lap in the 1999 fall race – but it wasn’t terrible, either. About average, I’d say.
Here’s where it gets complicated: In talking with a couple of retired crew chiefs yesterday – who between them were part of more than a half-dozen NASCAR Cup championship teams – both thought the race was pretty good. Further, they thought the track resurfacing had definitely made the racing better there.
I believe that most drivers feel the same way. Most would probably rather whip around a car and make a clean pass than have to bump a car out of the racing groove to get by.
This isn’t the first such split between drivers’ preferences and fan opinion. Drivers are almost unanimous in their hatred of restrictor-plate racing, while most fans seem to enjoy seeing a three-wide pack of cars sweep around the track inches apart at almost 200 mph.
Now I wonder: How many of those fans are watching those races just to see a big crash?
Art Weinstein
Managing Editor Art Weinstein has been covering NASCAR since 1995 and has worked at NASCAR Scene for 11 years.
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Comments
13 responses to "Do some fans watch races just to see crashes?". Post a Comment.
Sam Steadman said:
Mar 28, 2009 at 9:34 AMI truly believe the days of people going to races to watch crashes is in the past. Sure, there will always be the small percentage that do, but in the main, I believe most hard core race fans are more knowledgable about the sport and want to see great competition. As for Bristol, I'm not sure people want to see crashes, but they want to see the bump and run and they want to see them dive into the corner and root someone up the track. I guess bump and grind explains it. And they want to see tempers flair. Since the rebuild, Bristol has lost it's signature trademark. Sad.
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» Confirm Abuse ReportBob Winslow said:
Mar 28, 2009 at 11:19 AMWhen NHIS had problems with the track, the owners kept at it to make it better. When 'levigating' messed up Lowes, they fixed it. I know it cost a fortune to repave Bristol, but they never should have messed with the absolute fan favorite track. It's time to put it back to the way it was.Start today and have it ready for August please...heck, even Coke ditched 'New Coke' and went back to what was not broken to begin with..
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» Confirm Abuse ReportBob Winslow said:
Mar 28, 2009 at 11:19 AMWhen NHIS had problems with the track, the owners kept at it to make it better. When 'levigating' messed up Lowes, they fixed it. I know it cost a fortune to repave Bristol, but they never should have messed with the absolute fan favorite track. It's time to put it back to the way it was.Start today and have it ready for August please...heck, even Coke ditched 'New Coke' and went back to what was not broken to begin with..
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» Confirm Abuse ReportAnonymous said:
Mar 28, 2009 at 12:27 PMIf everyone was just there to see the crashes, than Lowes 2006 would have been the best race ever!
Report as AbusePeople like to see hard racing, and the majority of the "three wide racing" at bristol was with lapped traffic. As a race fan, what I want to see is a lot of cars in contention for the win, and guys driving their hardest to get to the lead. Bristol, it it's new fonfiguration, has become a parade. The hard racing between lead lap cars was only after restarts, otherwise the leader simply drove away. The new car is a cause of this, I believe, but even the nationwide race was stunk up by the 18, so who knows?
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» Confirm Abuse ReportWorm Dirt said:
Mar 28, 2009 at 12:50 PMThis is one of my single-most BIGGEST pet-peeves about the racing "media"..... This whole high-brow condescending stance they take on the subject of CRASHES and how hard many of them try to POSE as some racing purist who is above some MAKE-BELIEVE fictional neanderthal barbarian fan who only watches for the crashes. Blah Blah BLAH..... Nice try! I mean, is it really that hard to understand?? Sheesh.... Could it be that it's not actually the crashes people like to see?????? BUT INSTEAD.... the EXCITING side-by-side aggressive RACING that inevitably leads to a crash or two????? Think about it.... Aren't the crashes just a sypmtom of a larger fact? Can you have crashes when the cars are spaced out in a parade 3 seconds apart? Are there many crashes in a fuel-mileage victory? How do you not GET this? And how crazy is it that you list the fact that many drivers prefer new Bristol over OLD Bristol????? I say.... WHO THE H@%$ CARES????? Where are the priorities? Is it what the drivers want..... or what the FANS want? Sheesh....
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» Confirm Abuse ReportTerry said:
Mar 28, 2009 at 2:48 PMMissed you Worm Dirt. Good post. Don't stay away so long. Scene daily needs more people like you, instead of some of the gossip mongers.
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» Confirm Abuse ReportSally Baker said:
Mar 28, 2009 at 5:55 PMIntensity...that's what is lacking at Bristol lately. Why do you really think that Bristol sold out 165,000 seats for 50 odd races? Because there was lots of room to pass cars? Because all the drivers were so polite to each other? And don't just blame the economy for the fact that there were lots of tickets available for the race this spring. Bristol used to offer something unique...close quarters racing where rubbing was almost mandatory to pass. Now we have MIS with traffic. It isn't the crashes, idiot, it's the close quarters, intensity. Which is no longer there.
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» Confirm Abuse Reportstill4da88 said:
Mar 30, 2009 at 10:54 PMWD, you had me until fuel mileage. ; -)....
Report as AbuseI guess I contradict myself. I don't watch for the wrecks, but if there is one I don't want to miss it. I would be just as happy watching a race without a caution. But, can't you say you enjoy the bumping and shoving without necessarily taking someone out of the race? Ah, taking someone out of the race, maybe I do watch for the wrecks. I am so confused!
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» Confirm Abuse ReportRex Lee said:
Mar 31, 2009 at 10:02 AMHey, Dirt Worm is back! I was worried about you boy. Thought maybe you got with the wrong crowd and had another arguement with a tree and couldn't get back out of the woods. Wheww!! Now I don't got to worry somebody accusing me of being the smart one in the bunch!
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» Confirm Abuse ReportJohn p said:
Mar 31, 2009 at 8:57 PMThe big crash era is over. Tire problems are the main cause of wrecks now and they are mild compared to times of old. The cot has taken much of the competitiveness out of the races. Their stability has reduced the chance of wrecks considerably stretching the field out with less cautions. They should have added more protection inside the car and left the outside configuration the same.
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» Confirm Abuse ReportSib Howell said:
Apr 1, 2009 at 9:19 PMThe possibility of crashes is what make for excitement. If we're all just gonna line up and go around, give us turn signals and horns and I'll stay in the woods. We've been wreckin cars since the begining and the more we wrecked the more we separated ourselves from the mundane. Pushing, shoving, banging, aliding, is all the stuff that makes racing exciting. Without it you might as well be watching sailboat races!
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» Confirm Abuse ReportSib Howell said:
Apr 1, 2009 at 9:20 PMCouple mispelled words there but you get my drift, I hope.
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» Confirm Abuse Reportjohnny Burge said:
Apr 2, 2009 at 9:45 AMI've been watching Nascar racing since 1950. My first race was at Bowman Gray Stadiun at age 9. I'm not going to lie. I watch to see the wrecks.
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