NASCAR: Were Fines Warranted for Texas Skirmish?

I went to a NASCAR race and a hockey game broke out. NASCAR confuses me at times. Watching for five decades, I have seen rule changes, car changes, championship format changes and recently what NASCAR termed the “boys have at it” era. To explain, NASCAR wanted the drivers to police themselves so to speak, and take the onus off of themselves. With what we saw last weekend, let’s just say the boys were having at it. As they were a couple of weeks ago. As they have a few times this year and a few times last year. These past two incidents on driver has been the common denominator. Brad Keselowski. Regardless, if this is what NASCAR hoped by forging and promoting its new era, it makes me scratch my head and wonder: were the fines warranted for the Texas skirmish involving multiple teams?

Unfortunately ratings are in a constant downslope on the scale of popularity. Everyone knows this including NASCAR. Once prominent tracks are having a reduction in grandstands as a result (Daytona). Some reports had this Texas race as amongst the lowest ever attended at the track since it came onto the circuit in 1997. I think short-term the NASCAR powers that be love these fracases as it draws attention to the sport. I am not saying these are pre-determined fights like in WWE, but NASCAR benefits from the attention. When the incident is the number one trending topic on Yahoo for two days, that’s a big deal. Madonna said it best in regards to a racy Like a Prayer video. It went something like: attention is good, whether it be positive or negative, attention is attention. I can’t help but believe NASCAR is going along the same lines. Long-term I cannot believe these altercations are good for the sport. For the most part the racing has been better this year. Its stars are winning multiple races, the format for the championships seems to be interesting and the drivers are more available than ever to the fans. These examples alone are the positive types of attention NASCAR needs however they are a lot more work and effort. A five minute brawl after a race is easy, quick-and-dirty and there’s attention by the bucket load.

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I liken these incidents to fighting in hockey. There seems to be a parallel. Both don’t advocate it, but they also don’t deter it to its full extent. NASCAR should take that road then and either accept it as part of the sport and impose minor penalties to those involved, but not anything further. How about “crew member cannot participate in a pit-stop or two for the next race” depending on level of infraction. Imagine if they had to service a car with one person short. That would be interesting. I am being facetious, I know that is not possible and not even on anyone’s radar but again it makes me confused as to why NASCAR is fining people for doing exactly what they want and more so getting national attention to a sport that is in dire need of it.

Smarten up France family and NASCAR as a whole. You don’t need violence to sell a sport where things move at 200 mph, and to close I never thought I would ever use Madonna and NASCAR in the same sentence.

Michael Eliadis is a contributor at beyondtheflag.com and on the FanSided network. Please be sure to follow us on Twitter: @Beyond_the_flag and “Like” us on Facebook

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