NASCAR: Fans Reach New Low After Talladega

Kevin D. Liles-USA TODAY Sports

Sometimes in the world of sports we forget exactly what a fan is. The term fans comes from the base word fanatic. The definition of fanatic is a person filled with excessive and single-minded zeal. With that in mind, sometimes sports fans have a tendency of taking things too far. Fans who riot when their teams lose or even when they win is just one example of that. On Sunday some NASCAR fans hit a new low based on their actions following Talladega.

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Let’s be honest, the majority of the NASCAR Universe was not happy with the outcome of the race. If you’re a fan of Dale Earnhardt Jr. or one of the drivers that was eliminated from the Chase, you’re probably even less thrilled with how things unfolded. In the world of sports (like most other things in life) it’s okay to be unhappy about something because the more important thing is how you handle yourself afterwards.

After it was announced that Joey Logano won the race on Sunday, NASCAR fans showered Logano and the racing surface with debris. Beer can, beer bottles, water bottles and various other items rained down onto the track during Logano’s burnout and victory celebration. Much like it makes no sense to destroy a city after a team wins or loses, it makes the same amount of sense to shower the track with debris. Aside from the fact that Logano had nothing to do with the NASCAR ruling, fans were putting others in danger just because they were unhappy.

What if one of those bottles hit another fan after they hurled it? What if something hit someone who was down on the track? The results could have been extremely dangerous.

Unfortunately the disgraceful behavior did not end there. Following the race numerous NASCAR fans took to Twitter to voice their unhappiness with the outcome of the race and more specifically Kevin Harvick. Again, there is nothing wrong with being unhappy and showing passion for your favorite team or in this case you favorite driver.

I simply don’t understand how this opened the door for fans to use social media to attack Harvick’s wife DeLana or more importantly their don Keelan. In the aftermath of the race DeLana’s Twitter feed was filled with obscene comments about her husband, her and their son. Aside from the fact that these people seem to have forgotten that this is a sporting event, it’s incredible to think that someone would threaten a drivers wife and/or child over social media because of something that happened in a NASCAR race.

There are two kinds of fans out there; those who are good people and those who are not. If you were one of the individuals who hurled objects onto the track after the race or made obscene comments about DeLana or Keelan, you obviously fall under the category of the latter as opposed to the former. If you cannot handle being a fan, maybe you should refrain from partaking in things like attending sporting events or using social media because it’s clear that you cannot handle it. The majority of NASCAR and sports fans are not like this but it only takes a few to ruin it for the group or give the group a bad name.

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