NASCAR: Dale Jr. And Letarte Have Issues With Pre-Race Socializing
How do you like your NASCAR drivers? Should they be friends off of the track but enemies on the track? Some in NASCAR think the pre-race socialization is too much.
One of the greatest things about NASCAR fans and sports fans in general is their passion. The passion that NASCAR fans have for their drivers and sports fans have for their teams is truly some amazing and powerful stuff. It’s this passion in NASCAR that causes some fans to base their lifestyle decisions on partaking in products sponsored by their favorite drivers and ignoring those sponsored by the drivers they hate the most.
You know that Jimmie Johnson fans prefer Lowe’s over Home Depot much like Tony Stewart fans sided with Home Depot back when they sponsored him in the No. 20 machine.
However, what happens when the passion of a driver’s fan base isn’t matched by the driver themselves? Do fans really want to see the drivers chumming it up before each race? Do Red Sox fans want to go to Fenway and see Chris Sale joking with Gary Sanchez right before first pitch? Do Cav’s fans want to see LeBron shooting the breeze with Steph Curry and Kevin Durant before the NBA Finals? Some fans might be okay with it but Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his former crew chief Steve Letarte are not.
On a recent episode of his podcast, Earnhardt spoke about how he doesn’t want a bunch of buddies out there racing around.” Earnhardt’s former crew chief Steve Laterte spoke on the matter recently with NBC Sports, Letarte wishes that NASCAR would change the way drivers interact before the race.
"Nothing irritates me more than going to a football or basketball game early and seeing two superstars from separate teams speak to each other pre-event. Post-event is different. But pre-event, nothing is more frustrating. I want to turn my ticket in and leave.When I see prerace, these drivers hanging out, there is a responsibility to be civil. We jam them in this pen. I wish all that changed. I wish they wouldn’t even give them the opportunity to hang out with one another.As a sport, we do a disservice to our drivers when we put them in this holding pen behind driver introductions. I think it should be there’s a reason there are locker rooms on two sides of the stadium. They personally don’t want your paths to cross before battle.I wish there was a creative way to do that for race car drivers. Because I don’t like to see them hanging out and being buddies. I want them to beat the crap out of each other on the racetrack. Our fans are that way. Why shouldn’t the competitors be that way?"
Letarte’s ideology is one that is plaguing fans in all sports currently. In the major sports the advent of free agency has played a major role athletes becoming more loyal to themselves and their friends as opposed to their teams. This is especially true in the NBA with the recent trend of athletes maneuvering themselves to form super-teams with their friends in the league. Back in the day an athlete might be with on team for the majority of their careers, today that simply is not the case.
In NASCAR there aren’t traditional teams but the fandom for each driver rivals that of major teams in other sports leagues. While Matt Kenseth and Joey Logano might never be best friends, they have been spotted talking to one another pre-race since their issues from 2015. Situations like this arise because drivers are forced to be near each other before the start each race. They ride together during the parade lap, they are all huddled together before driver introductions and often times they are in close confines after that.
But is that an issue? Should drivers share the same hatred and passion that their fans do? Would it make for better NASCAR and better racing?
It’s hard to side with certainty one way or the other but to my knowledge friends off of the track have never not raced each other hard on the track when wins and championships are on the line. Heck, we have even seen Danica Patrick and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. have some bumps on the track and they are dating. The same can be said for Kyle Busch and Kurt Busch, who are brothers.
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At the end of the day it’s important to remember that the drivers are the athletes and the fans are the fanatics, so it’s okay if the fans take things to that next level and the professionals don’t.