Subject: [NEXTEL-1] It's time for the fans to speak up

From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 01 Jul 2003 01:44:37 -0400

Posted on Mon, Jun. 30, 2003

It's time for the fans to speak up
By DAVID POOLE
The Charlotte Observer
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - I've just had a month off, and I was largely
able to accomplish my goal of doing the least I could do.

I highly recommend it.

In reality, of course, that's not a practical way to live. It's not
overly effective, either. You don't change much by simply watching
the world go by.

Now that I'm back on the clock, it's time to speak up and speak
out about some significant and, to many, upsetting things that
have happened in NASCAR while I've been on sabbatical.

While I did get pulled into the Nextel story a little bit, I did manage
to steer entirely clear of the bone-headed decision to move the
Southern 500 off Labor Day weekend.

It's a wonder the people announcing the shift of that date to
California and the move of Darlington's fall date to Rockingham's
slot didn't gag on the doublespeak written for them to say.
Actually, it's sad they could spit it out with a relatively straight
face.

From the moment the idea of "schedule realignment" was first
announced in January, it was never about anything other than
devising a way to give California a second date without giving
Texas one.

By all objective measures, divorcing a Carolinas fan's emotions and
decades of traditions from the equation, a solid argument can be
made for taking a race from Darlington or Rockingham and giving it
to California. Darlington and Rockingham haven't been selling out
their races, leaving them vulnerable to have a date taken away.

But the troubling truth is that the same objective measures, fairly
applied, would favor Texas over California. Texas has more seats
to sell and the Dallas-Fort Worth market, like Southern California,
is among the nation's largest.

Fairly applied, however, is the operative phrase.

It amazes me how many of the same fans who imagine NASCAR
complicity in things like fixing races give the sanctioning body a
complete pass on the inherent unfairness of its corporate
inbreeding with International Speedway Corporation.

If NASCAR and ISC had no common rooting interest in the
corporate rivalry with Bruton Smith and Speedway Motorsports
Inc, does anyone truly doubt that Texas would have been ahead
of California in line for a second Cup date? Or, for that matter, that
the first track to lose a race date would be the wholly unworthy
road course in Watkins Glen, which ISC also happens to own?

That's why it should have troubled fans in the Carolinas to hear
Nextel officials say the location for the all-star event formerly
known as The Winston is up to NASCAR. R.J. Reynolds helped keep
that race at Lowe's Motor Speedway in recent years, and with RJR
out of the picture the all-star race's future in Charlotte is anything
but assured.

Moving the all-star race out of Charlotte wouldn't be quite as
stupid as moving the Southern 500 to November, or as unfair as
giving California a second date before Texas, but it would be close.

What can be done about any of this? Maybe nothing. But if nothing
is what we do, then nothing will be in the way of anything the
people calling the shots want to do.

If you're a fan who cares about
these things, why not speak up
and at least make your voice
heard. You can e-mail me if you
want to, but that's not what I am
talking about.

Write NASCAR a letter. Tell them
what you think about realignment,
like it or not.

And while you're at it, if you've
ever thought about seeing a race
at Darlington or Rockingham, buy
tickets for their second races this
season.

Having full houses there in
September and November would
be a good way to show that fans
don't want these tracks to be
forsaken.

Write Nextel and welcome them to
the sport. At the same time, if
you're so inclined, urge them to
use the influence that $70 million per year for 10 years could have
in shaping the way NASCAR does business as the Nextel Cup
series. The new sponsor could be a force for good in the sport, but
it's going to have to choose that course. But if you choose to do
nothing else, at least write R.J. Reynolds Tobacco.

Regardless of what you think about RJR's main product, stock-car
racing would not be where it is today without RJR. If you're a race
fan, a simple thank you note for 32 years of supporting your sport
is the least you could do.

Take it from someone who knows.

http://www.thatsracin.com/mld/thatsracin/6203262.htm

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