Because if they did open their mouths, it's not fit for mainstream TV.
You don’t think the number of views and “likes” matter?
What the hell is wrong with you?
Not as long as those who don't have media-friendly political views are still in the sport.
Yeah, I don't think he has had the time for much PR work lol. Too busy racing. It will be interesting to see how this works out. It's a paid gig for the drivers. None of the experts here have seen it but of course they all have opinions for something they haven't seen yet.
I won't disagree that SOME NASCAR fans hate Wallace because he's black (why are we tap-dancing around say it?), but 'overwhelming majority'? I'm going to need independent poll results before I buy that part of your statement.
Do you find it easier to relate to those from less privileged backgrounds? I doubt I have much in common with any of them. They've spent years developing the skill to get paid big bucks to put their bodies on the line week in and week out. Somehow I'm still able to connect with some of them without knowing their backgrounds.
I've only been following NASCAR since 1995. I can recall only a scant handful of drivers who were able to achieve popularity based on their personalities without having solid performance stats. Kenny Wallace, Michael Waltrip, ... uh, ...
Wallace, Rajah, Hailie and many more drove under Nascar's the drive for diversity program. Judging by comments around here, many don't like the well off or the less privileged. I don't think having money or not makes that much difference these days.
No one is going to get most of the fans booing him to admit they don't like Wallace because of his race. I mean, I could pretend something else is at play, but why?
If they're "promoting the drivers", they're promoting their personalities. Which, for the record, is actually the right thing to do. My issue is more that auto racing has fundamentally changed and everyone at the top level made it before age 25, almost all of whom with insane sums of money invested into their careers by parents seeking to keep them away from the family business for whatever reason.
I agree but I do not know how we will ever get away from those realities. It would probably be next to impossibile. A rich mans game with blue colar fans is a massive understatement.
No amount of media focus is going to turn Toni Breidinger into a competitive NASCAR racer.
Maybe not. But it may give NASCAR what it wants. More eyeballs on the sport.
Can't say I have ever been to a race where women aren't present. Some work like crazy to help the team. Some fans when it comes to women and racing are stuck on winning or else. I notice they aren't that way with the numerous men in the series. It is getting possible in racing for women to have long successful careers if they do decent and can keep sponsorship. So far Toni Breidinger has been able to do so. She's bringing the eyeballs.
I mean, there are ways. Lewis Hamilton didn't have that benefit for him unlike literally everyone else on the grid but happened to be in the right time and right place to have Ron Dennis stumble across him. If Lewis Hamilton was racing karts in Oklahoma, he never gets that break, though alternately, he'd have many many many more chances at the opportunity to race at a professional/semiprofessional level. It just wouldn't likely be above micros unless, again, he caught a lucky break with the right benefactor at the right place at the right time. You could use all manner of methodologies to discern talent, but the primary one continues to be "be good at a very high level of US national touring motorsports" for those few that ever manage to pull together their own sponsorship deals and buy a seat to try and make it. That's never gonna cut it.
I got lost. I thought we were talking about economic advantage. Now we're talking about age? Waiting until 18 would further handicap those drivers who have to get attention strictly for their talent.
We're talking about auto racing; a sport consisting of people driving automobiles. The majority of states in the US only permit people to drive once they've gotten to 16; why would I expect those who need to rely on attention would be younger than 18? They wouldn't have easy access to a car, much less a race car. It isn't an accident that shifting the age limits at the grassroots to accommodate everyone who thought their kid was the next Al Unser Jr. or Jeff Gordon had the eventual effect of grown men never getting serious opportunities in NASCAR and every division of pavement racing being turned into Romper Room.
She made the list of 150 most marketable athletes in the world, and was the only person in motorsports outside of F1 to do so.
I’m a simple man, I like cars that go vroom. If I find the person making that car go vroom likeable in terms of driving talent that entertains and coming across humble in their interviews or soft spoken I’ll probably be a fan.