Bludgeons, Lions, Goobers, ...?

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I don't recall seeing this article referenced here, if it has accept my apologies.

Would be curious as to folks opinions on the authors stance though. I'm sure to some degree the topic has been thoroughly hashed over the past few days, but perhaps not from this angle.

Commentary - I Hate Having to Write This... Again



By: Ben Blake

Richmond, Va., October 10

I hate writing this column (old newspaper lingo) for two reasons. First, I've written it before, and no matter what facet I try to show, it gets old. Second, I hate thinking that at any minute, in this ultimately grim business, someone I know might die.

I didn't know Eric Martin, and I don't know any of the ARCA guys as well as I know the guys in Winston Cup, or even in Busch and Trucks.

Frank Kimmel is the big dog, and you can't help but get to know him if you travel to Atlanta, Daytona, Talladega, Joliet—the tracks where ARCA runs companion races.

Behind Kimmel, and youngsters Chase Montgomery and Chad Blount and Jason Jarrett, and veterans Andy Belmont and Bob Strait and Norm Benning, the rest of ARCA fades back to what you used to know as stock-car racing—a bunch of transmission-shop operators fatally bitten by the racing bug.

OK, and no disrespect or dismissal of Eric Martin, who was 33 when he died in a horrible wreck Wednesday at Lowe's (Charlotte) Motor Speedway. His wife, Tammy, a Navy officer, was at sea on the USS Gettysburg when her husband died of massive crash injuries. The couple has two children.

But, having written this "column" almost a dozen times before, I have to ask again whether this "sport" is worth what it demands. Now stop right there if you've heard this before, because you need to hear it again.

However long I live, I will remain convinced that NASCAR, through its neglect (which continues, based on its own ad hoc interests), allowed conditions to exist which led to the death of Dale Earnhardt.

NASCAR's escape was to mum and bumble and present paid experts and prop up Earnhardt Jr. The goobers bought it. I need to make an accurate count of the "3—8" window stickers I've seen on the back windows of Chevrolet SUVs in the past two years.

My conclusion from that is that a) the death of a hero is all right, because he "was doing what he loved to do", and B) goobers can kind of shrug off death as long as there's a Junior, a rooting interest in peace and a future.

Uh, folks, Dale Earnhardt is still dead. And I haven't heard too many of you question why, once NASCAR stuck the Junior pacifier in your mouth.

Right now, you're saying, "Yeah Blake, shut up. It's a great sport, and we'll take it as it comes. There's risk in walking through a parking lot in the Washington suburbs. There's risk in driving I-95 between Springfield and Fredericksburg."

Eric Martin was no less important than Dale Earnhardt, as no man is an island, entirely unto itself. He died attempting to race an automobile at the clownishly named "Lowe's" Motor Speedway, which has become the most fatal racetrack in America, this side of Indianapolis.

His two kids won't likely have the potential for overgrowth Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kerry have had.

So it's time to bring this "column" to the point, which is that motor racing always will take a back seat on SportsCenter and other big-time news shows as long at it kills people.

Sports are supposed to be fun, aren't they? We're supposed to appreciate the values of hard work and dedication, with ability applied and implied.

In baseball, we see Troy Percival come in in the ninth and throw heroic fastballs past the Twins.

In football, we see Corey Dillon set records for a team that should not be in contention.

In all the sports we call sports, no one dies. In racing, people die.

Yes, people die in mountain-climbing and boxing, if you want to bring up the Hemingway comment about sports vs. games. I haven't noticed that many spectators for mountain-climbing, and most of those interested in boxing have bets down.

Racing: Let's get at it. If racing wants to become one of the big-four (or whatever number) sports, it cannot abide death as a consequence. Fiery crashes make great highlights and somber comments on the late sports shows, but they continue to show that motorsport is a lethal exercise, supported by ghoulish creatures who need the spectre of death as part of their entertainment.

Yet, we continue to get death. Don't dis ARCA, which has the same safety requirements as NASCAR does. Don't dismiss Eric Martin, who was doing "what he loved."

NASCAR attempts to portray its show as happy-jolly. How Bad Have You Got It? You're willing to accept the death of your hero and pay to see the next one, because death, baby, is all a part of it.

NASCAR increasingly has become a cartoon—"paint schemes" and Daffy Duck and Fan Walks at Kansas City and the official reports referring to "accidents", as though a two-year-old has peed his pants. It's a wreck, Hunter, and wrecks kill people, as we saw Wednesday, and will see again.

And, if I see one more racing promotion (as Coke has persisted and others have followed) referring to "family", I will puke.

Veterans take all this in stride. Benny Parsons is an intelligent man, and he has done this for a long time, as competitor and commentator. Between Benny and Buddy Baker (the best color guy without a network job) and Junior Johnson and Richard Childress and others up and down the line, you understand the adjustments.

Motorsport? In line with Benny and Buddy and Ned Jarrett and the rest, you grew up living with it. You understand that racing is not a cartoon with a 10-minute, happy ending.

Whether racing, NASCAR in particular, can take its cartoon concept forward in persuading customers that all is a harmless, merry obsession, or whether we'll admit we're back to Ben-Hur and gladiator bludgeons and lions turned loose on slaves—whatever.

Just admit it happens, OK, and ask whether it's worth it. Tonight, Eric Martin, rest in peace.

Ben Blake is the NASCAR Editor for RACER magazine
 
He's right, to a point. He's right on the whole Jr perspective...but he's wrong pretty much everywhere else.

People play baseball, people play football, people play soccer. People do not play NASCAR or CART, or IRL. You and I could pick up a basketball and go to the YMCA and do exactly what some thug from off the street gets paid millions to do and be pretty much safe doing it, save perhaps a knee tear or a broken pinky finger. We can't, however, get into our cars and race 40 other people on the highway at 180mph and not risk death.

That's the only point I disagree with him on. Everything else is pretty spot on. Why else would people think that Dale Earnhardt Sr were "the best ever" if it weren't for the "cartoon" NASCAR has going? How else would his mediocre son become the most succesfully sponsored driver and fan favorite immediately following his death? Because of the cartoon.

I think most people admit that it happens, however none of the other drivers were marketing masters. Petty, Irwin, now Martin...their lives were no less important than Earnhardt's however we're reminded nearly every race at Daytona and Talladega about who's driving for who's daddy, and who's daddy is watching down from above. Personally, I find that to be a slap in the face to the rest of the drivers that have died, and finally it appears that some members of the racing press aren't afraid to start saying it as well.

Good article.
 
No arguing some points in the article. But I have one major issue with it. Some of y'all have seen me bitch about this before, but I'm gonna do it again.

The following is an open statement to every sportswriter, commentator, pundit, extrapolator, whatever you choose to call yourself this week. Be it hereby known that the next one of you who chooses, for whatever reason, to lump all NASCAR fans together as "goobers", "rednecks", "illiterate trailer trash", "white trash hillbillies", "second class sports fans", "unwashed heathen", or any of the other myriad derrogatory insults you choose to employ, I for one am done with your network/publication/broadcast facility forever. Got it? Your disdain is legendary. Your snide attempts at urbane wit are revolting. Stop it. It is indeed a very small man who can build himself up only by tearing down those around him. I will personally wager next month's salary that the mean IQ at any NASCAR event surpasses the mean IQ at the NBA game of your choice. Anyone who has ever ponied up the cash for race tickets will tell you that people such as you describe could never afford to be there. There are more engineering geniuses drawling their way down pit road than you will find anywhere on this planet, period. When was the last time the LAPD chased a retired NASCAR Hall of Fame member down the freeway in a white Bronco after he butchered his wife? How many NASCAR drivers are banished from the sport because they couldn't pass up a spoon full of cocaine to save their life? Ever write a story about a driver biting another competitor's ear in half after being parolled for rape? Yet O.J. Simpson, Darryl Strawberry, Mike Tyson, Ray Lewis, Latrell Spreewell, and countless others are constantly portrayed as misunderstood sypathetic figures who deserve our respect. Bovine feces. Listen, buddy, where I come from, murderers, rapists, drug addicts, cannibals, thugs, and batterers are not people to be admired; they are people to be avoided at all costs. Who gives a rat's ass if they happen to possess the ability to toss a ball through a hoop? Excuse us goobers for our discerning taste in heroes.

If admiring men who, in the course of their chosen profession, risk their lives in pursuit of their dream makes me a goober, so be it. But I'll never have to go to a maximum security facility to get his damn autograph.

We as dedicated fans have deluded ourselves into thinking that just because more races are now held outside the traditional South, the sport has broader acceptance. Hack artists like this fool show us a different picture. Face it, if you are a proud NASCAR fan, in the eyes of the masses you are still a goober. A redneck. An anomally. It doesn't bother me that most people see me that way; hell, I am a redneck. Proud of it too. But on those rare occasions when the media does more than read the top 5 finishers during the final 10 seconds of the sportscast, and actually pays a little attention to the sport, this is what we get. Give me fat, ugly Jimmy Spencer any day over vanilla Pete Sampras. I'll take slow talkin Ward Burton, along with his wildlife foundation and his other charity contributions, over ultra smooth Deion Sanders every time. Give me quiet unassuming Mark Martin or Matt Kenseth, keep your loudmouthed Rickey Hendersons and Shannon Sharpes. Want class? Lemme see....Dale Jarrett or Barry Sanders? And I liked watching Barry Sanders play.

I realize the author of the article was referring primarily to Earnhardt fans. NEWSFLASH: I ain't no Earnhardt fan. I could not stand Dale Earnhardt, and I can't stand his son either. But either is far preferrable to 90% of the NBA. The ONLY man of character I see in the NBA is David Robinson.

I'll shut up now; I'm preaching to the choir anyway. Just needed to vent.
 
TNWF,
Good job man. I really liked the points you made and how you stated them.
 
Great points TNWF. Thanks for the great article HS.

I agree with what you say about how people lump Nascar fans together by saying all of us are rednecks. I think they do it because they don't understand what a great sport it is and all that goes on behind the "cartoons".
 
You can write the guy at Racer Magazine, the largest circulation general motorsports magazine in the country.

He's only the senior nascar editor there.

And btw, could ya use smaller paragraphs? Leave a little white...er grey...space for these tired old eyes to rest in? Those long sumbucks are kinda tough to stay focused on.

Anyways, hope ya feel better now that ya got that out.
 
Thanks for the article, HS. It was an interesting read. I agreed with everything except Nascar being compared to things like playing basketball. Drivers don't play driving like basketball players play basketball. I could go play basketball, but couldn't go out there and race.

TNWF, you made a very great argument and some great points. I don't care if people think of me as a redneck because I quit caring what people think a long time ago, but it makes me mad that people lump fans together as rednecks.

I don't go around making assumptions about football fans, basketball fans, or any other sport fans. Nascar got started in the South so people just put the term redneck in there when Nascar is mentioned. I have been called a stupid redneck for watching Nascar by people who have never watched a race and it makes me mad that they feel they can judge me when they know nothing about it.

I would rather admire great guys in Nascar who do go out there and risk their lives than football or basketball players who go around getting in serious trouble with the law and don't make the best role models. So if I get called a redneck or goober or any other degratory name that doesn't fit, I can be proud in the fact that the guys I admire in Nascar are good people.

But I am sure everyone here already has had some kind of experience with that. If my post even makes sense. I have been having some problems lately with a few people being less than nice about my viewage of Nascar.

You should send your comments to someone, TNWF. They were very well-made and thought out, I am sure a good number of fans would be glad to read them and support them.
 
Thanks for the comments. I disagree with virtually everything Mr. Blake wrote. But being part of the great unwashed, I suppose I would. Cartoon, indeed. As a promotion, a gimmick, or just to have fun the deal works, for those who compete and for many, many of the fans the cartoon ends when the flag flies.

We be "goobers" and many competitors are "transmission shop operators" or were. Racing transcends those insults.

Sneer at the concept of "family" if you chose Mr. Blake. You may go puke to your hearts content if you chose al well. But that hardly debases the concept not does your ranting dismiss its existence.

Andy Belmont is an ARCA competitor, not a journalist. Reading his thoughts following Eric Martin's death I am inclined to think he might make a better journalist than you would make a racer.

Hope your article sells a few papers to the "goobers" without whom you could go get $.10 per paragraph if you were lucky.

Mr. Belmont's thoughts:

We've lost a family member and dear friend. The cruel reality of the danger of what we do rears it's ugly head every now and then. Life for all of us will go on, just very different than we knew it to be just a few days ago.

As legacies go, the sporting world and the media frenzy that drives it will never know what a champion person a one Mr. Eric Martin was. Martin was as committed a racer there ever was. He loved life. His priorities may have appeared skewed to some who can't permit themselves to understand. But, rest assured, his family, his wife and those two little boys were the dearest thing in that great big thing he had called a heart.

Looking into Eric Martin's heart was never an issue, it was so big. Big with an intensity level that most folks can't operate at. This was life and business as usual for an extraordinary young man.

Timing is everything in this life. Time is a fragile thing. Our Chaplain spoke of the three minute clock we have in racing. It is the stop watch in the tech inspection line. You have three minutes to get your car right or go to the end of the line. ARCA Chaplain Bill Krick poses the question: What if it is "your three minutes in life, to get it right?" There is no question here, Martin had it right.

Like most who live this dream of racing cars, there were never enough hours in a day and always plenty of work left over. Outside of our little community, most won't permit themselves the capability to grasp what it is or why it is we do what we do.

Class and dignity are labels that some pretend to have acquired. There is no question with Eric Martin. He is in a class by himself. A tireless worker, the practical joker of the garage area, upbeat in the worst of situations, the driver, the tire changer, the body man, husband and father. The order is backwards of course, and there was never a moment when you had to question where he stood on that order. He offers us all a standard to work from.

The TV and internet media covered the tragedy. The sharks circled and saw the details they chose to see. Someone died in a race car at Lowe's Motor Speedway and someone has to be blamed. It is our society of pointing fingers and saving ourselves from ourselves. Rest assured, you have all missed the story. These are not the headlines Eric or anyone else would want. The media quickly turns the story to the sports superstars for answers, as if there are any. But it makes for headlines, sells newspapers and makes folks tune in at 5, 6 & 11.

So for those of you who missed it, a wonderful human being has been taken from us. The memory of his little boyish grin will brighten our days forever. We will race again. After a long day in the garage area, we will sit around the fire where our campers are parked with one less lawn chair. Our families will have the grill going and the coolers full. We will toast this man and cherish the memories that only he, Eric Martin, created for us.

Thank you Eric. Godspeed.
 
Originally posted by 71Fan
You can write the guy at Racer Magazine, the largest circulation general motorsports magazine in the country.

He's only the senior nascar editor there.

And btw, could ya use smaller paragraphs? Leave a little white...er grey...space for these tired old eyes to rest in? Those long sumbucks are kinda tough to stay focused on.

Anyways, hope ya feel better now that ya got that out.
Click to expand...

Hey 71fan,

I could care less if he was the French horn player for Captain and Tenille. He's another in a long line of racing "journalists" who sacrifice the fans to move a few issues. He's an idiot, and I for one wish he'd just leave us goobers alone and spend his time covering polo or something. I do appreciate you telling me who he is and who he writes for so that I will never mistakenly purchase a copy of a rag that would allow its senior series editor to blatantly heap insult upon insult on the fans of that series, presumably its own readership.

Paragraph break.

Do as you will. It means nothing to me. But I'm done being a sheep. If all the established racing journalists can find to occupy their column is a never ending series of backhanded slaps to the faces of their readers, I got better things to do.

Paragraph break.

I whole heartedly agree with the dolt in question on some things. There are too many deaths in this sport. But where did he propose one thing to reduce them? Cheap shots at the fans abound, but not one solution to the problem he himself brings up. That took talent. So he's tired of writing columns about drivers dying. Who among us wants to see another driver die? Who among us rejoiced when Eric Martin was killed?

Paragraph break.

I hope that, the next time you shell out $3.95 or whatever for the cost of his magazine, you stop and remember that you just enabled him to insult you. Again. You just paid him to call you names.

Maybe he's right after all.
 
"Maybe he's right after all."

And that be what hurts most the most. The thought that maybe he's right.

I don't mind that he didn't offer solutions. The guy seemingly wrote something from his heart, not his brain. I can appreciate that. When folks go to the edge, it is inevitable that sometimes they are going to get too close. Racing is a dangerous game that not only pits driver against driver, but also pits man against the edge.

My personal "chalk it up" is that's racin. I don't need another hero to take Eric's place on the track. Find me a helmet and a car....any car....and I'll take his place myself. 22 on track deaths a year average? Shucks, us in the construction industry average almost that many a day. In anything we do, it's alwas risk vs reward, pain vs pleasure.

I've read any number of things about the Martin/Renshaw incindent written by general fans and professional writers alike. Ben's stuff seemed from the heart as it were. And it's not like he just got himself a computer and logged on to the internet to spout about auto racing and death. Ben is a guy who's been around racing for years. Might not like his style, or his terminology, or his conclusions but dismiss him? He's just one of the most important men in motorsports print media, that's all.

Yup, chalk up another one. that's racin.

and btw, the paragraph breaks were perfect. You may pick up your My Child's a Paragraph Breaker bumper sticker at the office.
:D
 
....snip.....Andy Belmont is an ARCA competitor, not a journalist. Reading his thoughts following Eric Martin's death I am inclined to think he might make a better journalist than you would make a racer.........snip......

Where do you find this stuff Hardscrabble?

Agree, disagree, like, dislike.....don't matter to me....just keep it coming.
 
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