NASCAR driver emotion expectations

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esorlxaw

Guest
In light of the recent fine to Brendan Gaughan...what exactly does NASCAR expect out of their drivers? After a kid has an outstanding season, he is crushed by a ringer thrown into a race by a man desperate for a championship...the kid shows some emotion...like any normal human..and is fined 25 grand. For the love of God, in the MLB playoffs, some players beat the life out of a groundsworker and what came of that? At least Gaughan had a decent reason to be angry...he was interviewed only minutes after his championship hopes were dashed. If NASCAR wants emotionless robots to drive their cars, they'll probably lose the majority of their fanbase. 25,000 bucks...c'mon folks, get real here...J. Smith is lucky he didn't get a Orleans casino good knuckle sandwich. I don't know, 25 grand was worth seeing that guy "think" he won the championship.
 
I totally agree. Nascar can't penalize someone for getting upset after a race and saying some things in the heat of battle. Emotions are only Natural and what happen at Homestead in the truck race was obviously very frustrating!!! Nascar needs to quit treating their drivers like little kids! And on top of that there were no punches thrown, no fights nothing.
 
Thinking back to the Rudd/Harvick incident at Richmond. I'm not sure Harvick even got fined 25,0000$ and he was clearly out of line along with some of his teammates!
 
Originally posted by rajflyboy@Nov 21 2003, 08:16 AM
I totally agree. Nascar can't penalize someone for getting upset after a race and saying some things in the heat of battle.
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Can, does and should. I'm not advocating the policing of speech. But I for one don't want to hear Trashmouth Harvick spouting off about mean old Ricky Rudd while he ignores the fact that he almost wrecked half a dozen times trying to hit the leader in the same race. If I want to see a fistfight after a race I'll go to the local track and more times than not I'll see one. These are supposed to be the best in the world, professionals, and it's time they conduct themselves as such. God knows they're compensated well enough. I can't go cursing at people I work with if I don't agree with everything that happens, so why is it OK for them? "Heat of battle"? Puh-leeze.
 
I see both sides of an issue here and I think you'd get rid of some of the fines by having NASCAR keep the reporters from throwing a mic in the driver's face before he's even had a chance to unbuckle himself. Look at any other major sport and you usually don't get interviews from those guys except after they've hit the showers and have had time to cool off. If they want to doll out an insult to someone, it's had time to be witty and not so foul mouthed.

Sure, have a mic and camera in the winner's circle. Bombard the happy winner with questions and pats on the back. Let the other guys get out of the car, have a yell, release some of that tension and then meet them at the media center where they're suppose to head to.

In light of the recent events with NFL players being benched for running their mouths, I can see NASCAR trying to reign in emotional drivers and keeping the sport true to what it is...racing. Not ratings driven rants, hood jumping, and all out brawls in the pits. There is nothing more detrimental to the sport than it looking like it's ruled by emotional outburst than by guys that work hard, race hard, and walk away friends after it's all over.

I've only been a race fan for a few years but the thing that got me hooked was the family atmosphere and the fact that I wasn't going to have to worry about the censors bleeping every other word in post race interviews. My son (he's only 3) already has his favorite driver and he watches almost every race with me. These are guys are role models to young people and some adults. Let's get the mic out of their face so soon after the race and give them time to be human too.

JD
 
WoW you would think that Harvick is the most hated man in Nascar. I think he is hated worst than Jeff Gordon is now. That's cool the more hated he is the bigger he gets.
 
Good point. I think most of the potty mouth stuff would be taken care of if there wasn't an onslaught of mics just after the driver got out of a mangled race car.
 
That's right. If someone has spun you out or into a wall. Doesn't matter if it a racing deal or not. When you go to pit road your angry. Sure you are gonna use some colorful words. You might even give another driver a cussing. Like someone else said these drivers are not emotionless robots. They are humans.
 
Plus, racing has one other factor to consider that other sports don't. Unless it's a one in a million circumstance, most athletes don't face the spectre of death on the playing field. Sometimes we as fans forget that an "innocent little racing deal" could very well kill someone. Now I don't know about you, but if I have even a slight brush with death I'm pretty shaken. If someone else caused this brief encounter with the reaper, I'm liable to say pert near anything.

Still, there must be a line, and I applaud NASCAR for drawing it and maintaining it.
 
Good point about the mic right after the race , but you know what Nascar loves that stuff, it is good for ratings. Remember that fight after the Daytona 500 forget the year 79 or 80,CBS aired the race live and that was a huge turning point. The thing is a lot of people like to hear those comments right after a driver gets wrecked, builds up the aticipation thing for the next race, keeps people coming back to see what happens. I could care less. I go to races and watch races for the racing aspect not for the WWF angle, but i doubt if things will change in this respect very soon.
 
It's a case of "damned if you do, and damned if you don't".

The instant hot reactions create news and ratings. Waiting a bit for a driver to cool down wouldn't be near as exciting.

You can bet if the drivers were to walk away from a reporter in order to cool down, someone would step in and say "you have to talk".
 
I agree Evernham Fan! Nascar ends up gaining when stuff like this happens. Heck, they make money off the deal by acquiring new fans >>> Just another reason why they should not set a $$ value on something that a driver said!

Heck ..... one of the most important deals in Nascar history was the fight between The Allison's and Cale Yarborough in thr 1979 Daytona 500!!!!!!!!
 
Originally posted by TexasRaceLady@Nov 21 2003, 10:56 AM
It's a case of "damned if you do, and damned if you don't".

The instant hot reactions create news and ratings. Waiting a bit for a driver to cool down wouldn't be near as exciting.

You can bet if the drivers were to walk away from a reporter in order to cool down, someone would step in and say "you have to talk".
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Maybe some should just learn to say, "No comment right now." and walk away.
Anger management 101 for ALL!
However, that said, IMHO, Na$car has been far too lenient sometimes and gone way too far other times.
 
Boy, ain't that the truth, kat. But, as we all know, this will be a great debate that Nascar will never see. They will continue to do as they see fit, and write the rule to fit the situation. I still don't think that what Brendan said was worth of $10 g's. "****" is much more offensive to me than "ass" is, but oh well. I'm not Nascar. :wacko:
 
I guess you also have to think about what they said when Kurt and Jimmy had their little spiff..."sometimes NASCAR lets other things do their talking for them". You know, the kind of advocate someone getting slapped into the wall if they deserve. Maybe they're just making the statement, "Hey drivers, if you can keep the language and actions off the track to a minimum, we'll let you nail the guy on track"...which isn't very safe at all. But then again, neither is the whole sport. By the way, I totally understand the language thing and agree with the idea that they should slap a mic in a guy's face before he gets out of the car. I can think of times where I've gotten bad grades and I have to come home and vent for an hour or so, much less can I imagine how I would be if I had a good race and had someone ruin it for me by not only taking me out of the race but wrecking my car and possibly killing me.
 
Originally posted by majestyx@Nov 21 2003, 02:16 PM
Boy, ain't that the truth, kat.  But, as we all know, this will be a great debate that Nascar will never see.  They will continue to do as they see fit, and write the rule to fit the situation.  I still don't think that what Brendan said was worth of $10 g's.  "****" is much more offensive to me than "ass" is, but oh well.  I'm not Nascar. :wacko:
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Well Majx, don't they change the rules on an hourly basis anyway?

I think that there are other drivers (naming no names to protect myself) who have cussed during interviews who never even got a slap on the wrist!

edited for typo
 
Originally posted by esorlxaw@Nov 21 2003, 02:17 PM
much less can I imagine how I would be if I had a good race and had someone ruin it for me by not only taking me out of the race but wrecking my car and possibly killing me.
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I'm guessing dead. Just a hunch.

Speaking of dead, there goes another cousin under a dump truck...
 
They could just get some robots (you know program them with some form of personality) to drive the cars...if one of them cussed after the race...well, it's just a robot, they can throw it on the scrap heap with Sadler's 'dega ride. (that thing should be in museum though)
 
Hey kat, that's why the rule book is written in pencil. It's not permanent and can be changed to fit the particular situation. :p
 
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