Will Fittipaldi have a fan acceptance problem?

H

HardScrabble

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An article which questions Christian's move to NASCAR from the open wheel ranks. The impact of the decision on his career based on open wheel vs stock cars is valid. However many statements here concern indicate that the NASCAR fan base will not readily accept him into their ranks. Not so sure I buy that one,

We're all fans here, so what's the skinny from you folks?

Article
 
I don't always agree with Tony but the fact remains that outsiders no matter where they come from are not generally accepted very well in nascar. Chip and AJ are prime examples. The road course specialist are another.

That Ron Fellows was without a ride at the Glen is another example. He probably could have qualified any back-up car in the garage.
 
I liked Emmo and if he's anything like him he should have no problem. This says alot about the racing in NASCAR, that a driver of his caliber would leave a great seat in a Champ car and come over to this side. Good luck Christian.
 
Originally posted by be9ak7ts16
I liked Emmo and if he's anything like him he should have no problem. This says alot about the racing in NASCAR, that a driver of his caliber would leave a great seat in a Champ car and come over to this side. Good luck Christian.
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And that CART is dead, unfortunately.

And PE must have given Christian mega tons of money.
 
I think he will most assuredly have problems with acceptance. Imagine Terry Joe scraping his winged and haloed number 3 sticker off the back of the '78 Chevy pick-'em-up truck to make room for a Fittipaldi Racing sticker. In a word, uh uh.
 
I love the idea.

Diversity is key in wide scale acceptance of any sport.

Christian will be a welcome addition to NASCAR.

But that said I am a more urbane fan.....an east coast left wing female so I guess I am well outside the demographics.
 
Good points Ward and Paul, I'm basically going on the Emmo factor, He was one of the only "ferrin" drivers I could accept coming into WC. Lizzycat, I don't believe there are any demographics in this sport anymore, there's way too many different types watching nowadays.
 
It's the articles like this that actually create these types of problems.

They don't write articles questioning a driver's acceptance when he or she moves into WC from say, ARCA or ASA.
 
I hope Christian can cut the mustard & do good!

I like Cassey Mears in the Busch cars!

Also like to see Kenny Brack make the switch
 
I think it basically comes down to if he can run good or not. If he runs bad the whole time then no one will have to worry about accepting him because there will be nothing to cheer for. However if he runs good and starts getting a lot of attention then the acceptance will eventually take place.
 
I will accept him as a NASCAR driver the thing i see that most people might not like is he was not born in America. I don't mind that one bit. Ever since that announcment of him coming to PE I finaly got a driver to root for in CART. I kept bouncing back and forth between a few drivers now I got one to watch
 
I think B.C-24 made a really good point.The acceptance of Fittipaldi will come based more on results rather than a foreign name or nationality in my opinion.If he comes in like a whirlwind,I think it will actually work against him.Rather than winning fans over,a certain segment of the fans will actually RESENT him.Unfortunately that is just the nature of this sport sometimes,IMO.
 
You're probably right 97,

If JG had experienced only samll or moderate successes early in his WC career I seriously doubt so many would have cast him as having not earned his way or whatever all that was.

On the other hand without the success, his fan base would have been much smaller than it is now.

I hope the fans will accept or not accept Fittipaldi based solely on his on track performance and personality.
 
I loved Emmo, like Cristian, will miss Cart but will still follow it thru it's death throws.

In fact, why shouldn't we look to other foreign born drivers as well as American Indian and Afro-Americans to try the ABC thing to help diverisfy the sport?

In the meantime, Welcome Cristian "Rosco" Fittipaldi to Nascar and may your skill be equal to the task ahead.
 
I'm looking forward to seeing Christian in NASCAR, and I hope he does well. As for not being American-born, so what?

I do like the fact that PE is not throwing him into the deep end, and expecting him to swim. The ABC plan that Ryan did last year sure seemed to help. I'm hoping for the same success with Christian.
 
I think he should keep his ass out of Nascar. I don't want anymore of the IRL or Cart guys in Nascar.
 
I think he will win a few races in the next few years and remember he is only gonna do about 7-10 races next year.
 
There were already some females at another board talking about how *hot* Christian is.:eek: He should have no problem with the ladies. :D Maybe he will bring some open wheel fans who never would've watched NASCAR to the series with him.
 
Oh for the love of salad dressing, who cares how "HOT" somebody is? I am willing to bet that if the males on here constantly talked about Shawna Robinson's looks we'd get labeled as pigs. Grow up girls. Want beefcake? Try wrestling. Mark Martin is about as damn ugly as you can get, but he can drive the wheels off a race car. And the last time I checked, that was what mattered in this sport.
 
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