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NASCAR AT INFINEON
PADECKY: Progress continues as more foreign cars hit the road
Published: Saturday, June 20, 2009 at 8:23 p.m.
Last Modified: Saturday, June 20, 2009 at 8:23 p.m.
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Of all the sacrilege NASCAR traditionalists feel — that their sport has been debased for the sake of the almighty dollar — the following statement offers quite possibly the ultimate humiliation and the ultimate separation from NASCAR’s roots.
One day there will be more foreign car manufacturers in the garage than domestic companies.
Oh, the purists will tell you, isn’t it enough that only 16 of the 36 Sprint Cup races in 2009 are run in the Deep South, that there are more drivers from California (eight) than any other state, that there’s no Labor Day Southern 500 at Darlington? Shoot, NASCAR holds its annual awards banquet in New York City. New York City? Blasphemy! The Car of Tomorrow stamps out individuality. And then you tell us a Toyota Hybrid, of all cars, will be the pace car at six Cup races this year, including today at Infineon.
Is there no end to the irreverence?
No, if living in the past is your game.
“Will there be more Japanese cars in the garage?” I asked Ken Clapp, a NASCAR consultant and one of the sport’s founding fathers.
“And European cars,” Clapp said. “And don’t forget India and China. I can see a South American influence, Rio or Sao Paulo. No, I don’t think it is an unrealistic possibility at all.”
Saturday, I asked three other people connected to the sport the same question I asked Clapp. None of them laughed, shook his head or claimed it was a ridiculous idea. They are aware, well aware, of what’s happening with American car manufacturers.
Of NASCAR’s four current manufacturers, Chrysler and General Motors are in bankruptcy and Ford has reduced its racing expenditures. Driver Mark Martin this week called it “a bad situation.”
“I don’t think GM is going anywhere,” Clapp said, “but the economy, I don’t think we’ve hit bottom yet. If GM leaves, it will be solely an economic decision.”
Ah, economics, today’s dirty word. Jobs, careers, skills, so many people sit with them, idle, unemployed, anxious, waiting for an opportunity. It has left the sport edgy, the elephant in the room that no one wants to acknowledge but there it is anyway, with its stinky, smelly breath. The economy has made otherwise accessible and compliant people testy, including one of the most revered and popular men in the business, car owner Richard Childress.
Childress, owner of four Cup teams, all of them Chevys, was asked by a sportswriter Friday if he received his June 15 payment from General Motors.
“That’s personal,” Childress said. “I didn’t ask you if you got your paycheck this week.”
American ingenuity, hasn’t that been one of this country’s strengths, the ability to adapt and adjust? We’re supposed to be so good at finding that silver lining in that black cloud and, interestingly, foreign car makers offer a surprising upside.
“There are over 1,000 people in North Carolina right now without jobs,” Clapp said. “And we are talking more than just tire changers. We are talking crew chiefs, experienced men, good men. There are a lot of quality people available.”
Connect these dots, that’s what Clapp was saying: A wannabe NASCAR player has a ready-made, built-in talent pool. Honda, Nissan, Mazda would not have to look far or for long. Honda, Nissan, Mazda in NASCAR would mean jobs and nothing erases foreign prejudice more quickly than an unemployed American now holding a steady paycheck.
“We have developed a talent pool,” acknowledged Mike Helton, NASCAR’s president.
As much as anyone in NASCAR, Helton represents the sport’s open mind to the future, adhering to this concept: If you don’t keep moving, you get stuck. Progress clearly does not gain universal acceptance in the NASCAR community, but Helton offered an anecdote that illustrated not only the necessary but inevitable direction.
Helton, 55, found himself in a conversation the other day with some young people, the conversation turning to technology. Helton said he grew up in Bristol, Va., with a rabbit-eared, black-and-white television in which he had to get up anytime he wanted to change the channel.
“They said, ‘You had to get up to change the channel? You didn’t have a remote control?’” Helton said. “How did you survive, that’s how they were acting. ... Remember the cell phone. Once a cell phone was unheard of. Then it was a luxury item only a few possessed. And now everyone has one. That’s evolution. That’s progress.”
American sport is as telling a barometer of advancement as any industry. Do major league ballplayers still compete in wool uniforms? Do NFL players still hit each other without face masks and mouth guards? Do NBA players still shoot jumpers without a 3-point line?
Since it was established in 1948, NASCAR went about 40 years without significant change, a block of time no other American sport could mark with so little consequence. It was a compliment to its loyal Southern fan base, to remain so unaffected for so long, and it would have stayed sequestered forever in its down-home cocoon except for one and only one reason.
Loving the automobile occurs everywhere.
“In the late ’80s came the advent of cable television,” Helton said. “They needed content. And we were good content.”
More air time for NASCAR meant more exposure, and that meant sponsorships and money, and drivers reaching national icon status. The wheels, both literally and figuratively, spun NASCAR to the North, South, East and West, to 24-hour NASCAR radio in 2001, to the dismissal of tobacco as its primary sponsor.
“NASCAR will always be a reflection of Americana,” Helton said. “And what you have seen to date is a continuation of that adjustment.”
On the other hand, Helton could have said the Toyota Camry is the best selling car in America.
That there will be more foreign than domestic manufacturers in the sport, however, may not be the last example of NASCAR expanding its roots. Dale Earnhardt Jr. buying a vacation home in a Tokyo suburb, now that would be a doozy.
For more on North Bay sports go to Bob Padecky’s blog at padecky.pressdemocrat.com. You can reach Staff Columnist Bob Padecky at 521-5490 or bob.padecky@pressdemocrat.com.
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