I fully understand NASCAR's standpoint. I mean they can't help the situation that R.J. Reynolds has found themselves in and I'm sure that the Reynolds Company would rather keep on sponsoring NASCAR, seeing as it's the only advertising that they are allowed to use. I guess we can all blame that on the Master Settlement Agreement between federal and state governments and big tobacco companies such as R.J.R. I can also imagine how attractive Nextel is as a replacement. They’re in one of the hottest industries going and they don't have the same restrictions as R.J.R. A local news channel had a report on the Nextel deal one day last week that stated acquiring Nextel as a sponsor would help NASCAR's appeal toward younger fans. That the Nextel Cup wanted young blood running through their fan base. That they wanted to bring in the age group who were making most of the money out there and weren't afraid to spend it. These are the people you want filling your stands, cheering your drivers and buying your overpriced food and t-shirts.

The thing that I don't understand about all this is that why does NASCAR have to alienate its existing fans to attract the young ones. I've been hearing grumblings for years about how the sport has grown too big and how it's moving away from what it used to be and from what attracted so many people to it in the first place. I think a lot of people liked it better when it was a simple redneck sport, with Tim Flock and his monkey scrubbing fenders with Lee Petty driving with his arm out of the window gripping. The thing about the age group that NASCAR is courting is that they have short attention spans. They could be completely fascinated with NASCAR now and be over it in a year or two and head over heels for women's lacrosse. I think that NASCAR should try and bring in younger fans, but in doing that should they turn out the old stand by's who have been packing the stands for twenty plus years? The Nextel deal hadn't even been inked yet and NASCAR was giving a second race to California Speedway on Labor Day which is traditionally the date of the Southern 500 in Darlington. Darlington was to get a fall date as a replacement by getting the slot formerly reserved for the fall Rockingham race. This move will cost the community of Rockingham, N.C. around 25 million dollars which they counted on coming in annually. This is pretty bad for Rockingham considering that they've already been hit hard by a dwindling economy and massive layoffs from surrounding textile mills. NASCAR's reasoning for the shuffling of these races is to spread the sport out geographically. What the sport is doing, however, is ruffling the feathers of the people who have stuck with them since before Matt Kenseth was an itch in his daddy's pants. A lot of these people aren't going to look into the economics of it all. They'll see it as a slap in the face. Darlington won't be losing money since they won't be losing a race, but they will be losing something that a lot of people, NASCAR fans especially, put a lot more stock in: tradition. The Southern 500 is always in Darlington and the Southern 500 has always been on Labor Day. I know that tradition doesn't always make money, but you have to wonder what will keep the old diehards coming back and what will drive them away.

I have tickets for this year's Southern 500 in Darlington and it'll kind of be bittersweet that I'll be at the last Southern 500 at Darlington Motor Speedway. I do understand the deal with Nextel but I have a problem with the way that NASCAR has shuffled races giving California one more track and taking one away from one of the most storied tracks in the sport. I know that the same organization owns California and Rockingham so they'll be no economic loss for International Speedway Corporation, but the problem I have with the move to California is that it's such a boring track. Both of the California tracks, at Fontana and Sonoma are about as much fun to watching a Toyota rust. Then there's the whole thing about taking the Labor Day Race out of Darlington. Call me naive, tell me to get with the times, but that's just wrong. You play the World Series in October, you play football on Thanksgiving you race at Darlington Labor Day weekend. There is something to say about tradition and if NASCAR keeps going in its present direction it may find out too late that it's put its life in the wrong hands and let the people that's it counted on find another way to spend their Sunday afternoons. I don't know. Do you think that they serve beer at lacrosse matches?

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About the author: Jonathan Farlow is a frustrated writer/librarian and lives in Archdale, NC with his wife Kathy and daughter Sara. Visit his web site. You can read some of his stories there. Feedback is welcomed. Email: jonathan-farlow@excite.com

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