For those who do not know what happened, yesterday was the Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Speedway, which was one of the most blatantly corrupt races I've ever seen, but to give a TL;DR of the situation:
Chevrolet told several of the teams that drive its cars to make a blockade in order to guarantee that at least one of its drivers, this time William Byron, would be able to make the Championship 4 race happening this Sunday. This blatant collusion was recorded on several drivers' radios being communicated by their spotters and crew chiefs, which is bringing into question the validity of the current 'playoff' format.
It sucks, and god I wish we went back to the full season format, or at max, the 10 race Chase, because the 'playoffs' don't even boost ratings, which I'd imagine is NASCAR's goal.
I think they've been heading in the right direction by largely staying silent on politics or social issues and adding older fan favorite venues back to the schedule.
A lot of the complaints with the current product come less from the evolution of core things like the racing or cars and more from the management's habit of doubling down on bad ideas like a playoff system, stages, or overtime that hurt the sport's reach among long time and potential new fans.
Good to hear. I remember with the whole Bubba Wallace thing thinking they were dumb for attacking their fans
Yep. I really haven't seen much "Bubba worship" lately. He doesn't seem to get any more attention than the other drivers (I actually think he's a solid, competitive driver in his own right and proved he can win in his Truck and K&N Series days), and I don't think NASCAR themselves give him preferential treatment when it comes to things like officiating.
They probably won't outright say it unless a second Trump term can create a better cultural shift, but I think NASCAR's management quietly knows they fucked up big time with the whole noose hoax and the Let's Go Brandon response. They've mostly just focused on promoting the racing itself over the past couple years.
Good to hear. What annoyed me most with Wallace was that he said he never thought much about race, so it wasn’t a big deal in his life. I have no doubt some agent convinced him or he thought it would be a good idea to lean into the blm crap.
All NASCAR had to do if they felt they absolutely HAD to do something amidst the manufactured racial divide of 2020-21 was release the following statement:
"NASCAR has made tremendous progress establishing ourselves as a sport for all. Our sport is open to all fans and participants alike regardless of distinguishing traits like physical characteristics or social classes. We welcome everyone with a love of speed and competition into the NASCAR family, and we will continue doing so well into the future."
That's it. They didn't have to do anything else to prove their inclusiveness, which they've had well before all the BLM madness. Instead, they handled it in the worst way possible and alienated everyone; fans and outsiders alike.
Thankfully, they've started to bounce back from that lately and no longer emphasize identity politics so much.
As for Bubba, I think some Democrat/globalist strategist paid his team and NASCAR's management to stage the noose hoax, and he probably leaned into it at the direction of some far left or just plain out of touch marketing or PR agent.
Once it started becoming clear that it was a blatant Jussie Smollet like hoax that was intended to start riots and only created more division; and didn't boost the sport's overall reach, I think the whole thing got mostly rejected and that level of Marxist political influence started getting shut down.
Which brings us to where we're at now, an apolitical NASCAR with good core product and far less of a need to cater to people who would never get into it on its own merits. It helps that Bubba and NASCAR as a whole have mostly abstained from forcing politics and social activism into the sport lately.