NASCAR?!?!? What?!?!?!

Author: Alan Topalian

I started my habit in February 2001. The Super Bowl had been played about two weeks earlier, and without football to watch on Sunday, I really didn't know what to do with myself all afternoon. Studying didn't feel like an option that day, so I was sitting in my room playing Madden when my friend came in telling me he had something good I should try. Naïve and a little curious, I took him up on his offer, and the sights I saw that day blew my mind. It was the Daytona 500 and also my first taste of NASCAR, and it was spectacular. It started with an enormous wreck that sent Tony Stewart hurtling airborne down a straightaway, and ended with Dale Earnhardt's tragic fatal last-lap crash. The race may have ended horrifically, but it inspired the development of Middlebury's first NASCAR society. Headed by Deuce Daniels, the group was founded on the principle that, in the absence of football and baseball, auto racing was a better TV option than regular season NBA action.
Most people at Middlebury either take on an air of indignant superiority or they feign shock whenever I voice support for NASCAR, and then follow with the obligatory foolish and annoying comments like, "you're not from the South," or, "don't you need a mullet to like NASCAR?" The worst offense occurs when people say, "oh, it's so stupid! They just go around in circles!"
I really don't want to preach, but if you're ever inclined to say that to a NASCAR fan, it would be best to resist the temptation. It's a statement based wholly on ignorance, and it's frustrating to hear.
There is no reason to dislike racing. What's wrong with forty unbelievably loud American cars rumbling at 180 m.p.h. inches from one another, with the occasional multi-car crashes interspersed? When a Busch Series race ends, two 30 packs of Busch are proudly displayed on the roof of the victorious car, because, as we all know, fast cars and beer make a truly winning combination. Furthermore, the TV commentary is simply fantastic: During one race earlier this season, Larry McReynolds, an announcer with a strong Southern accent, proud to show off his geographical expertise, proclaimed, "Last week, team owner Richard Childress went up there to the Yukon Territories, right up there by Antarctica, huntin' polar bear!"
The Yankees-Red Sox rivalry seems as fierce as the Bayside-Valley rivalry when compared to some NASCAR feuds. When a competitor's life can be ended instantly by an adversary during a race, perceived acts of disrespect among drivers have much more profound consequences than in any other sport.I know I'm not alone. Watching football on Sunday is a ritual, and when it ends, NASCAR emerges as a savior, distracting us until next Labor Day.