NASCAR's Chance and Transition

   NASCAR was my first sport, my first love. Before I ever witnessed the gladiators on the football field, or the giants on the hardwood through my television screen, too many cars going circles for hours was my shit on Sunday afternoons. The precision of the drivers demanded by each track, the intensity of a close race in the final laps. I was even a fan of qualifying on Friday afternoons – who was the fastest straight up? But as a youngin, I often noticed there was no one that looked like me in the starting field in most of NASCAR’s leagues. The only driver at the time I had any emotional connection to was Jeff Gordon. We were both born in Vallejo, and he’s had the best paint schemes in the history of motorsports… and paint schemes. Plus he was winning everything in the late 90’s, so it was easy to jump aboard the bandwagon. But how long would I have to wait for a driver that was any type of minority to root for in NASCAR? 

NASCAR has long operated in a space that is free of diversity and mostly exclusive to white men. Its fanbase largely resembled the population of your father’s Augusta Golf Course while burying the overtones of overt racism and sexism. An easy argument could be made that its whiteness is its niche. NASCAR is as popular as it is with the people it is because it's replete of brown men or women. While the sport was born in the American south, it’s become mainstream in a way that has extended itself to rap lyrics and black celebrities to say the three famous words in motorsports without actually welcoming black drivers. 

Despite minority men have largely been absent in NASCAR’s past, women have had an established history. While not the first, Danica Patrick has taken her opportunity to new heights. She became one of the few faces of world motorsports without ever laying claim to a championship and only a single race victory in Japan in 2008. That’s not a criticism, Dale Earnhardt Jr is NASCAR to the general public and he’s never sniffed a title. Both will be retiring from full-time competition after tonight’s race in Homestead-Miami. Patrick will possibly be heading into the booth while only competing in NASCAR’s biggest races, the Daytona 500 and Brickyard 400 next season. 

While Patrick hasn’t acquired much on-track success, her off-the-track success is top tier amongst her colleagues. Her brand she's built has allowed her to be known to those who don’t care to watch cars in circles during NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLS seasons. How many other drivers have been in multiple Super Bowl ads? You can’t name any besides Danica Patrick and her infamous GoDaddy commercials. Through her entire racing career, she's been the subject of sexist and misogynistic warfare that has come her way on and off the track. Yes, part of her success comes from her aesthetics. A lot of knuckle-dragging, women-hating savages will try to compromise her career as a professional race-car driver with her sexualized ads. She did both and changed how NASCAR sells itself to potential new fans.

NASCAR has recently had a problem with selling the sport to newcomers. Simply put, people just arent watching anymore and are leaving in droves. Personally, I have stopped watching on a regular basis due to NASCAR reliance and favoritism towards its current base vs much needed change and lack of innovation and direction. Confederate flags still fill the infield and the rules for its playoff change every season. While the series has been a space for white men, it now struggles to be welcomed in to the homes of a browning America.

 

The star that they have had are vanishing and doing so very quickly. Jeff Gordon, Mark Martin, Tony Stewart, Carl Edwards, Matt Kenseth, Danica Patrick, and Dale Jr with the last two gone after tonight. That’s an incredible loss of star power in a short amount of time. So who’s left? Jimmie Johnson and Kyle Busch? Maybe Denny Hamlin? Possibly Brad Keselowski? Those are questions, not answers. There’s plenty of space for someone to come in and fill the role of faces of the sport. The problem with Hamlin and Keselowski is that they’re not stars. They’ve been in the league for years, one has won a title and still, they have not been given the moniker of star by the NASCAR audience. In order for a new star to be born, the name needs to be fresh but carry the weight with the proper balance of talent and potential. From a macro view, the person should probably be a face haven’t seen much in NASCAR’s history. It’s the perfect time as America’s former tried and true motorsports league looks itself in the mirror and sees old, frail, and irrelevance starring back. 

In comes Darrell “Bubba” Wallace Jr. 

At twenty-four years of age he’s still on the ascendancy of his career and his stardom. It’s quite possible this is the driver NASCAR needs center-stage as its stars exit stage left. He’s cut his teeth in the two minor leagues; the Craftsman Truck and Xfinity Series. Combined, he has 6 wins, 61 top tens, and 5 poles. While it’s clear he can hang in a series that usually sees top-level drivers and teams steal the money and experience of younger, wide-eyed drivers, a question often posed to African Americans and minorities alike when they meet all the qualifications of the job; will that be enough?

For too many the answer will be a resounding no. It isn’t now and it will never be. What stops fans from accepting him as a driver, before we ever get to an ambassador of the sport is the color of his skin. That’s real and that’s what lurks on the horizon for Wallace and NASCAR. We know now that Sunday’s next year will smoke out the racists on twitter. We’ve already seen it. 

This past season, Kyle Donahue raced a truck sponsored by “Blue Lives Matter”. We know the shit-storm would have been legendary, if even made possible had a Black Lives Matter car had debuted. Danica Patrick and the women before her showed us America, not solely NASCAR hasn’t progressed the way we tell ourselves it has. What will be crucial for NASCAR will be how it handles racism thrown at its drivers from its own fans. How will Brian France address the black mark that is the scab often stereotyped amongst the very people that actually watch the sport? That will be the ultimate test. We know evil and ignorance lies in many homes of America; we don’t need sports to see that. What we will need to see is NASCAR get behind Wallace, condemn those who target him because of his skin color, and actually begin to move forward in a real way. 

Danica Patrick has one leg out of the door as her full-time racing career comes to a close tonight. In less than two months, the door opens for Darrell Wallace Jr. It’s not ideal – you’d want them both in the sport at the same time especially as the stars that have carried the sport the last two decades are now gone. This is a huge chance for NASCAR, and an even bigger opportunity for Wallace to literally become one of those faces of sports in this country. The timing is perfect for NASCAR to have a black driver that has the talent to compete and the voice to teach. He’ll have his chance to restore relevance to one of the most iconic numbers in NASCAR’s history; no. 43 made famous by his new boss, Richard Petty. 

It’s been nine months of soaking up every Dale Jr race. Nine months of drivers adjusting to another new playoff system. Nine months of trying to get use to the "Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series". I still don’t like it, and I still will call it the Winston Cup Series. I will always call it the Busch Series and it will always be the Pepsi 400 to me damnitt!! While it’s a night to crown a new series champion, say goodbye to stars will miss instantly, it’s a night to look towards next season. It will be a huge one for NASCAR.