It's out now; I'm a NASCAR fan!

Okay, I guess its time to admit it. I am a fan of NASCAR. It’s taken me a long time to come out with this declaration. About 8 years ago our middle son was a follower of the sport and when we would have our family gatherings he would put it on the screen. We have one son who loves baseball and one who loves golf and they all follow football so actually what takes place is more of a channel surfing between whatever games or race or tournament happens to be on. Given what I knew at that time, my opinion of NASCAR was that it consisted mostly of a bunch of rednecks riding around in circles for several hours.

On one particular day I was challenged to choose a driver. I did not know much about any of them but there seemed to be quite a bit of trash talking about this fellow named Jeff Gordon, therefore, I identified him as my driver. From then on I began to pay nominal attention but was pleased the fellow I chose appeared to be doing quite well. Of course when I spoke about my choice it brought forth a barrage of criticisms and complaints from my son and others about how Jeff was not a “real” NASCAR guy and while he was a winner, no one liked him. The first few years I had some interest that was slowly increasing as reflected by my checking the race results and standings each Monday. Pretty soon I was watching more races and the family began buying me Jeff Gordon stuff. I thought it all mostly a joke since I was not a real fan.

I’ve only been to one NASCAR race in person and it was at the Texas Motor Speedway. Attending that event made me aware that watching it on television is a better fit for me. There were just too many people, too much walking, too much drinking (others, not me), and way too many people making it clear they did not care for my favorite driver. I still do not consider myself to be fanatical about the sport. I will watch it if I can. I also usually watch some of the post race programs and read a variety of websites and blogs to keep up with what’s going on. However, I never miss anything to see a race and I often leave for choir practice or some other Church activity right in the middle or near the end of the race. Usually someone shows up later for the services and they typically give me the final results.

How did this change take place that brought me from being not even the least bit interested to now paying quite a lot of attention? For me it was learning more about what is behind the racing itself, the engineering, the engines, the training, the teams, the pit crews, the strategies, and the variety of issues that come into play week after week. Obviously, it’s become a huge success today but had it not been for that one day many years ago I most likely would still be snickering whenever the subject was mentioned. So there you have it. I am a fan, at least at some level. I do follow it and I do enjoy it, and yes, I am looking forward to Jeff winning his 5th championship this year! More later…………