NASCAR: Who Makes the Rules?

In my Media and Culture class we are reading about cultural norms of societies and groups of people. We read an article about how Americans are obsessed with taking care of our appearance with the way we dress, caring about of our hygiene, and wanting to improve what we look like. Who gives us this image of what we're supposed to look like? What is idealist? With my mind always thinking about NASCAR, I drifted off and started to relate this to NASCAR. Go figure.

In the culture society of NASCAR, one of the social norms is that a fan usually die hard for one driver. They've got every kind of memorabilia you can think of and will purchase anything with just the driver's number or sponsors on it. But what if you're a fan of multiple drivers? You hardly see fans dressed up that have a Kurt Busch backpack with a Kevin Harvick hat and a Jeff Gordon t-shirt. Personally I would look at you like you were crazy. It's a social norm in NASCAR for fans to express their passion to one driver but not to many. It's acceptable if the drivers that they are pulling for are all apart of one organization or they all drive for the same manufacturer. Who creates these social norms in NASCAR? What constitutes what is right and what is wrong?

I am a fan of several drivers but I only feel acceptable to favoritism to a small group of drivers, narrowing it down to maybe two or three. I'm not sure why I feel that way. I like to be diverse and like many different drivers, but yet I limit myself to only those few. I am a NASCAR fan in general and support many other drivers whether it be on Twitter or watch them make guest appearances on television and so on and so on. I'm not sure why I limit myself to only publicly displaying that one driver that I pull for. Is it because I feel socially pressured to like the one driver that most all fans like?


Recently I have really started to like Brad Keselowski. I pulled for him when he was driving for JR Motorsports back in 2009. Once he moved to the Sprint Cup Series I didn't pull for him as much because he was driving for Penske Racing. I have always loved the Chevy drivers and did not feel very open to like another organization or manufacturer. I'm pursuing to work in NASCAR doing public relations and I need to become more diverse in the atmosphere opening myself and allowing myself to accept other drivers and learn about their organizations. I know this might be off topic but I relate this a lot to my sorority and the National Panhellenic Conference. NPC is our governing body and umbrella head while there are twenty-six organizations that fall under the NPC regulation. In NASCAR, NASCAR is the sanctioning body and there are several different teams and organizations within NASCAR. It's recruitment week for my sorority so that's been on my mind lately.

I really believe in breaking the barriers in the sport and creating new social norms and being more acceptable and diverse. If you want to wear multiple drivers paraphernalia, go for it. I shouldn't be the one to make judgement on if you like multiple drivers. I should encourage it so NASCAR can become more of a melting pot of diversity.

NASCAR is Back with Daytona Testing

The longest not even two months of my life are over. You know why? Because NASCAR is back with Preseason Thunder at Daytona with testing! Those of you who have been anxiously awaiting this week since the NASCAR banquet ended in November, can finally get your NASCAR fix other than reading what drivers have been doing in their off season on Twitter and Facebook. I have to give credit to Twitter though because it has kept me in the loop on many major off season changes that has happened since the NASCAR season ended.



Now this is what I'm talking about!

Daytona Preseason testing started January 12-14. This in particular test is always crucial but more now because NASCAR is trying to eliminate the two car tandem racing. I hate this style of racing. Driver's are doing it because it's the fastest way to get around the track and it eliminates the factor of whose car is the best in performance. Doesn't even matter if your car is crappy, as long as you can push the other car in front of you it's going to go faster. So NASCAR is doing it's job to get back to the "old style" of racing at these super speedways.

It really bothers me when the racing is more strategy now with this style of racing than the racing itself. Of course we won't be able to see how this test really works out until The Budweiser Shootout but NASCAR did mandate that the drivers draft in a pack today. When they did run in a pack they were somewhat spaced out and the cars did not have any problems with over heating or air pressure. The cars were actually getting swirly and the drivers were excited to finally get racy. Jeff Burton said it best today, the two-car tandem racing won't go completely away but NASCAR is trying to minimize it. The speeds are about the same now with the two car tandem as they run in packs so they're making progress. As long as they get back to drafting in big packs I'll be happy and so will a lot of other NASCAR fans.

There's only 44 more days until the Daytona 500 which will go by fast and be here before you know it. In the mean time Barrett-Jackson and the Rolex 24 race are coming up and will by my racing fix till then. There is this other thing called school and work that might keep me busy for a while.