nascar – blueZhift Blog

It was never easy being black and being a NASCAR fan, but I loved fast cars and the colorful personalities of the racers. Many a fan will tell you that the quality of the competition has suffered for a variety of reasons, and viewership is in decline. I started getting bored with it once Jimmie Johnson started walking away with one championship after another.

But in the end, the thing that ultimately made me turn off the TV were the racist fans. During the 2008 U.S. Presidential election campaigns, the hostility towards Barack Obama, solely because of the color of his skin, the same as my own, from NASCAR fans and the right wing leaning teams, drivers, and the organization itself was just too much. I just couldn’t bear to watch anymore on TV. And my dream of attending a race in person was abandoned. Why go somewhere where people will hate you?

Still, I’d keep an eye on the races, albeit only through Monday morning news articles on the web. But booing the First Lady, Michelle Obama, is the last straw. I’m done with you NASCAR and your pig-headed, racist fan base.

The Daytona 500 will be starting soon, and I feeling like I’m reuniting with an estranged lover. My love affair with NASCAR began 10 years ago, the day Dale Earnhardt lost his life at the close of the Daytona 500. I’d always loved cars and racing, but that was the first year that I started seriously following the sport as an adult. Needless to say, it was an emotional day.

The last few years I drifted away. The drivers just weren’t very interesting and the same guys kept winning. And all of the acrimony of the 2008 US Presidential elections soured me a bit on the sport too. But heck, after getting a chance to drive one of these cars myself at Chicagoland with DriveTech, and the hope for a better racing season than last year. I’m ready to give my old lover another shot at my heart.