April 1st, 2009 
Journo Off and on for most of my life I have had a subscription to Car and Driver. It was always a publication I respected and enjoyed. So when T.C. called me Tuesday evening to tell me about the article (editorial) they had written (I’m sure you have either seen it or heard about it by this point), I have got to say I was a little shocked.
Now I knew it was a joke the minute I pulled it up. If the illustration wasn’t enough of a tip off, the “statement” from President Obama should have done it. Unless somehow every member of the news media missed the statement from the prior day, or he made it in transit to the G-20 Summit (or he is giving exclusive interviews to car magazines now), it did not happen.
In an era when people are losing their jobs by the thousands everyday, joking about a manufacturer pulling money from a sport that is dependent upon it is hard to laugh about.
I think what makes this even more difficult to swallow is the real possibility this could happen. A company undergoing bankruptcy reorganization (as it looks increasingly likely both GM and Chrysler will be doing) is going to have to cut back and sports marketing is probably going to be at the top of their list.
It sounded like that was not lost on most of you. Twitter was abuzz with people talking about the issue. One thing I read from a newspaper even quoted Twitterer’s (or tweeters?).
From what I gather the response they received was not very good either because they pulled the ‘joke’ pretty early from their Web site today. They were proud enough though to list other websites that addressed their fun prank. I’m not going to link to it, but if you search for NASCAR on their site you’ll find it.
Don’t get me wrong, I do have a good sense of humor, but when something is that close to reality it loses its humor and then just becomes what this was, tasteless.
Now it’s your turn. What did you think of Car and Driver’s prank? Did you think it was funny? Did you take it seriously? Let us know!
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I would have been fine with it if they had put something, I don’t know, APRIL FOOLS! THIS ISN’T REAL AT THE BOTTOM! I didn’t know about it until I got it in my email from a friend. I immediately thought (because I just had SportsCenter on) that if it was true, that would have been all they were talking about – despite the fact they hate NASCAR. I wake up to CBS Today Show, they have at least had it scrolling across the bottom. Plus, Obama is in foreign countries, I am sure he could care less about GM and Chrysler being in NASCAR right now. He would only make them pull out if a bunch of people were complaining like they were with the AIG bonuses.
Personally, I didn’t find the humor in it. The reason so many people believed it has been previously rumored to be close to happening. But, I think they have pulled it from their site, but the damage has been done, gave a lot of people a headache today.
I absolutely loved it! It’ll go down as one the great April Fools spoofs of all times. At first it was so believable. But those that follow the nation’s economic woes and related politics quickly realized this was so out of character for Team Obama. They poll every decision he makes. Even as the story was being composed by Ms. Rose at Car and Driver, Obama refused to comment to the UK press on predicting the World Cup outcome because he had not been “briefed on this”. Interpreted this means he had not checked with his Team to see how a prediction would impact his popularity. It doesn’t take a poll to realize that the NASCAR fan reaction to a true story would have been devasting to his ratings. That was the biggest clue it was a joke.
I think this story draws worthy attention to a real problem. GM’s, Chrysler’s and the nations economic problems are not going to get any better until we have a President that leads and not ‘follow’ polls.
I find Journo’s assessment pretty much in alignment with my own.
While Steve makes some interesting points, the bottom line as it relates to the C&D article is that it was in very poor taste with *very* little humor – if any at all.
Of course, I gave up on Car and Driver as a legitimate source of automotive writing a very long time ago…even before Csaba left…
Well done C&D! What amazes me is of the multitude that would find this story so incredibly shocking if it were true (maybe it will come to pass afterall). Hmmmm…those that voted Team O wanted change, socialism and BIG Gov are seeing the results of there wishes so why would we be suprised of another executive order? And you thought NASCAR heads of State ruled w/ an iron fist and rule book cloaked in secrecy? Folks we’re only 2 mo into 4 yrs of this stuff!
No really, I think the real April fools joke was started by NASCAR 3-4 years ago w/ the COT. Now THAT is “Tasteless” and just plain ugly. OK guys enough is enough!
Not very thoughtful during a time when this could very well happen. Car manuf in the tank, cap and trade initiatives, etc. I don;t see this administration as one that would be very friendly to autosports, so to do a prank about it is not very funny. Might give someone real ideas. Is that what C&D wants.
Tasteless? Yep you bet! Yet it could still happen, what really got me was Yahoo for one, ran a story about the outrage from the Fans of NASCAR on this then allowed the TASTELESS comments from people to call us anything they pleased. I don’t know which I am more pi##ed at Car & Driver for the joke or Yahoo for exploited it even more. I for one am tired of the stereotyped category that these ignorant people have placed us in. Do they not realize the revenue in which we as fans bring into their state?
Geesh,lighten up a little. I thought it was a hoot.What’s with all the seriuosness and stuff. Don’t we still live in as FREE country. Ohbama is prsident not king of a dictarorship.
Just curious here. If GM and Chrysler were to in fact “pull the plug” (whether voluntarily or involuntarily through Gov intervention), just what would that “really” mean anyway? So teams running under the GM and Chrysler banners just wouldn’t receive any $ help or R&D support? So what? Last I looked Chevy dominated Martinsville and has RCR, SHR and JGR under their belt. Pretty good base from what I can tell for all of you “Toyota has ruined everything” naysayers. When NASCAR really feels the pressure they will take the “no testing rule” a step further and eliminate all car and engine development and “lock-in” for a period of time. As bad as the COT is, it accomplishes this to a partial extent. Common folks, we are still running push rod engines here!
I did’nt see alot of humor in the spoof, however, it has always amazed me as to the gulliblity of so many people. You are the same ones that believe the TV announcers when they say the track is sold out, when the cameras occassionly show all the empty seats. If you actually believed C & D on Apr. 1st, don’t invest any of your money without hiring a professional. I realize this country is in serious trouble, but don’t let your skin get too thin. Not worth it!!!
What were they thinking? So many people have already lost their jobs because of the problems they have had in the sport and they would make a joke of it. They lost my respect as a professionals.
I went ballistic. I started yelling, “He has no right to do that” and probably invented a few new cuss words.
Obama is not exactly my favorite guy, and I thought he had literally gone over the edge.
I know I did.
It was Car and Driver, and I thought that to be a legitimate source of car industry news. Had it been a blog or a satire site, I would have seen it for what it was.
The funny thing is when my husband told me my favorite quarterback was being traded to Denver, I laughed and thought it was another joke. Silly man, did he think I was THAT gullible?
It wasn’t a joke.
Guess I didn’t have a very good April Fools Day! : /
People are way too sensitive. Plain and simple. Gees people it was April Fools. All articles that seemed to out there should have been taken with a grain of salt. As a NASCAR fan myself I’m disappointed with the backlash because of people’s stupidity basically. People’s inability to read the article and see it’s satire. People’s inability to look past the title of the article and actually read it. That’s what happened. Car & Driver shouldn’t have apologized. Everyone out there who didn’t read it, who assumed, who failed to research it, and everyone who gets their panties in a wad should be apologizing.
Pamela, The CEO of General Motors was forced out by the OBAMA administration. Do you think that was a joke also…and for the record I damn well don’t wear panties, so get over yourself
Under our current economic situation this was a stupid prank. I do not read Car magazines or websites for jokes. If I want jokes I can look to comedy material. By the way Neon, I rarely agree with you but you usually have your facts right. This time you do not. JGR runs Toyota now, remember? That is the reason we have SHR. Tony went back to Chevy.
Well personally I felt it was a prank that should have ended with “April Fool’s”, but instead it turned out to be something that offended alot of people…including myself. Had it ended with AF it would have been hilarious, but comedy is not Car N Driver Mags daytime job and should refrain from attempting to do so. I was affected by 9-11 in my job career and I was happy Flying magazine didn’t attempt a prank like this back then. Leave the comedy to comedians who actually get paid to do it.
With everything that has been going on it was in poor taste. If there were not hundreds of people (maybe thousands) recently unemployed due to Nascar team cutbacks it would have been an instant classic.
Rick, With Rick Wagoner being forced out of GM they are basically headed towards Bankruptcy & Chrysler is right behind them. This will not be cut & dry, there will be more job loss, legacy costs will disappear & tax payers will pick up the tab, reopen leaner with lower wages, less benefits & less employees but Ford workers that have not taken any bail out money will have to take same cuts due to being under the same contract as GM & Chrysler if they mess with their contracts again. Yet AIG workers are still being rewarded with bonuses while lay offs in NASCAR & the Auto Industry continues daily & we were supposed to be amused by another downfall? I think not!
I have to say Journo, you sure got things all flustered up today and that is the way it should be.
To Joe W. you are correct on the JGR and Toyota, not Chevy. I guess I could admit it was an April Fool’s joke, but it’d be a day late! Good catch though!
It’s probably impossible to know what GM and Dodge actually divies out to their individual teams, but my guess is that those teams would be just fine if not factory backed. Especially now that NASCAR is committed to the COT.
Rick,
Wagoner was forced out at GM because he was not doing what he should have done a long time ago. I agree it is not a joke, and I am not enthralled with Obama, but things need to be done when your company is asking for billions of money that does’nt belong to you (loan?) April fool is just that. It has nothing to do with real facts.
And thanks Pamala!!!!!
Well, how about forcing out the head of UAW. Ah, the union bosses(not laborers) have nothing to do with this…right.
My original point is that with the current state of affairs and the current go green( new way to tax us all more) administration I don’t think it takes a stretch of the imigination to see the “joke” becoming reality.
Every joke of every type has people who find it funny, and people it offends. What Car&Driver did was a great joke. You may not have liked it, but it was still a great joke. Think about it, when you hear a joke you tell it to your friends, talk to people about it, basically, you pass it in to others.
This is no different. It got people talking. It did it’s job. Lighten up.