I second that. I grew up in Indianapolis and got to know the sport as a youngster via the 500 (1st one was when I was 5). To me, the pageantry of that race was the norm. It was not until I was a teenager that I learned not all races had parades, mayors breakfasts, princesses, etc… Then in my post-college years when I moved away from Indianapolis, Jim Nabors singing Back Home Again had special meaning. I am typically a pretty unemotional person, but the goosebumps I get standing on the grid at Indy for that song are incredible!

Thanks for mentioning Matt’s piece. Very thought-provoking discussion over here, indeed …

As one of the professional writers on FS (and elsewhere) who’s been covering the sport for a few years now, I agree that the real answer lies somewhere in the middle. I know for me, one concrete example I can give of where my opinion changed is Tony Stewart. I definitely had some preconceived notions he was, well, not so nice. That’s a perception hard to give up when you love the sport for years and then go write for it — TV and everything you see makes it difficult to completely throw away bias right at the beginning. But when I finally had a chance to meet and hang out with the guy, I couldn’t believe how everything I’d said and heard on TV was just a snippet of who Stewart actually was. It was a really good thing …

Of course, at the same time you work so many hours in this sport sometimes that wipes the luster off no matter how much you love it. My passion will never die, but heck, when you put in 60 hours in four days in a far away place it’s easy to get a little cranky and every once in a long while wish that maybe, just maybe, you could go back to that fairy tale land where you didn’t know all the answers and could just be a fan for a day. But those are few and far between for me …

The best advice I could give is similar to what’s already been said here; take what you see and hear on TV with a grain of salt. In the end, those five second interviews can only go so deep. There’s always more to the story, and only in the really in-depth and features and pieces can you get a glimpse of what the real person is truly like. And even then … it’s always hard to give a 100% full snapshot. The media is often pressured for immediate answers in an era where we want to know what happened five seconds after news breaks. But here’s the truth … our technology may be better, but the truth never comes out any faster. The right answers come to the columnists who patiently wait for them.

One more thing … for those who really, really love this sport, even in the toughest times our passion will never wear off. The chills I get before the start of a race at Daytona when I’m running around on pit road are just as big as they were three years ago … if not more so.

Keep up the good work, Insiders.

This is why I read this site and have enjoyed it since its start: Your articles are fantastic and the latter conversation between everyone is great.

I have always wanted a career in NASCAR: I spent 20 years doing AF intel work and staying in that business was the best bet for taking care of my family. However, I did take a shot at trying to get into the sport on the NASCAR side of things… was it an eye-opener? Absolutely. Did it deter my love for racing, or my desire to someday work at the track? Absolutely not. People are people – good, bad, and ugly. As some say: it is what it is.

I have recently started my own consulting business supporting the Intel Community. However, once it is successful I am sure I will start take some time to knock on few race shop’s doors… I’m sure some team would use some intelligence collection, wouldn’t they?

Keep up the great conversations!

Cheers, AFMSgt

As the business manager of a truck team, I’ve been called to the hauler, more than once. Some times I got blessed out, others I was told to have a seat and chat. Fairness had a tendacy to balance out.

Back home, I had friends who would kill over certain drivers. And I’d think if they only knew. I wouldn’t spit on my mom’s favortie. And one driver I couldnt stand, brushed off a mob of reporters to talk to a small child in a wheel chair and roll him up in the hauler.

At the end of the day, and the end of my career it is the people of the sport of I miss. The one’s that became family. Sent gifts when my children were born and still send Christmas cards.

People aren’t perfect and we all make mistakes. New media formats tend to highlight these mistakes quicker and to some extent beat ‘em to death. So it’s a two-edged sword. The fans know more and have access to more that 10 years ago just didn’t get out.

Yepper, couldn’t agree more.

I was absolutely appalled some headlines read “NASCAR Let Mayfield Drive While on Drugs.”

The stories went on to say NASCAR tested once and it was positive, let him drive then tested again.

The stories were absolute poppy-cock, NASCAR has zero choice until the confirming and second test came back.

But reality and truth didn’t matter to the nitwits that wrote them or their editors that supplied the headlines. Or both.

True, you never miss a play (although I wouldn’t claim never I’ve seen the NFL miss kick runbacks) in the stick and ball sports.

But why is that? They all have natural breaks in the action, racing doesn’t have that except yellow flags.

In fact the NFL has mandated Ref timeouts that are specifically for commercials. The NHL strangely comes up with longer breaks in action supposedly to allow for player changes but when at a game you realize they are for longer ad breaks.

I agree the shilling never ceases but that’s is unrelated to the length of events or number of ad breaks.

That said, check an NFL head coaches headset next time a game is on. His boom-mic is plastered with a very large logo and brand name. Do the NFL, MLB announcers not say the game is being played in “such and such BIG corporation” stadium?

They sure do and it’s nothing but shilling and paid for ads.

A point of clarification the second test once the first is positive is mandatory (to confirm the the 1st) and not a result of Mayfield declaring use of the two other drugs.

To further your point, methamphetamine shows a slightly different, and easily discerned molecule structure than “plain” amphetamine found in Adderall or Claritin-D.

It’s possible a mistake was made but it is slim to none.

And frankly, Mayfield’s last non-sense about him breathing in fumes from a fire only makes him look to be tossing crap into the pile hoping to obscure reality. His lawyer needs to tell him to shut the hell up.

As far as Jeremy goes, we just don’t want it to be true. Things like this are not suppose to happen in our sport and especially not to someone who has made it all the way to the cup level. I am not foolish enough to think it can’t or doesn’t happen, I just don’t want it to tarnish the sport I love. Reality is it’s possible, sad but very possible.

Then of course you have them Marc Davis mess in the NW series with Brendan and his crew chief, that’s another really big can of worms. It’s been a interesting year for NASCAR.

As for Jeremy Mayfield you are correct again. We don’t know him. A glimpse of his personality has come out in the last few years though. It seems to me he is a guy short on talent who’s mouth talks him out of every opportunity he gets in racing. I don’t think it’s impossible that he turned to drugs to help with that stress. Only he knows for sure.