Undeniably A Decade Of Change

By the time you read this the “unnamed decade” will have ended (and not a moment too soon if you ask me). Through triumph and through tragedy this decade for NASCAR can be simply defined by one word: change.

Winston left us and so did Benny Parsons and Bill France Jr. COT and Chase became the controversial buzzwords. And safer barriers made their way to every oval track on the circuit.

A blue collar kid from El Cajon, California went from a mediocre Busch ride to the ride that Jeff Gordon (and Mr. H) made, overnight. He then took the sport by storm.

The Cup Series went from Winston to Nextel to Sprint. Busch said goodbye and Craftsman bid farewell. Nationwide Insurance and Camping World filled the void.

NASCAR got it’s first consolidated TV contract worth billions (yes with a b). We met Digger (the camera turned Sunday morning TV cartoon) and we got the “Hollywood Hotel” all courtesy of Fox. ESPN returned to the fold and TNT joined NASCAR for the first time. Darrell Waltrip and Rusty Wallace went from being drivers to broadcasters.

Jeff Gordon won his fourth championship and so did Jimmie Johnson (along with his first, second and third). Tony Stewart won two and Kurt Busch, Matt Kenseth and Bobby Labonte all joined NASCAR’s elite for the first time.

The era of ‘the next Jeff Gordon’ emerged as teams raced to pick up younger and younger talent in hopes of finding the next great thing. Evernham brought us Casey Atwood, and Gibbs brought us Joey Logano. The jury’s still out on one of them.

‘The King’ Richard Petty left Level Cross for Mooresville, and then left Mooresville for Statesville (and then Concord). A couple of mergers occurred along the way.

Speaking of mergers, Earnhardt and Ganassi became related names, as did Ganassi and Sabates (or is it with Sabates?), Earnhardt and Ginn, Gillett and Evernham, Petty and Gillett, and Yates and Petty. Roush and Fenway even joined forces.

We even had owners emerge from other sports. Randy Moss became part owner of a team as did Brad Daugherty. Terry Bradshaw, Troy Aikman and Roger Staubach also got in on the fun (they didn’t stay though).

And finally the death of a legend became the watershed moment of the decade. Dale Earnhardt’s death changed everything. It led to desperately needed safety changes and left a team without its leader and the garage without its biggest advocate.

The unnamed decade was certainly an interesting one for NASCAR. Some things changed for sure, but some things stayed the same. What 2010 and the future holds is unclear, but whatever happens I know I’m looking forward to the ride.

We here at The Nascar Insiders wish you and yours a Happy New Year and remind you Daytona is only 44 days away!

Related posts:

• The NASCAR Week That Was: Dec. 7-14
• The Series is called What Now?
• The Incredible Revolving Drivers
• Kyle Busch an Anomaly? Not So Fast.
• When Two Teams Are Really One

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