NASCAR is the most popular sport in America, and is watched by millions of people (in the South and Midwest). Every August, NASCAR travels to the Brickyard (Indianpolis Motor Speedway) for the Brickyard 400, where they pack an estimated 250,000 fans into the bleachers, and approximately 150,000 fans in the pit (area inside the track). And that's just Indianapolis. Daytona, Talledega, and others draw almost as many fans, and even higher tv ratings. If you've watched any NASCAR lately, you're probably wonder just what the rules are? Crashes happen all the time, and we're told that many of them actually occur on purpose. Whether or not this is against the rules remains unclear. Just a couple days ago, Carl Edwards overturned Brad Keseloski during a Sprint Cup race in Atlanta. The footage of the horrific accident can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iDciW9n8lo

But this was not the first time these two have collided. In fact, this accident was merely payback for a past accident, in which Keselowski uplifted Edwards down the final stretch in Talledega. Footage of this crash can be seen here (fast foreward to :55): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QX7RAvVhBJ0

Payback in NASCAR? This sounds highly dangerous to me. What if one of these men had died? Would that be considered manslaughter? Granted, someone could never die in NASCAR because the cars (many of which are made by Toyota) are so safe, right? Imagine if similar rules could be applied to every day driving? Say, for instance, you're driving to work, and a guy in front of you absolutely refuses to do the speed limit. You're trying to be on time, and he's taking his sweet time. What in the world is more frustrating? So what do you do? You drive up behind him and fish tail him into a barricade. When the police ask why such an accident occured, you merely explain that this was payback, which would count as a perfectly viable excuse, and your day would continue as planned.

This scenario, however, does have its problems. For one, the chances of the slow driver actually living through this in a standard vehicle might not be so great, especially if I struck him going upwards of 190 miles an hour (which is how fast Keselowski and Edwards were driving). Obviously, the need for new vehicles is a must. If all cars were as safe as the current stock cars used in NASCAR races, we would have nothing to worry about. Crashes happen in NASCAR, it's part of the game. But crashes happen in real life, too, and they happen all the time. They cause traffic, they cause rubbernecking, and can even cause death. It's part of being on the road. When you are behind the wheel on the highway or on a local road, you assume the risks.

So my question is this: why not enhance these driving risks, but do so in safer vehicles that are used in modern NASCAR races? There are some potentially terrific outcomes that can follow from this. For one, if people know they could be overturned at any minute by some lunatic, chances are they will become safer, faster drivers. Maybe those ladies on their way to PetSmart in their massive SUVs talking on their cell phones with their bratty kids and family dog in the back seat will pay more attention to their surroundings. All they'd need to do was look at the lists of racecar drivers who have died on the track, which if I were to post all the names, there would not be enough room on this entire blog to fit them all. Of the well known American tracks, in short, there have been 56 deaths at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and 24 deaths at the Daytona International Speedway. That's just two racetracks. One crash in France at the famed Le Mans speedway saw the death of driver Pierre Levegh. But Pierre didn't die alone. He took with him approximately 80 spectators as well. I wonder if somebody was getting their payback on him? NASCAR doesn't need new rules, the current roadways in America need new rules, and for it, our overall driving experience will be a better one.

Say whatever you want about NASCAR, laugh that some people call it a sport, turn your nose up in disgust that others watch purely for a chance to witness carnage, or be intrigued by the the masses that to gather on the hot pavement of Daytona. However, before you choose to disrespect NASCAR, (or perhaps you too enjoy high speed wrecks) you should be aware that this is a billion dollar a year industry. Like any billion dollar a year industry NASCAR is two things 1) full of conspiracies 2) a boys club, this article deals with both. I’m reluctant to use the word conspiracy here, because people often associate it with delusional lunatics and pure fantasy; however what I am about to right is simply drawn from the cold hard facts.


In 2009 Danica Patrick stunned the world by appearing in a “remake” of the 1980’s film Weird Science for GoDaddy.com’s highly sexualized Superbowl Ads in nothing but a towel (and at other times nothing at all). Although she had also appeared in a 2007 Superbowl Ad, in that one she appeared as a very professional race car driver who only attracted attention for her bad puns. While this may have been her introduction to the World, in 2005 she was introduced to a much closer nit universe, the racing world. She did so by becoming only the fourth women in history to compete in the Indy 500, finishing an unprecedented 4rth place. In 2006 and 2007 she proved herself once again finishing in the top ten along with a third place finish in 2009. From here Danica made another surprising jump, one you likely didn’t hear about; here move to NASCAR (as opposed to the rocket shaped Indy car circuit). While you may be saying to yourself, “of course I didn’t hear about it, it’s NASCAR and I live in the North”, however you would only be partially correct. The real culprit: The Boys Club running NASCAR. Unfortunately for Danica, I found out about her debut a few weeks before it was set to take place. I saw unfortunately not because I want her to fail, but because once word got out that women could be capable drivers, NASCAR panicked and so the conspiracy begins. Now that the world had learned that Danica had penetrated the phalanx (innuendo!) like defense system NASCAR had set up, they only had one option left to retain their “pride”; embarrass Danica. In order to do so NASCAR sought to reinforce the old stereotype that women don’t know how to drive. While this could have been done in a number of ways (most obviously some sort of rouge computer chip), the men of NASCAR went with old reliable. And so on February 13th at the NASCAR Nationwide Series, a yet to be determined number of men collaborated to take out Danica. First up at bat was Trevor Bayne, turning into a wall to make it appear as if his attempts at taking out Danica (who was right behind him) were inadvertent. However Danica escaped and instead Trevor took out six other cars. Next up was Colin Braun who on lap 68 (of 120) turned into John Wise, once again ocnce again this accident occurred immediately before Danica. Sadly this time it worked, with the duo taking out not only Danica but nine other racers in the process, for a total of 19 cars wrecked due to project sabotage. One success wasn’t enough for NASCAR though, so they went at it again at Dancia’s next race, at the Febuary 20th Sam’s Town 300 race. It was lap 83 and Danica had just previously ran a lap in third place. At this point Michael McDowell slowed and turned down into Danica.





Notice how the announcers blame everything on Danica. While some find my arguments utterly insane, I find it entirely unbelievable that a world class racer could be involved in three accidents when she has only been in three races. Luckily NASCAR has until June (Danica’s next NASCAR race) to clean up their act, although I am doubtful and fully except to see McDowell and company sporting some bling and a new set of wheels in the coming weeks as per their (assumed) corporate payoffs.