To the morons in Talladega who were throwing crap on the track. Keep it up and you will ruin a very good thing for a lot of us. The very good thing I am talking about? Being able to bring your own food and drink to the races. Only in motor sports are you able to do this. A lot of people scrimp and save all year to attend one race and bringing their own sandwiches and beer helps them afford to be there. Not everyone wants to, or can afford to pay $6 for a beer or $10 for a bag of ice.
But you go ahead and act all offended because Jeff Gordon has now won more races that Dale Earnhardt. This may come as a surprise but there are other drivers with more wins than the Intimidator and Jeff might pass them too. Somehow I can't imagine DW or Cale Yarborough fans throwing beer cans when Jeff passes them on the all-time win list.
Even the man's son can't get it through your thick skulls not to do this. It is just racing. Democracy isn't going to fall if the 24 car ends up in Victory Lane. Do any of you recall 2001 when some "fans" threatened Sterling Marlin after we lost Dale Sr. Y'all listened when Dale Jr said it wasn't Sterling's fault and to leave him alone. Listen to him again now and chuck a couple of cans at your own cars if you feel the need. Not all of you are NFL quarterbacks and your throws aren't reaching the track. Most of them are ending up in the stands hitting other people who paid just as much as you did to watch a stock car race and not be hit in the head by a can of beer thrown from above.
NASCAR likes to compare itself to the stick and ball sports. The NHL had to erect netting at the ends of all the arenas after a puck went into the stands, hit a 13 year old girl in the head and killed her. People at baseball games are getting hurt by bats and get away and foul balls. NASCAR even has catchfences around all the tracks to keep car parts from sailing into the stands and hurting you. But you think it's OK to throw things from the stands at the competitors.
Now I want you to name me a single arena or stadium in North America thats hosts NHL, NFL, CFL, MLB or NBA games that allows you to bring your own snacks and drinks inside with you. If this keeps up, ISC and the other track operators will ban people from bringing coolers into the stands and you'll be complaining as you wait in line for a $6 warm draught beer that you won't normally drink because it sponsors a different driver. And it'll be served in a paper cup and they'll stop serving with 1/3 of the race left to run. Next time, it might be you in the first 10 rows getting a 10 stitch gash in the back of your head.
And on top of all that, you are helping to reinforce the stereotype that all NASCAR fans are inbred, slack-jawed, beer swilling yokels. I can say that the majority of people at Talladega today are nothing like that. Nor are the vast majority of NASCAR fans that I have met but you just wait until the video of this makes it was onto all the news channels with headlines like "Rednecks litter track after Gordon win".
Kudos to law enforcement at Talladega who were handcuffing people when they saw something thrown, whether it reached it's intended target or not.
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