R-E-S-P-E-C-T

If you are like me, you can now hear Aretha Franklin singing in your head. I love inflicting earworms on people. If you don't know what an earworm is, it is basically reading or hearing something that puts the lyrics to some annoying song like YMCA in your head and no matter what you do, it won't go away!

Anyway, the point of this blog is not to fill your heads with earworms. I am talking about the lack of respect shown to Ken Schrader. Who happens to be my favourite NASCAR driver. Why you ask? Heck if I know. It was probably from watching him on Inside Winston Cup on Speedvision which has now morphed into Inside Nextel Cup on Speed Channel. It might also have something to do with cheering for underdogs and M&M's, his sponsor at the time.

It seems that if you aren't one of the "pretty boys" or a favourite of the TV announcers you can forget about being seen on television. Which makes it hard for your fans to follow you or to gain new fans. Is it fair? Probably not, but when the networks are after ratings a 52 year old driving for a single car team whose best years are behind them will not win you TV time.

I guess I don't understand why in a four hour long telecast they can't find a minute or two to talk about every driver in the race. Even if he (or she) is 43rd and 6 laps down. If they are on the track, talk about them. If they are off the track, tell us why. It'd be impossible to track how many times we've heard "Driver so-and-so has gone to the garage" Why? Tell us why he is in the garage dang it. Even if it's just his parents, someone wants to know.

This might be part of the reason why TV ratings are going down every year. People get sick of hearing about the same 10 drivers week after week and they use Trackpass or listen to the radio play-by-play to follow their favourite driver(s). I've actually done more of that this year now that NASCAR is on Sirius. Listen to the radio announcers while watching the pictures on TV.

And then if one of the "non pretty boys" has a good run then it doesn't get mentioned either. Most recent example, the charity race at Eldora Speedway. Schrader finished fourth with a real chance to win. Look at the post-race quotes, Top 3 get mentioned as do the drivers that finished 11th, 15th and 23rd.

I know, life isn't fair but I'll just plug along cheering for a driver whose career is winding down because he is a good guy and who doesn't love an underdog?