Backstretch Motorsports

I’ve started this piece many times, only to delete it and think to myself that my quasi-political viewpoints don’t really amount to a hill of beans to anyone.

The announcement that Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing was shuttering the garage on the No. 8 team scarcely made a ripple in the NASCAR world, truth be told.

The No. 8 and the history it was laud-ed a bit, but not so overwhelmingly

It’s not like they were shutting down Dale Earnhardt Jr. or the JR Nation. That Driver 8 and the legacy of the team has been two seasons gone.

This wasn’t even the Mark Martin No. 8 with the seat-sharing arrangement with Regan Smith and Aric Almirola.

No. This was simply an un-sponsored car with no prospects of acquiring any much-needed capital to run the season.

Should we be surprised by a team’s sudden demise? No. That’s the business. It could happen to any team at any time.

Especially now. There’s a feeling coming from so many corners of society, fueled by.. well you got the picture?

But remember the afore mentioned word .

Capital.

It’s certainly economic, but it also seems.. sinister.

There’s a feeling in motorsports that I haven’t seen in my 30 years around the industry.

Yeah. It’s fear.

Brave faces are being worn, but there’s the smell of implosion in the air.

Atlas, apparently, has shrugged.

I could certainly go on the diatribe here that DC has been in control of the U.S. auto industry for more than 3 decades with the CAFE standards, EPA regs, demanding boutique fuels, emissions standards, support of unions.

Results?

Speak for themselves, don’t they?

In truth, the justification for the fears is very real. Too many are wanting to play the game of pointing and saying “We don’t like that, it doesn’t suit our vision, our ‘Brave New World’ agenda.”

It’s too American.

Systematic destruction of something loved for so long begins, and the cheers and jeers become decidedly loud and mean as each piece is dismantled.

But this is also about jobs. Americans working. And it’s about thousands of jobs in the industry and related service positions.

Those thousands of people dedicated to being the best with craft skills honed , in many cases, over decades of sacrifice.

Working toward the common goal of winning, producing, achieving.

Is that not the epitome of the American Dream?

It will be achieved eventually, if the present body politic isn’t challenged.

There are those that will say it’s just racing, rednecks going in a circle.

It’s having to be force destroyed by the dismantling of capitalism.

So what do we do? Wait for it to all fall down and wait for to it be reborn like some phoenix from the ashes?

I don’t think the indomitable spirit of those of us that know what, who and why this actually is has been considered here yet.

That’s something that can never be legislated.

© 2009 backstretchmotorsports.com (The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.)