| | | | | | | | |  | | | | The annual night race at Bristol has come and gone, and brought with it a huge shot in the arm for NASCAR’S top division. The great finish, the great side-by-side racing and all around good show will no doubt be blogged about for weeks to come.
Perhaps even a new rivalry has been born. NASCAR needs this new feud between Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards. It is good for our sport. We trust that it won't get out of hand and in the long run, nobody will get hurt.
There is a difference between a good old-fashioned rivalry and just plain stupidity. What we don’t need is guys wrecking each other at a superspeedway.
Rivalries in NASCAR have long been a great source of inspiration for fans in the earlier days to buy a ticket and pass through the turnstiles. Now even more so, to at least turn on the television.
The ratings again have been decent, all of this is a positive sign for our sport. The Daytona 500 fight between Cale, Donnie and Bobby has long been heralded as the spike that put us on the map. Somewhere between the vanilla homogenized ice cream players and pro wrestling, we need this rivalry. Taunting, pushing and shoving in the NFL makes for good TV, it also brings excitement and new viewers.
In the earliest of days prior to television, we had rivalries and photo finishes. The problem then was that it took an absolute miracle to happen for the local media to write even the slightest blurb about stock car racing.
Icons Chris Economaki and Dick Berggren knew this and bucked the conventional stick and ball wisdom to report on their passion of auto racing. Even the most casual of fans will now know about what we do via the electronic media. Our NASCAR world is changing everyday and some of this is good stuff!
Petty and Pearson, Cale and Darrell, Earnhardt and Waltrip, the years have been good to us and history continues to repeat itself.
Enter the new players. While it is typical in this point of the season to see drivers changing rides and teams, the new blood coming in is also a welcome transfusion. While some of the old guard ponder their exit strategy, we now have Joey Logano stepping into a heralded ride at Gibbs racing.
Scott Speed has proven that he is ready for the big time although the Red Bull program is still faced with challenges of growing pains. Stewart and Newman are filled with enthusiasm, but they also face similar challenges to growth and development that the team Red Bull is working through.
Where will some of these other guys land? What happens to Tony Raines? Easily the most unheralded talent in the garage area.
There is so much going on at this time in NASCAR, and it is all good stuff. Unfortunately, some guys will be left out in the cold without a ride. It is progress. This sport waits for nobody. The machine keeps on rolling and you are only as good as your last performance. At the moment, NASCAR’S last performance at Bristol was a dandy.
Andy Belmont and his wife Jennifer co-own the ARCA REMAX SERIES number one driven by Tom Hessert III and NASCAR CRAFTSMAN TRUCK SERIES number 12.
Andy has raced for some 35 years winning races and championships, including the 1987 NASCAR Dash Series Rookie of the Year, 1988 Dash series owner champion and 1992 runner up for Winston Cup Rookie of Year. He is also a Top 10 points finisher 5 times in the ARCA REMAX Series.
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