Many NASCAR fans - obviously those not fans of his - would prefer someone other than Jimmie Johnson win this year's championship. Mostly, that's because he's already won five in the past six seasons.
And then the legions of Dale Earnhardt Jr. fans would certainly prefer to see their favorite driver win his first Sprint Cup Series championship.
But public-relations wise, who would be the best guy to win the championship? Who does NASCAR need to be champion? Earnhardt? Johnson? Brad Keselowski?
Here is former driver and Speed TV analyst Kyle Petty's take from his appearance Sunday night on "Wind Tunnel."
"Clint Bowyer would be the best champion.
I’ll just go and throw that out there. He’s the guy with some personality who
would have a good time and have some fun. I think you flip a coin between these
guys – I don’t care. This is such a sterile sport now. ," Petty said.
"Nobody has a lot of
personality. Brad (Keselowski) has as much personality as anybody else. Jimmie
was the champion for five years. Did the sport grow in that five years? I don’t
think so. Tony Stewart was the champion last year. Did the sport grow? I think
they’re great champions and they represent the sport well but they’re not Miss
America. They don’t have to go out to civic organizations and preach the gospel
of the sport, so I don’t think any driver is going to do that.
"Just that
blue-collar guy to bring the sport back to the Earnhardt era, the Richard Petty
era, to that older deal when fans really are interested in the drivers? My money
would be on Clint Bowyer."
As much as the haters will disagree, the only person who could grow the sport right now is Dale Jr. Obviously, he is not going to win it this year, the sport would more than benefit from it.
ReplyDeleteThe facts remain that the sport is in fact too "sterile". The car of tomorrow has morphed back into the side-force, aero-push machine that people (myself included) loathe. Until they get aerodynamics to be not such a factor (see Truck series) the action just won't be enough to draw fans back.
Is the sport really sterile - or is it choking on personality and not seeing that personality is overrated as far as growing the sport? Dale Junior doesn't have much personality; Tony Stewart is fiery yet has accomplished nothing to actually grow the sport; Jimmie Johnson is a designated champion by his manufacturer (Chevrolet) and this takes away from his title success; Brad Keselowski brings nothing to the table as far as being a personality worth anything.
DeleteCiting the Truck series to make the point about the racing is half-right - the racing in the Trucks has been noticeably better this season, but it still has too great a factor that dirty air is stopping passing instead of aiding it. The "new" racecars are no different aerodynamically from the Car Of Tomorrow (a total failure as far as eliminating aeropush goes); the sport still hasn't figured out changing aeropush back into a drafting situation. John Darby bears great responsibility there and why he isn't being fired from the garage area is mystifying. Brian France's idiotic rules against tandem drafting made things worse and illustrate the cluelessness of the sanctioning body.
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ReplyDeleteWho truly wants Dale Jr. to amount to anything anymore after seeing him fall off the face of the earth as a competitor? Junior is a PR machine instead of a racer.
DeleteI think Brad DOES have personality, would make a great champ, and would work to grow the sport. Sure, he'd be limited in some circles because of his beer sponsor. Otherwise, I think he'd do more as champ than JJ or Smoke have done.
ReplyDeleteMy concern if Clint wins the Cup is that he'd be a BOGO Free Champion. Mikey would be as heavily promoted as 'champion' as his driver would be - to the point of being detrimental.
Kyle Petty is about as spot on as an analyst as he was as a driver. He say's something intelligent about 1 out of 100 times. The rest is just delusional opinions.
ReplyDelete