I Hate Nascar

It is not a sport. It is a waste of gas. It is terrible for the environment. It is repetitive. Its most legendary driver died in its most legendary event. But that’s not really what this post is about.

On SportsCenter today, I saw a story on the recent Nascar Hall of Fame inductees: David Pearson, Bobby Allison, Lee Petty, Ned Jarrett and Bud Moore. Who? Exactly. In Jarrett’s post-induction interview he said, “I felt it was probably less than 50-50 of being able to get in.” Yeah, I would have given you way less than a 50% chance because the SportsCenter broadcast was the first time I had ever seen you or heard your name, Mr. Jarrett.



I have three thoughts on this induction:

1. The fact that there is a Nascar Hall of Fame annoys me. I don’t know what perks they get for being in the Hall, but the environmentalist in me hates that all of their success (I wouldn’t even call it success, but I’m sure someone does) comes at the cost of millions of gallons of gas. Actually, that’s not the environmentalist. That’s the broke college student who has to pay $50 to fill up his gas tank. This isn’t that big of a deal. I know that Nascar is a big deal for a lot of people and I guess I can respect that. But…

2. I have never heard of any of the five inductees. In my mind, a Hall of Famer should be as big a name as Dale Earnhardt or Richard Petty (both in the Hall). But every Nascar Hall of Famer besides those two is a no-name guy. Granted that I am not a Nascar fan at all, but I like to think that every American has heard of Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Jackie Robinson, Ted Williams, Yogi Berra, Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Nolan Ryan, and Cal Ripken. Okay, maybe I just Wikipedia’d the list of Baseball Hall of Famers. Whatever. And again, I can somewhat understand that the five Nascar inductees probably did wonderful things for the sport – I just don’t care about Nascar. But…

3. The part of the story that really irked me was Jarrett’s quote. “I felt it was probably less than 50-50 of being able to get in.” Just for saying that shows that you don’t deserve to get in. If you aren’t confident that you changed Nascar enough to be enshrined, then why would anybody else. That being said, I’m sure that Lebron James thinks he should have a new wing built for him in Springfield right now. That is not confidence. That is Lebron being cocky. Can I say asshole? That is Lebron being a cocky asshole. But Lebron will be in the Hall of Fame one day, because he changed the NBA. Did Bud Moore change Nascar? Did Ned Jarrett? I don’t know. I don’t care. I just hope that the perks of the Nascar Hall of Fame are as minimal as Nascar’s impact in the Northeast United States.

(Or that one day, Bud Moore pays to fill up my gas tank.)