When I worked at a television station in Providence, Rhode Island, a few years back I was often made fun of because not only did I claim to like NASCAR racing, I could even match the drivers with their cars.
This was a great source of amusement to my colleagues who couldn't tell a restrictor plate from a dental plate.
With the news that NASCAR has expanded its 2001 schedule to include races at tracks near Chicago and in Kansas City, Kansas, not only aren't the same five rednecks winning races it's not the same rednecks who are watching them.
Miami, Los Angeles, Dallas and Las Vegas (or their suburbs) are some of the places that have built tracks and begun hosting NASCAR Winston Cup races in the last ten years. Even my old Rhode Island friends have two Winston Cup races a year in nearby New Hampshire.
There is even talk that such NASCAR bastions such as Darlington, South Carolina, could lose one of its two races so that a place like the Kentucky Speedway just south of Cincinnati can have a race date.
Heresy!
This is a sport whose fan base is still solidly southern. People in North Carolina sometimes resort to fistfights to settle disputes about whether Dale Earnhardt or Jeff Gordon is the better driver. Stations across the south bid big money for the rights to broadcast races ON THE RADIO!
But the appeal of NASCAR racing has spread nationwide. I can see its popularity in Los Angeles. People used to driving on southern California freeways would pay dearly to see the novelty of automobile traffic actually moving!
But Las Vegas? "Dealer, hit me. And give me $10 on that three car to win." And Dallas? "If the doors are welded shut, how do they get into the car without losing their ten gallon hats?"
But it's not true yet that the track near Chicago (Joliet, IL, actually) will feature an elevated train running over the racetrack. But they should consider ivy covered walls.
With races in places like Chicago you have to wonder if someday someone in Charlotte, North Carolina, will become the butt of a joke for being a NASCAR fan.
"It's just the same five yankees every week," they'll say.
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