More Nascar Phoniness  

...maybe "phoniness" isn't the right word, maybe "disengenous?"

I don't know what you call it, but whatever it is, it stinks, and is another speed ramp to NASCAR losing what little integrity that us old hold outs were hoping that still might be in place....

I just got around to watching this past Sunday's Cup race at Nashville...  Ryan Blaney gets spun down into the infield on a restart...  His car slides through the grass... and ended up going squarely into the infield wall just past pit lane.  It wasn't a high speed hit, but it was a brutal hit.  Something that I'll bet anyone of us would have instantly been concerned about the driver's safety, and something that I am evenly sure that all of us would have immediately noticed the lack of a safer barrier where the impact was made.

I continued to watch, as fortunately Ryan Blaney was able to get out of the car on his own power (although dropping to his knees for a while)... and I keep wondering why no safer barrier....  And then I kept waiting to hear any of the announcers (Dale Earnhardt Jr, Jeff Burton, Steve Letarte, and Rick Allen) add their thoughts of the very obvious point, that there was no safer barrier.

Nothing.... No mention of that there was no safer barrier where impact occured.

They even went into a very well pre-produced, well messaged piece about how great a job NASCAR has done to make the cars safer, including high tech computer generated images to show the recently added crush zones....  but still no mention of a lack of a safer barrier in a place that was well within striking range of the drivers... Ryan proved that.

I know... I know...  Nobody in the booth wants to loose their job... 

The guys in the booth... Oh boy.... Here's the problem...  We're all supposed to listen to them, the experts... our host... for 4 hours... dependent on every word they say to keep us informed of what we're going to see... what we are seeing... and what we just saw... They know the ins and outs of every facet of the sport... and the way NASCAR has it figured I guess, is that we're all just part of the grazing herd..... You know... "Nothing to see here folks... just keep your head down and take a few steps forward every so often... unless we tell you do otherwise...."  None of them (not even Dale Jr who I'm a big fan of as I think many out there are too) would dare mention the lack of a safer barrier at what would have been the appropriate/obvious time to mention it. 

I have to imagine that as it was happening, all of them were thinking the same thing as any experience race fan who was watching was thinking which was "Why no F'n barrier?"...  but nothing but crickets and diversion by those in the booth.  Did they all make a pact not to say something in the moment, or is there just such a heavy hand always overhead that they all knew to ignore the obvious, and to immediately find something else to focus on... anything else... just along as it wasn't about the lack of a safer barrier?

When they interviewed Ryan when he was released from the infield care center, somewhere quickly after saying that was the hardest hit he has ever taken in a race car, he mentioned the fact that there was no safer barrier.  Seems Ryan thought it was something that warranted being noticed (even if the experts in the booth didn't.)

Dale, Jeff, Steve and the other guy....  I'm sure their jobs are still secure as the circus moves to the next stop, but they lost a lot of credibility with the phoney/disengenous way they put the needs of "NASCAR First" above the need to have honesty and integrity in reporting what they were seeing as they saw it...and as those of us who still hold out for moments of integrity were maybe hoping for.... as rare as those moments have become.