Call me a purist. Call me a Northerner. Call me what you will. I just don't get it and I don't think I ever will.
I tried to watch NASCAR last weekend. I legitimately did. I turned on the television and gave it my all to get interested and I flat-out could not do it.
I admit that a car race could be worlds better watching a race live at a track than in the comfort of your own home. I am sure there is a great difference as you watch the cars roar by you as you rise up as your favorite driver comes around the corner.
I also grant you that it takes a great deal of skill and stamina to drive a vehicle at those kind of speeds for that long a period of time.
Perhaps if I understood the intricacies of the pit stop and what a truly quick change looked like and the timing involved in these events, I could appreciate the decisions made on the track by the drivers and the crew.
To be honest, I can certainly see how it could be an entertaining event once in a while.
But now that I have granted you that much, please indulge this ignorant Yankee in questioning that which he cannot comprehend.
Why must there be so many laps around the same course? There are 200 laps in the Indianapolis 500. 200 times around the same shaped course. For a race of that magnitude and length, couldn't a more suitable venue be found?
The New York Marathon does not ask their runners to do 1000 laps around the Empire State Building. Who wants to watch an Olympic marathon in which the athletes simply circle the oval track 120 or so times?
I'll tell you who " no one. Which is why I really can't understand why anyone would want to watch the same thing with cars.
In the same vein, horse races aren't measured in hours; they are measured in seconds. The horses take a lap and a quarter around the track and everyone moves on to the next race.
So I say, why not let a pair of cars race around the track five times with the winner advancing through a single elimination tournament? Excitement is back in the competition, winners are not crowned based on whether or not a car needed to fill up a smaller gas tank and even the most novice of fans (read: me) remain interested throughout.
I can hear the naysayers from here. It's simply a lack of patience that many European fans would pin on Americans. I think that's just not true. I love soccer. I love witnessing the pressure that a side can put on another team. The joy of finally finding the back of the onion bag after 75 minutes is inimitable in any other sport. The fact that the worst teams in the league cannot coast into last place for fear of relegation is captivating.
Perhaps some day down the line I'll learn to appreciate car racing the way I do soccer and other sports. For now I will have to keep tuning in every once in a while to make sure those fans are still cheering while I scratch my head in disbelief and wonder:
What's next? Ballroom dancing at the Olympics?
