Word: nascar
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...will it ever be the same? This was the year NASCAR, with new venues, new rules and a new TV deal, was making a push to add another rung of American popularity. The sport had already grown far beyond its original blue-collar southern fan base; the NASCAR traveling show already packed 200,000-seat arenas with ease wherever it went. Now, with the Fox deal, it was bidding for the Sunday-armchair cultural prominence of NFL football, all the while hoping that the infusion of money, marketing and the scrutiny that goes with them would never cause...
...sport's gaudinesses easy to forgive; these days those criticisms are stickier. Any sport of individuals - and in this era, aren't they all? - needs the reflected light of its heroes to keep eyes off its pockmarks. In joining the big-money world of pro football, baseball, and basketball, NASCAR will now have to watch out harder than ever for its soul...
...Dale Earnhardt is dead; that is not the way we are used to having a sports superstar depart the field. Sadly, race fans are more used to death than those of other pastimes. NASCAR officials maintain that safety will always be a top priority. But whether you tune in for the competition or the crashes - look deep in your heart before answering - danger is part and parcel of the thrill. When a sport's competitors strap themselves into two-ton steel thoroughbreds and take off around the crowded oval at nearly 200 miles an hour, death will always hover above...
...those who knew Earnhardt's totemic name but not his story or his sport's, the rush of coverage surrounding his death this week was a stirring introduction. They saw NASCAR nation revealing its nobility in its tears. That Earnhardt was, by all accounts, not only a great racer but also a heck of a guy was flattering to the sport, and that he died on the track was in a grave way flattering to every driver who takes to the track this Sunday in Rockingham...
...Some race fans may be turned away by the tragedy; other, new ones may be drawn to the sport by this proof that it is not trivial. Certainly NASCAR faces a huge charisma vacuum, and it will never forget the Daytona 500 of February 18, 2001, a milestone of many kinds. Mourning passes into remembrance, and the race will...