racewriter's Blog

I came into work Tuesday morning, reviewed my to do list for the day and filled my coffee mug. The teachers slowly began to arrive and while I had just buried my thoughts in a payroll issue, a teacher walked in and started babbling…I say that because it took me a second to come out of my payroll cloud and focus on what she was yammering about. Sometimes…yes, sometimes, I am confronted with comments that I can’t quite figure out, and this was one of those moments.

I wonder what it is about me that folks feel like they have to talk about NASCAR when they’re around me even though they couldn’t tell a stock car from a Rolls Royce if they had to. I don’t launch into a conversation about their knitting and pretend to know what a purl stitch is…nope. Now I’ll comment about how nice the finished sweater looks when its worn or ask how long it takes to make one, but I’m not going to tell her that I just can’t understand how someone can sit still that long and play with yarn…not gonna happen. Why? Because I have more common sense than that I suppose. It takes all kinds of fellows to make this sport work, fantastic drivers, good drivers, and those trying to get there. It also takes personalities that are as different as night and day. And heck, I do believe we have that in NASCAR. Tony and Kurt probably wish they hadn’t acted so much like horses behinds, but somehow I think deep in their brains they figure the other one deserved it…because that’s just the way they are.

Some folks will dislike these guys till they day they leave the sport, and that’s just fine. That’s just the way those two guys are folks. We don’t have to like it, but heck; do you like everyone in your life? I don’t…and won’t.

So if we had slapped Tony and Kurt with fines and all that other typical stuff, do you think it would serve to deter them from doing it again? Nope…so we have to come back to the basic question. Do we let them race and deal with the incidents as they surface or don’t let them race at all? One or the other. And you already know the answer, you can’t yank them out…they are good at what they do, they help make the sport what it is, and they have an unmatchable passion for what they do for a living. Will they mellow with age or success? Maybe, but who cares. They might even do something so ignorant that they end up getting booted out…and so be it. NASCAR will take care of itself, I have no doubt. Heck, if we didn’t have guys like this in the sport, it might be a little bit on the dull side…who knows.

Hey, I wonder if I put Ms. Prissy on probation if she’ll stay out of my office for awhile…it’s worth a try right?