By Jimmy Hart
5.15.2007
The PR Guy:
You might be a drag racing redneck if...
I was checking one of the major drag racing message boards not too long ago and came across a thread titled, “Is drag racing a redneck sport?”
After the laughter subsided and I was able to once again sit upright in my chair, I began to read the responses. As no surprise, the members of the drag racing forum made several logical and well articulated arguments as to why their sport is not “redneck” and at the very least is more inclusive and mainstream than many of it’s North American motorsport cousins.
Then of course, there was that guy with the rebel flag avatar whose argument was, “Yeehaw! You best you’re A$$ it’s a redneck sport and I’m proud to be one you (expletive deleted)!”
When I finished the thread – about six pages of comments later – I was pretty convinced that labeling NHRA drag racing a “redneck sport,” was unfair. Obviously, I had to bite my tongue on several conservative stands on global warming and the media to reach that conclusion, but even so.
Then the NHRA had to proudly announce its “fast-talking” driver Clay Millican would be hosting a new show on SPEEDtv called “Blow It Up.”
The premise (from the official release): he devises a number of ways to blow up engines in cars.
Ok, now if you don’t want your sport to look “redneck,” why in the world would you allow one of your stars to do this? Even worse, why would you actively help promote it?
The NBA doesn’t want to look like a league full of gangsters, so David Stern doesn’t encourage players to go on TV acting as suck. In fact, the league instituted a dress code.
Baseball doesn’t want the league to continue carrying around the image of heavy tobacco use, so the league actively endorses its partnerships with sunflower seed and bubble gum.
Still, here we are. NHRA members and fans insist –for the most part, at least – we are not “rednecks,” whatever the term means in current society. But the NHRA is still endorsing a show that shows one of its drivers doing his best to do exactly what drag racers are trying not to do on the track.
It’s counter productive. It’s bad televisions. And, yes, it is REDNECK.
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