NASCAR: Villains, Rivalries or Just Frustrating Results

Over on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio on The Morning Drive, the guys have been touching on an interesting thematic conversation this week, and that's how people perceive athletes in different scenarios.

The most common perspective seems to be the disdain against the athlete who wins so much that it gets old.  They touched on how your favorite driver keeps getting dusted by Jimmie Johnson while JJ keeps winning championships (well, was) and races.  And him and his teams performance earned him boos.  Boos for excelling.  I have to wonder if you were the best employee in your company, and you worked hard to get there, how you'd take it if you had peers who sneered at you.  (For some, that's called jealousy.)

I've always found that to be a bit crass, to jeer someone who has worked so hard at his craft that he and/or his team get booed.  I don't hear anyone jeering on Channing Tatum or Jennifer Lawrence, but that's a fantasy kind of appreciation.  Sports is the best in reality TV, period.  So my guess is that the jeering comes from frustration and nothing more.

Then today (Wed 1-16) they touched on what makes a driver a villain?  At first it was touched on that Johnson can be considered by some to be a villain and then they segued into drivers who may drive too aggressively and not take ownership of the incidents they cause, with Juan Pablo Montoya being the prime example.

But for me, I went right to a few thoughts about who could be a villain...

Back in the day, despite the love for the man now, Dale Earnhardt (Sr.) was the nasty man who drove through the grass or your back bumper to win.  From what I understand, he was probably the villain of the day.

For me, I remember Kurt Busch's early days in the Cup Series and his altercations with Jimmy Spencer.  Being someone who appreciated Spencer's honesty (though politically, that nipped him in the butt), I took to slotting Busch in the bad guy basket.  And then when Spencer manned up and did the NASCAR thing the punched Busch, for me, it was settled and they were done.  Oh, and they were.  I don't remember Busch ever getting in his face again after that.  (Or was that selective memory?)

And through the years new rookies would come into the sport and drive like they stole it, ticking off drivers and seasoned fans alike.

A few quickie names that come right to mind... Tony Stewart's midget racing mindset and photographer decking attitude.  Brad Keselowski and his non-apologetic ways of winning.  If everyone didn't love Dale Earnhardt Jr., but stepped back and watched carefully, he takes crazy risks on the track that would get anyone else booed out of the stadium.  But that's a moot point.  Kyle Busch, who came on the scene, out drove everyone, drove through everyone and had a teenager's mouth about the situation.  Now that, was villainous.  Of late, the newest "villains" on the scene could be Kurt Busch (again) for his verbal tirades last year and the year before, and now Juan Montoya.  Driving for the win, no matter how many laps down he is, has earned him a cautious spot and that bad boy podium.  (And jet dryer drivers fear him!)  And the reputation for not taking ownership of the messes he leaves behind seems to have put him all by himself in many people's eyes.  But is he a bad guy, a gangsta, or just someone with no real manners?  That's for you to decide.

For me, I have a tough time with jeering a superior performance.  Don't get me wrong... I get the frustration.  But then, my frustration may have started with my favorite driver's lack of success.  Too many 2 or no-tire pit stops that never work out and the like just drive me crazy.  But my guy or gal's lack of success is no reason to trash on the winner.  There always has to be a winner and it just happens that it's the same few guys every week. (ballpark speaking that is.)

And winning doesn't warrant throwing beverage cans and bottles over the fence either.  But that's just me.  I just keep wishing my driver would just get better and have a shot at the championship, as I'm sure you do too.

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To mark someone a villain in a sport seems extreme.  To me, a villain steals, destroys, murders... etc..  In sports it's more of an emotional label than anything else.  But stepping back and learning to appreciate the talent that goes into what is being achieved, well, it can be confusing, but at least you might just get it.  (Then again, it makes it hard to hate a driver.  I remember hating Jeff Gordon in his day.  Remember that quote, why he hasn't hit the wall?  Because it didn't have a number on it?)

That's my piece of mind today...