Subject: Dale Earnhardt

Yo Bart,
My republican mouse (more right clicks that left) has clicked on your
website many, many times over few years. Disagree often, but always
respected your right to throw your opinion out there for me to disagree with.
BUT... I gotta, gotta, gotta respond to the Earnhardt comments.... and
I'm NOT what you'd call a big Earnhardt fan.

Yes, he was known for not being afraid to stick his nose where most drivers
wouldn't. Psychology, indimidation... was Reggie White, Lawerence Taylor or
Dick Butkus THAT much better than every other linebacker? Or did they bite
or spit on enough opponents (more childish and dangerous that sportsmanlike)
to intimidate over time? Same goes for Shaq... better because of finess, or
simply bigger and meaner (don't you think there's a reason he invited all
the surroundings that gave him the "gangsta" connotations...)?
Blocking...? Yea, you bet your ass he was blocking.
Again, it's part of the deal.

John, first, thanks for the note.
But bumping in football or basketball isn't like bumping going 190 MPH.
If Butkus or Shaq kick your ass hard, you're not going to die.
My first suspicions rose when I couldn't get anybody to say, clearly, if bumping was illegal or not.
It sounds (to a new guy like me) like bumping is illegal, but they let Earnhardt to it
because he meant "so much" to the racing game.

People used to whine that Michael Jordan didn't get fouls because he was Mr Big,
but again, nobody is going 190 MPH on a basketball court.

...and just to cover my ass, I'm taking the whore press's word for it that Earnhardt
was hated by some drivers for the 190 MPH "pranks" he pulled.
 

When Dale Earnhardt started racing 20 years ago, there were no multi-car teams that exist today.
He could either have quickly become a dinosaur, or adapt. He adapted, and did it damn well.
Would he have prefered to win? Yea. If he couldn't win, would he want his son, and/or Michael
Waltrip (he owned Waltrip's team), to win? Yea. So did he block?

Uh, yea.
Illegal...? No.

Now you have pulled off an amazing feat:
You have caused me to have even less respect for NASCAR racing.
Hiring blockers to help you win the race?
 

The NASCAR Winston Cup series races in Vegas. The difference between them,
and the hypothetical Vegas card game, is that it's a DIFFERENT game. Is it fair?
Hell, yes... ALL of the drivers are part of multi-car teams competing
against each other. It could have just as easily have been another team
blocking on the last lap. Is it legal? Yes, according to present NASCAR rules.

Whatever the game is, you play what you're dealt, and amongst
whatever else you're dealt, you're dealt the rules of the game.
Dale's was playin' the game, by the rules, and playin' it damn well.

I'm reminded of Chuck Heston's famous chariot race with the spiked wheels in Ben-Hur.
Is it understood that playing dirty is legal?
Forget poker, is there any other race where it's legal to screw with the other guy?

I remember Roller Derby used to cheat like that...
The Bay Area Bombers would line up and not let the others pass,
but that was staged horseshit, like the WWF.

If this is legal, then NASCAR might as well be the WWF.
If a guy can afford four or five cars in the same race, all they'd have to do
is line up together so nobody could pass and every raced would be fixed.

It's closer to Survivor than a race.
Just make the right alliances early on and you can't get voted off?
That's not racing, that's politics.
 

Regarding the autopsy, NASCAR typically does an autopsy to determine exact cause.
I would imagine they want no rumors of drug or alcohol abuse and an autopsy confirms that.
And, given the extraordinary insurance policies NASCAR makes available to its drivers
(and they use because they can't get insurance anywhere else for obvious reasons), it's probably
required by the insurance company. You know they'd just LOVE not to have to pay Earnhardt's
insurance policy because he sucked down a beer or smoked a big fat one before jumping in the car.

True.
After the autopsy was completed, the doctors said he might've survived had he worn the hard helmet.
 

"The cause of death was evident." Yes. He died of the risk involved with
doing something he and his family loved. I hope I can go out the same way, dude.
What're you gonna do...? Have that experience NEXT time?

And hell, I didn't even like the guy that much. But I used to race NASCAR
stock cars, and I wouldn't trade that experience for anything. So do I have
sympathy for his family, his fans? Yes. Him...? No. And I doubt he's lookin' for any.
NASCAR... ALL BALLS, NO STRIKES.
Jon
 

Jon, fair enough, but I'm still fuzzy over this "legal cheating" thing.
Blocking others so your son can win a race sounds like cheating to me.
And bumping into other cars, on a curve doing 190 MPH
makes Russian Roulette seem sane by comparison.