Deplorable Hillbillies, Trump And The Daytona 500

When John Roberts, Chief White House Correspondent for Fox News, tweeted a “scoop” that multiple sources had informed him President Trump would be taking a lap in the presidential limo known as “The Beast” at the Daytona 500 NASCAR race, a snooty elite from New Jersey, Emily Cahn, weighed in with her own judgmental tweet, “You thought an event couldn’t get any trashier and then...”

The race today is the season opener for the NASCAR Cup Series.  It has opened the racing season every February since 1982.  My dad’s favorite driver was Richard Petty.  Petty owns a series-best seven Daytona 500 victories.

President Trump will give the command to start engines 3:06 PM. The green flag is scheduled to wave at 3:18 PM.

President Reagan became the first sitting president to attend a NASCAR race in 1984. President George H.W. Bush attended a race in 1992 as well, but not the Daytona 500.

“We’ve been coming down here since 1959,” says “King Richard” Petty, who’s seen ’em all and won seven of them. “Nobody really knows who’s where, what’s going on. Even after you practice, qualify, run a couple of races and stuff, it’s still not like the 500. That’s a completely different animal.”

This one figures to be even more different than usual, considering a presidential visit that will swallow most early-day attention. Given President Trump’s affinity for “huge” events, he’ll undoubtedly be happy to know this year’s Daytona 500 is the richest in history.

A race that started in 1959 with a purse of $53,050, that first cracked the $1 million mark in 1985, this year will reward the 40 participating race teams with a total of $23.6 million.

This is NASCAR’s crowning jewel and, for many, the only stock car race they’ll watch all year—similar to the Kentucky Derby and Super Bowl in that way. Using the modern world’s best barometer—TV ratings—the Daytona 500 long ago surpassed the granddaddy of them all, the Indy 500.

It got there by delivering thrills and spills, drama and theatrics, each and every time.

Baseball may be America's pastime, but when it comes to patriotism, nobody comes close to matching NASCAR. No other sport honors the flag or the military more than the crews of stock car racing.

Our betters on the left instantly connect NASCAR with country music and a bunch of deplorables. Just because someone likes something you don't doesn't mean your hobbies or interests are better or worse than anyone else's, it just means they’re different.

Where I come from, tolerance isn't race or age specific.  Unfortunately, it seems every year around this time I am reminded the same is true of intolerance.  Liberal, urban elites like dear sweet Emily are always criticizing honest, God-fearing, patriotic, NASCAR-loving Americans.

"The leader of our country is coming to the Daytona 500. How cool is that?" Cup Series Champion Joey Logano said. “That kind of solidifies what our sport is. It's a huge event. We're a big sport, and to be able to have the president come here, that's something we all should be proud of. Whether you support him or not, it doesn't matter. It shows the unity in our sport and how big our sport really is.”

The Daytona 500 is a sellout for the fifth consecutive year. The flyovers, the celebrities, the flutter of the flags are all a part of the pageantry for more than 100,000 fans at the kickoff of NASCAR's season.

"Never have I felt the excitement and energy...but we've got the President landing right now. The fans are pumped up. I mean wow, what a day."

🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/SlWDRK6d8X

— Elizabeth Harrington (@LizRNC) February 16, 2020

"That no matter who wins the race, what matters most is God, family, and country." 🇺🇸 #Daytona500pic.twitter.com/86QqRQPXrx

— Elizabeth Harrington (@LizRNC) February 16, 2020

⚠️ WARNING: May Trigger Trump Derangement Syndrome.

WATCH → President Trump takes a lap at the #DAYTONA500 in front of an electric crowd!

Nothing more American than @realDonaldTrump and NASCAR!!
🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/46dflC47Fp

— Steve Scalise (@SteveScalise) February 16, 2020

Kevin Harvick Wins First NASCAR Pole Award

Kevin Harvick with unidentified object

I don't spend a lot of time on the sports page. MLB lost me with the strikes. The NFL went SJW and left me behind, so I usually don't give the sports section more than a cursory glance. But something caught my eye yesterday: A NASCAR driver proudly holding a rifle.

This had possibilities!

But I checked several stories, mostly All Pablum, which never got around to telling us exactly what he'd won. Tupperware? A doorstop?? A year's supply of tofu burgers???

Just an educated guess on my part, but it looks a little like a lever action carbine. (Gun, to the uninitiated). Can't tell the caliber, but it looks like it might be tricked out a bit with some badges, maybe some special engraving. Would have been nice to acknowledge the gunmaker with at least a mention of his name. With the myriad of sponsors' logos on his jacket, NASCAR does not seem averse to capitalism.

 Must be an AP thing?

Tony Stewart And His Depraved Indifference

Photo credit:  Andrew Brusso

I fully expect to take heat for what I am going to say on the subject of the death of Sprint car driver Kevin Ward, Jr. at the hands of Tony Stewart.

When the news broke early Sunday morning, news outlets refused to show the moment that Stewart’s car struck and killed the young Ward citing its graphic content.  I watched the video numerous times.  I even uploaded it to a video capture program so I could view the incident in slow motion.  The inescapable truth, in my view, is that Tony Stewart exhibited depraved indifference—a term under the law that describes conduct “so wanton, so deficient in a moral sense of concern, so lacking in regard for the life or lives of others and so blameworthy as to warrant the same criminal liability as that which the law imposes upon a person who intentionally causes a crime.”  Depraved indifference centers on the risk created by a person’s conduct rather than the injuries that resulted from their conduct.

Reports are clear that when Stewart caused Ward to crash on Turn 2 officials threw out the caution flag.  Drivers immediately slowed down.  Several drivers went past Ward as he climbed out of his sprint car and began walking down the clay track.  One driver, Regan Smith the driver of No. 14, drove past Ward without incident.

Paul Kinney, who drives No. 19K, told NBC News that he clearly saw Ward on the track and managed to dodge him.  “I seen Kevin clear as day.  Nobody else ran into him either.”

There’s no disputing that Stewart, 3-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champion, was the most experienced driver on the Canandaigua Motorsport Park track.  So why would witnesses say they saw Stewart throttle his car as he approached Ward?  It was at that moment his vehicle kicked out striking Ward who was dragged underneath Stewart’s car and his body thrown into the air to the horrified screams of onlookers.

In the hours following Ward’s death, Stewart’s racing team manager Greg Zipadelli, said that Stewart was due to race at Watkins Glen on Sunday evening calling the race “business as usual.”

One commenter on Twitter succinctly described the depraved indifference of this reprehensible racing team:  “’Business as usual’ says Tony Stewart’s manager, as if the life of another human being is equivalent to a squirrel.  Beyond repugnant.”

The backlash to the grotesque callousness was blistering.  Hours later, the racing team reversed themselves saying Stewart would not compete in that evening’s event.  They got their shit together and Stewart issued this statement:  “There aren’t words to describe the sadness I feel about the accident that took the life of Kevin Ward Jr.  It’s a very emotional time for all involved.  Our thoughts go out to Kevin’s family and friends during this difficult time.”

After Zipadelli announced Stewart would not race, NASCAR released this statement: "Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family, friends, and fellow competitors of Kevin Ward Jr. We support Tony Stewart's decision to miss today's race and we will continue to respect the process and timeline of the local authorities and will continue to monitor this situation moving forward."

On Monday, Ontario County Sheriff Philip Povero said authorities had obtained a second video, one that offered a different view of the incident.

Today, The New York Post is reporting that Greg Cooper was at the track Saturday evening.  Cooper’s cousin, Alysha Ruggles, was nearly killed by Stewart at Canandaigua last July.  She suffered a fractured back after her car was struck in a 15-car pileup caused by none other than Tony Stewart.  Cooper believes Stewart should be banned from racing.

I was hotter than a match head when I read about Colin Cowherd’s commentary about the tragedy at Canandaigua.

“The sport has a unique culture that I’m not part of.  I’m not a gearhead.  I’m not from the South; I’m not an eye-for-an-eye guy.  There is a certain southern culture, that it doesn’t matter where you’re from, and a lot of NASCAR drivers are from Minnesota, Wisconsin, New York, California, Arizona, it’s a southern delicacy.  It doesn’t get ratings anywhere really outside the south…it’s really, really part of the south and it’s an eye-for-an-eye culture.”

Excuse me.

It is widely known that NASCAR’s infamous past is deeply rooted in bootlegging moonshine.  The sport is widely popular in the South and over the last two decades it has expanded nationally.  NASCAR is easily as popular as the NFL 

Cowherd put the fullness of his ignorance on display by disregarding the fact that Ward and Stewart were racing sprint cars; vehicles that are open wheel.  Open wheel racing’s history lies in the Midwest, West and northeastern parts of the country in places like Rossburg, OH; Knoxville, IA; Stockton, CA and Edmonton, Alberta.  Canandaigua is in New York.

I adamantly contend the only connection in the killing of Kevin Ward is that a NASCAR driver was at the wheel when the tragedy happened.

Cowherd is guilty of the unseemly stereotype so many have that willfully condemns the American South to an image of a region of banjo-playing, Bible-thumping inbreeds.  Southerners are church-going, home-owning, childbearing, backyard barbecuing, traffic-jam cursing Americans remarkable in their ordinariness going about their daily lives.

Mr. Cowherd should shut his pie hole.

Any driver tempted to get out of his or her car to confront another on the track should be prevented from doing so.  For Cowherd to imply that this is something unique to southern culture and was the underlying reason for Ward’s death is outlandish.  Whatever point his was attempting to make culminated in a misguided and loathsome insult against southern culture.

What should be remembered in all this is that a young man has lost his life and Tony Stewart should be held accountable for his depraved indifference.  Banning him from racing would be an appropriate beginning and sponsors should avoid him like the plague.

Snubbed: What’s Good For Bush Is Good For Obama

King Putt will honor NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson and the eleven other Chase drivers from last year in a White House ceremony on Wednesday, September 7th—but nearly half of the 2010 playoff contenders won't be there.

NASCAR said Thursday that five drivers—Greg Biffle, Kurt Busch, Carl Edwards, Kevin Harvick and Tony Stewart—will not be attending the White House visit due to "schedule conflicts."

Jeff Gluck, who is reporting the snub, bellyaches that, “For a sport that prides itself on patriotism, having so many drivers turn down the president’s invitation simply seems strange.”

Robbie Cooper, at Urban Grounds, thinks Jeff is getting wrapped around the axle.  Cooper thinks “[T]his move will actually make these exceptionally patriotic drivers even more popular with their even-more patriotic fans. NASCAR fans don’t like Obama precisely because of his disdain for the very things that NASCAR fans love: fast cars, guns, Bibles, America…”

Rick Moran steers the conversation in a different direction. “The sneering condescension of the left for "NASCAR Dads" has not gone unnoticed among the ranks of drivers—most of whom have a pretty good PR sense when it comes to their fans. Like C&W singers, the bond between a driver and his fans is very close and it is not surprising that since most fans of NASCAR have strong feelings against the president, that drivers would forgo the opportunity to be a prop in his re-election campaign.”

“As for Gluck's ‘patriotism’ shot—is he really equating patriotism with being an extra in a campaign commercial for a candidate they don't support? Besides, I don't recall hearing that argument during the Bush years when dozens of lefties from every walk of life dissed Bush by either turning down invitations, or by showing up and ‘speaking truth to power.’  Politics is politics and what's good for one side, is good for the other.”

“You go, boys.”

Being neither a king nor a god, Americans are not at the beck and call of the errand boy sent by grocery clerks.  This “snub” serves as a delightful reminder for President Present.

Via Memeorandum

Linked by Sentry Journal.  Thanks.