THE WASTING OF GAS BY NASCAR
About a week ago I was reading something — blog, newspaper, online — and there was a “letter to the editor” type of item. The author was criticizing NASCAR for wasting gas, given the current economic situation, energy consumption, and gas prices. The writer’s major contention was the NASCAR race cars were wasting gas and even more important, all the fans were wasting gas traveling to the races. At best, it was a rather short-sighted view of the sport; at the very least, it showed a total lack of understanding of the American consumer/driver.
We know in Richmond that the two NASCAR weekends bring millions of dollars into the economy. NASCAR is indeed a multi-billion dollar industry/sport/entertainment enterprise. But if we were to close down NASCAR, we would have very little effect on gasoline consumption. We’d also have to close down the NFL, MLB, NBA, and all college sporting events because fans have to drive to get to those venues as well. We might then be making some impact on gasoline consumption. But we’d also have to throw in trips to theatres and concerts, as well as our kids’ soccer match or baseball game. We now see the short-sightedness of the writer above.
Why do I even bring this up, you ask? Well, on the way to work this morning I was driving my usual 70 mph on the interstate. I never passed one car but was passed by about 50 in the span of 20 miles. And, almost without exception, every car had ONE DRIVER. So, let’s back off complaining about NASCAR’s wasteful ways; it’s a case of the pot and kettle. And that’s the view from here.
Jon