Johanna Long spent two seasons driving trucks before she secured a full-time ride on the Nationwide Series this year. Her rise in NASCAR has been steady.

When our third child and only daughter arrived in 2009 my husband beamed proudly and proclaimed in the delivery room that she was to be, “The first female, first rookie champion of the Daytona 500 in 2027.”

I smiled dreamily – it’s a lot of work having a baby – and thought little else of it.

As this is the world of social media I came home 48 hours later to hundreds of Facebook messages congratulating me on my daughter’s arrival. By the time I got to look at my husband’s Facebook page, realization struck.

He had written the very same thing about our daughter winning the Daytona 500 18 years in the future that he had boldly stated upon her birth.

This pleased me immensely as I could see my husband harbored no resentment over having a daughter.

In fact, he was overjoyed with the prospect of piecing together an entire NASCAR Sprint Cup team with his wife as crew chief, his middle boy as jack man, his oldest son as the front tire changer, and he himself as his daughter’s spotter.

The only thing that still rings sadly to my ears is that our daughter may well be the first all those years later.

NASCAR has provided several female drivers throughout the years, some tougher than others and some more successful than others, but none that ever completely capitalized and became a champion.

Currently there is a crop of women in NASCAR who hold promise.

The most visible and reported about is Danica Patrick, the IndyCar driver who is spending her first full season in NASCAR in the Nationwide Series in addition to driving 10 races in the Sprint Cup series.

To date Patrick has had a lackluster beginning in both series. Her critics are quick to judge, harsh in their criticisms and offer the woman no learning curve in her first season.

They tear apart Patrick’s character and motives in terms of the lady’s marketability and her shrewdness in capitalizing on it.

Patrick’s supporters are patient and staunch, but would certainly like to see the driver perform better than she has this season.

Patrick does have the record for finishing highest for a woman among NASCAR’s top circuits; she earned a fourth place finish in a Nationwide Series race in Las Vegas on March 5, 2011. This feat was good enough to beat Sara Christian’s record for her fifth place finish in October 1949 that had stood for over six decades.

I have nothing against Patrick and would personally love to see her succeed. It bothers me not one iota that she uses her looks, notoriety, and presence to sell for her sponsors, something Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kasey Kahne, and Carl Edwards have all done.

But, as the mother of a little girl who may just one day be a competitor in NASCAR’s top tier, I would like for her to see women improving, succeeding, and even winning in the Cup Series.

Chrissy Wallace won a track championship and appeared headed toward a career in NASCAR, but a lack of sponsorship has put her on the sidelines for now.

Many complain that too much media is dedicated to Patrick when Nationwide Series driver Johanna Long is a far more impressive driver.

Long has had a decent climb in NASCAR. After two years in the Camping World Truck Series, Long improved her ranking considerably and got herself a ride in the Nationwide series this year.

Though “holding her own,” Long seems far from a championship run this season. But the young woman does have tenacity and talent and those two traits should take her far in NASCAR.

Jennifer Jo Cobb was headed down a successful path in NASCAR, it seemed, when she finished 17^th for the 2010 season in the Camping World Truck Series, making her the top finishing female in one of the top three NASCAR standings.

But lack of funds, poor finishes, and a career in fashion has diluted Cobb’s potency, making it unlikely that at her age she’ll get to NASCAR’s premiere level.

Chrissy Wallace seemed like a great racer with a ton of potential ready to be tapped.

Wallace is related to the Wallace clan that has raced in NASCAR for decades. She had a career high when she earned the 2011 Lebanon I-44 Track Champion honors. This seemed like a great jumping off point for earning sponsorship to take her more heavily into competition in NASCAR’s Camping World Truck and Nationwide Series

Unfortunately, according to Wallace’s website, they team is parked and looking for sponsorship.

Of all the women, Long seems to have the most promise though Patrick has a longer career in motorsports and certainly more monetary backing.

For either woman, or both, to succeed and, better yet, thrive in NASCAR would be ideal.

I’m on the record as appreciating attractive people and wanting more of them in NASCAR, both male and female. It pleases me to see empirically good-looking men and women on my television.

I truly ache to see sexually appealing people make commercials since I have to watch them during NASCAR races.

But make no mistake, I have another agenda.

My goal is for my daughter to see a starting grid filled with women in NASCAR. My hope is that by the time my daughter entertains driving at NASCAR’s top level, being a woman is no longer shocking or interesting.

That how well a woman drives is what she is judged upon and not her looks alone.

If my daughter has to stand on the backs of the women who came before to achieve the level of greatness her father prophesized, so be it.

She’s got the mettle, I can guarantee you that.

Until that 2027 Daytona 500, I’ll have to keep rooting for the women NASCAR puts before me.

Source: http://motorsportsunplugged.com/?p=7335

The author’s love of NASCAR was fueled by her admiration for Dale Earnhardt, a hard-charging driver whose stellar career made him an icon in the sport.

I have often said that I came to NASCAR as a fan of the Winston Cup Series during the last race of the 1990 season.

It was a fast-paced, adrenaline-pumping, against-all-odds show that appealed to me instantly.

I chose a driver to win the race, or even the championship, that I thought was an underdog. This driver had to perform better than his nearest competitor to claim the title.

This driver’s adversary was a Mark Martin.

History shows I chose the victor.

From that race on I was a Dale Earnhardt fan through and through.

I was rewarded at the end of the 1991 season when Earnhardt won his second championship in a row, and his fifth to that time. It was easy being a NASCAR fan when my driver was so dominant.

Then the 1992 season came along.

That season was emotion-filled, with the announcement that Richard Petty would retire at its end.

He mounted a “Fan Appreciation Tour” to thank his many fans and give them closure over his vastly successful driving career.

Davey Allison won the Daytona 500 kicking off what would be a very good year for him and team owner Robert Yates. Allison would stay first or near the top in points for the entire season.

In December 1991 at the Winston Cup Banquet honoring champion Earnhardt, Allison, who had finished third in points, warned the champ that he, Allison, would be at the head table the following year.

Bill Elliott, the man his many, many fans called “Awesome Bill from Dawsonville,” also experienced a strong season. He was near the top of the leaderboard along with aloof Alan Kulwicki from Wisconsin.

Other drivers – Harry Gant, Kyle Petty, and Martin – were all vying for the championship in 1992.

Glaringly, my driver was not. He had a terrible season in 1992 with only one win, several DNFs, and not even a presence in the Top-10 for the year.

At that time I was not a broadminded fan. If my driver did poorly I was uninterested in the rest of the field.

I had no love for Allison because he coveted my driver’s spot at the lead table at the Waldorf Astoria.

Davey Allison, shown here with his father Bobby in victory lane at Daytona in 1988, was a young driver who seemed destined to win a championship before a helicopter accident took his life.

Martin was already a rival so I didn’t root for him and Kulwicki had left me cold. Although I had nothing against the younger Petty, I was pretty sure he was not going to be the champion.

Gant dazzled me in September of 1991 when he earned his nickname “Mr. September” after he posted six victories in four Cup races and two in the Busch Series. But Gant hadn’t won since Michigan in August of ‘92 so I didn’t think he had it in him either.

My husband insisted on watching all of the races during the 1992 season. So, when the Hooters 500 was run in Atlanta on Nov. 15 of that year, we were watching.

Listening to the pre-race broadcast I found I really did have a vested interest in the outcome. And, the more I heard about Kulwicki, the more I quietly rooted him on to victory.

My rationale was I could never root for Martin or Allison as they were two of Earnhardt’s staunchest rivals. Deep down I liked Allison because he was young, had a lovely family, and was a direct legacy of the Alabama Gang. But it seemed betrayal to openly root for the man.

Elliot was already a millionaire thanks to the Winston Million bonus he won in 1985, a feat he accomplished before my fandom. He didn’t seem to “need” the championship in my opinion.

That left Kulwicki. I loved the idea of a non-southerner winning the Cup. After all, I was a non-southerner watching NASCAR.

I appreciated that Kulwicki was a focused, determined, obsessive-compulsive competitor who worked on his car endlessly. He had no time for a wife or family. He was chained to his garage to make his team a success.

Kulwicki was doing everything on his own. He wasn’t a self-made millionaire. So I silently cheered him on to victory.

Allison made an incredible run for the championship, but, that day in Atlanta, he was involved in an unfortunate accident that ruined his chances.

Eventually the battle was between Elliot and Kulwicki. Although Elliot won the race, Kulwicki came in second. Each driver dominated the laps led, but Kulwicki earned the five bonus points for most laps led, edging out Elliot by one lap (103 to 102).

Kulwicki won the championship and my support as a new fan.

NASCAR put on a great show all season that culminated in the closest championship – Kulwicki won it by a mere 10 points – that stood until 2011 when Carl Edwards and Tony Stewart battled for the Cup.

As you know, when it was all over, Edwards and Stewart were tied in points. But Stewart won the title on NASCAR’s tiebreaker – most victories.

He had five, all in the Chase, Edwards one.

In 1993, NASCAR changed for me. Only a few months after that dramatic Atlanta race separate aviation accidents claimed the lives of both Kulwicki and Allison.

Then to lose my driver, Earnhardt, in 2001 was heartbreaking and inexplicable, but I believe I lost my rabid passion for the sport when Kulwicki and Allison passed.

For me, it’s been a long road back to NASCAR fandom. I carry these drivers in my memories for a lifetime and revisit them every so often.

Thank you for letting me share my recollections with you.

http://motorsportsunplugged.com/?p=7259

Many NASCAR fans say they still like to watch races on TV, or attend them in person at tracks like Phoenix, but add they would like to see NASCAR make some policy changes in certain areas to enhance their enjoyment.

Dear NASCAR,

After polling my readership I have found that the same topics keep surfacing – and that prompts me to make them subjects of my articles.

Some of these have to do with monetary issues, others with leadership, and still more deal with an overall dissatisfaction with perceived facts about the sport we all love.

My goal is to present these topics, in no particular order, to start a dialogue but also to allay fears and suspicions, bring back an overall joy to the sport and generate some honest-to-goodness debate, all healthy and good-natured.

First, it’s apparently time to do away with the Top 35 Rule; long past due, really. The system is inherently flawed, frustrating, and quickly undoing NASCAR’s fandom’s trust.

The fans want the teams to race to qualify, line up, pit, and make their way onto the grid. “Funny business” of extending a position to a team whose driver did not qualify raises the ire of most NASCAR fans.

The Chase is another factor of NASCAR Sprint Cup racing that leaves many cold. Creating a “playoff” system when there are 43 teams vying for wins each and every week, working toward improving their station, and attracting hard-earned sponsorship dollars seems wrong.

If a team is not in the Chase it does not get the media coverage and, therefore, may not get the exposure necessary to keep or attract advertisers/sponsors.

Let all the drivers have at it for the entire season; no separation of 12 drivers with 10 races to go. No clearing of points. Let the entire season play out over 36 races. If history has shown us showed this can lead to boring championship, then fix the points structure, but get rid of the Chase.

Be strong but be fair. Too often in the recent past there have been instances of rulings handed out for infractions that were not applied to similar misdeeds. Or, in some cases, others were treated more harshly. NASCAR is the governing body and what it says goes, period.

But consistency is key for all to understand and thus play by the rules. Like parents must constantly and consistently set rules and boundaries for their children to follow, so must NASCAR. By not doing so the “children” (drivers & their teams) become unruly and unmanageable.

Fans realize NASCAR’s at-track management team is responsible for enforcing the rules, but add they would like to see it be equal across the board.

Bring the joy back to the sport. Too often fans are complaining about yesteryear or the state of the economy.

NASCAR is about escapism, entertainment, and good ol’ fashioned fun! Let’s recoup some of the exuberance of the past and mix it with the fun-filled sensibilities of the present. NASCAR fans, old and new, must be able to agree on what exactly good racing is.

Let the drivers do what they are so dang good at week in and week out without sucking the fun out of the fans’ enjoyment.

NASCAR began as a way to make money by entertaining the crowds with fantastic racing. Let’s get back to that!

There are more topics that surreptitiously dripped out of the mouths of fans I canvassed, but these were the primary ones that crossed the board.

NASCAR has a Herculean task to put on 36 entertaining, lively, and watchable races both live and for the fans at home. It is criticized, scrutinized, thrown under the bus, and lambasted regularly.

But, for all they may get wrong or not wholly right, they certainly give all of us a sport to which we follow religiously, care for passionately, and clamor for desperately in the off season.

And as for entertainment value, I’ve been getting mine for well over twenty years. I have had my fandom reinstated after the fateful blow of losing my one and only driver in 2001, and have come full circle embracing all of the drivers on the field.

NASCAR gets a passing grade from me, but I still have to stuff the “suggestion box” with the preceding information.

With total respect I am sincerely yours,

Candice Smith

NASCAR fan since 1990

Follow Candice Smith at www.chief187.com

Greg Biffle, shown here with his wife Nicole, is a new father and is very likely to be one of the NASCAR dads who, with a new family, changes his priorities.

Recently I posted an article that claimed the only real men of NASCAR were the drivers of old, men like Dale Earnhardt, “Texas” Terry Labonte and NASCAR Hall of Famer Junior Johnson.

I am by no means rescinding that post, but want to explore the concept of the “Twenty-first Century Real Man.”

Certainly the drivers of NASCAR are all real men in one way or another, except maybe the young Joey Logano who is still, in my book, far too young to be called a man yet.

From Kevin Harvick to Tony Stewart, Kurt Busch to Carl Edwards, and Jeff Burton to Matt Kenseth, the track is littered with real men… for this era.

Real men today are usually able to cook, clean, and change a diaper. They are comfortable if the woman in their lives make more money or is more educated.

Real men today are much more engaged fathers than the fathers of previous generations, embracing the role of fatherhood as vital to be an active participant.

In recent years many of NASCAR’s real men have entered the role of fatherhood enthusiastically. A baby boom of sorts began and has not slowed.

Jeff Gordon, Casey Mears, Jimmie Johnson, Carl Edwards, Greg Biffle, Juan Pablo Montoya, Ryan Newman, Jamie McMurray, Matt Kenseth and now Kevin Harvick have all had children in recent years or are expecting.

During the rain delay on Sunday while waiting for the Daytona 500 to begin, fathers like Biffle explained how having children is a major life change. Adding a life to the family core completely leads to a life re-evaluation.

McMurray relayed how he and some of the other drivers and their families took the children to Disney World earlier in the week. Their lives, so it seems, revolve around the children much more than previous generations.

This is an excellent thing.

The addition of a baby and siblings for existing children changes the dynamic of the family and the ripple effect has endless reach.

Drivers have been having children since the first car hit the red dirt track on a farm, but, with the more involved role fathers have nowadays, the experience is completely transforming.

I would argue that some of these drivers will never be as competitive as they once were. What makes them better fathers also makes them less effective behind the wheel.

Does that mean I believe Jimmie Johnson is incapable of capturing a sixth championship? Absolutely not, but I do believe he will not drive in quite the same manner he did before becoming a daddy.

As my colleague Steve Waid wrote recently, the addition of two children in Jeff Gordon’s garage has changed the driver’s priorities. The edge that Gordon may have once comfortably straddled may be something he now avoids for the sake of his family.

But that just makes sense for all of the real men on the track today. It is one thing when you are young, childless, and feel immortal, but the moment a child lands in your nest, an irreversible change occurs.

Again, I’m in no way implying fathers cannot be competitive nor win races, but I do believe they lose the edge they had before fatherhood.

Earnhardt, Junior Johnson, and many of the drivers of old ran hard and won races and championships while being fathers, but it was a totally different mind frame for men then.

It took Earnhardt two wives and families before he settled down and truly assumed the modern role of father. Only with Taylor Nicole did there seem to be a sense of a

Dale Earnhardt became a father before his NASCAR career started and then, much later, he became more of settled man with the birth of his daughter.

traditional nuclear family.

At the Budweiser Shootout Gordon was the only driver to hoist his child on his shoulders at driver introductions. Later than night, for the first time in his career, Gordon flipped his car in a terrifying crash.

With a long career filled with admirable accomplishments, record-setting milestones, and an almost assured place in the NASCAR Hall of Fame, will Gordon hang up his driving shoes sooner rather than later?

He has lived the life of a driver for a long time. Now he might want to live peacefully with his young family and not worry so much about the dangerous lifestyle he leads.

Many will recall Dan Wheldon’s untimely death in the Izod IndyCar Series’ season closer in Las Vegas last November.

Although IndyCar is an open wheel series that is inherently more dangerous than NASCAR, it surely gave rise to thoughts of mortality among the fathers who race on any circuit.

Being a part of the current generation I am thrilled racecar drivers who become fathers are more attentive and active in their children’s lives.

I believe the real man is the one who actually fathers the children he brings into this world.

But when a father is doing his absolute best in the home, is he able to put his absolute best on the track?

What say you?

To find out more about Candice Smith please visit her website at http://Chief187.com.