[Lee]

Joe Fan,
While I don't deny that the fact of all of the sponser and money going to NASCAR is a major reason for all of these "outsiders" being attracted to NASCAR, I'm still very uneasy about it. You are right about the fact that NASCAR could "crush" any other stock car series, and I dare say any other racing series period, for that matter, in the United States, at any time they wished, but this is not my major concern. What worries me is the behind the scene, backstabbing, and backroom political dealings. As stated above, Bruton Smith would be more than happy to rip NASCAR apart for any percieved chance that he might have to gain part, or full control of stock car racing, he has NO love for NASCAR! Rodger Penske, made the move to NASCAR in 1972, with Mark Donahue, and the old "flying brick" AMC Matador, probally the "boxiest" car to ever race on the series. I can remember Junior Johnson saying, in an interview, "Penske will not have the success in Grand National racing that he has had everywhere else. He was pretty much able to either write the rules, or do anything he wanted in them TransAm and CanAm deals, but he won't do that here in NASCAR. Big Bill runs this place, and you play by his rules." Junior was right. Penske only won a couple of races before he departed NASCAR. He only became moderatly successful in NASCAR when he became a part owner of Rusty Wallace's team. I will give you this, Penske is an extreamly smart and savy businessman. He is a survivor in every sense of the word. While still a cart owner, I think that you are going to find him slowly becomming less and less involved with both it, and the NASCAR teams, till finally he gets out of the team owner role altogether. It was a stroke of genius that he, and Bill France Jr. had in consolidating their two sets of racetracks into International Speedway Corporation, thereby completely trumping Smith! I think what is going to happen is that Penske will wind up running ISC for the France family, which would be a very good move for all parties concerned. If you'll remember your NASCAR history, in the early 60s, Curtis Turner, and Tim Flock tried to basically take control of NASCAR from Bill France Sr. through the Teamsters Union. Big Bill ruled NASCAR with an "iron Fist" and crushed the effort, banning Turner and Flock for life, although Turner was allowed back in in 1965. Those were different times, NASCAR was pretty much a "Southern" sport then, and the dispute was between the drivers and NASCAR. Nowdays, things are quite different. NASCAR is the biggest, and most popular form of racing in the United States. There is also another problem that was not present in the early 60s, the country was not full of low down, scumsucking, backstabbing, government-backed, litigation-crazed, lawyers! Loathsome creatures that only crawl out from under their rocks when they sniff a profit, and would sue their own mothers (that is if they have mothers) for a profit! Combine Smith with several of these "outsider" cart types, that decide they don't want to play by NASCAR's rules, but instead want to make their own rules, shades of cart, and you have a potential recipet for disaster. I can just see it now, Smith, Ganassi, and Wells (these are not drivers, they are powerful businessmen, use to having their way) with an army of lawyers, against NASCAR, on national T.V. Throw in this worthless government of ours with crys of monoply, and it could destroy NASCAR. I know some of you will say that I'm paranoid, but stranger things have happened. As I said, this is alot different situation than the early 60s. I'm not looking for trouble, but given the way things are in this country, it would not supprise me at all if this were to happen. After all who would have ever thought the government would attack a legal industry manfacturing a legal product (tobacco, and no, I do not use tobacco products) in a free country. Yes, tobacco products have been shown to cause cancer, but no one forces anyone to use them. My only question is, if they are so bad, why don't they just ban them outright? I know the answer, MONEY! Anyway, thats my two sense worth.