Why do we do it? I've done it, and looking back, it's nothing to be proud of. Maybe you've done it yourself. I'm wondering why we boo certain drivers when we're at a NASCAR race track. We don't know the driver as a person, but yet there we are booing and calling him everything except a human being.
I guess there have always been those drivers who rubbed some fans the wrong way with their personality, and for some reason it has always been acceptable to boo away at the track. Being able to carry in your own beer probably helps fuel the boo birds also.
As a kid, the first driver I remember getting booed---I'm guilty here too---was Darrell Waltrip. He was brash and mouthy, and worst of all, he could back it up. He came in and shook things up, and some fans did not like it at all. In the thirty some years since then several other drivers have been booed unmercifully. Among them are the Bodines, Ernie Irvan, Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, the Busches. Hell, I was at Bristol when big E wrecked Terry Labonte, and even NASCAR's greatest driver got booed out of the place.
What I'm really wondering is how and why you decide which driver to boo. When I was a kid every driver got some cheers during driver intros---until DW came along---and it seems like it gets worse every year.
Cj - While I do not personally "hate" any driver...and would not boo them at the track...plenty of people do.
I have attended races at Indpls, Michigan, Bristol, Chicago & Milwaukee on a regular basis for both NASCAR and IRL events since the mid 1980's. What I have noticed is that drivers tend to get booed for a couple of reasons: either they were involved in a controversial incident in a recent event (and the fans feel he is the instigator) OR if the driver is SO POPULAR and on a Hot streak (constantly winning) he seems to get booed also.
Other than DW, drivers that I have heard get booed regularly at the tracks would include: Rusty Wallace (after he spun DW in the Allstar race in 1989), Bill Elliott, Dale Earnhardt, Ernie Irvan, Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart to name a few. Basically any driver who has experienced some sort of success at the Cup level, and is agressive at times with his driving will be subject to booing during the driver introductions.
And some fans are rather obnoxious about this at the track too. Kind of takes away some of the enjoyment of the event when people do this...but thats just my opinion.
Jag the boos come from not liking the fact that driver always beats your fav. driver. Or as Gerrel put it. That driver bumpped your driver or another...Look at the famous #3 alot of cheers and alot of boos...But always respected..
The guys that tend to get booed the most are the ones where support is polarised. Dale and Dale jr for instance. Right now Hendrick has the problem, you either love them or you don't. And often these polaried support drivers or teams are the better teams in any sport.
broomy.....thanks for chiming in. One other thing I'm wondering is why NASCAR fans think they have the right to boo someone they don't know, as if they were at a pro wrestling match.
You are very right, I actually witnessed Bill Elliot getting booed while in victory lane at Homestead! I thought that was ridiculous, personally I think Elliot is underrated historically, he was a great driver, and it's a shame he does not get the respect he deserves. I am guilty of booing Jeff Gordon, and Robbie Gordon also, but mainly because Im a Tony Stewart fan, and they aren't exactly his buddies as you can probably recall those classic run-ins. What I didn't like about Gordon was that he said he was going to put Tony in the wall.
CJ - while the booing may only go back to DW in Cup racing, its roots go back much farther. I think my earliest recollections of it were as a young boy attending high school basketball games in the mid-1950s. Fans often booed officials who made questionable calls. It was a way to release the emotions of frustration that those fans' school might lose and, of course, we always want our favorites to come out on top. The common cliche' back then was that for officials it was just something to accept as part of their job and for fans that is was their "right" based upon the fact they had purchased a ticket to be there to root for their team (and against what they deemed bad calls).
That mentality naturally progressed to fans booing athletes, not just officials. In the NBA, NHL, and NFL, it became quite common to hear athletes booed and it was usually the opponent's insufferably arrogant star OR the "enforcer" or baddest dude on that squad i.e. Bill Laimbeer Jr. of the Detroit Pistons. Again, the "price of admission" supposedly justified this.
By the time I began coaching high school and then college basketball, it was incredible how vile some of the comments were, directed at teenage athletes who were also booed mercilessly, taunted with the "air ball" chant and called names that probably would have resulted in criminal charges only a couple of decades previously.
Now booing is such an "accepted" part of sports that many athletes almost relish it even though they deserve far more respect. Jeff Gordon gets booed because he's the California boy who came into a
Last edited by HoosierRacer13 on February 8th at 8:53 AM.
good ol' boys sport and succeeded at not only kicking the butts of the good ol' boys but of also garnering adulation and wealth from media and sponsors. He actually has helped every driver who makes it to Cup earn more money but he was an outsider and the old guard of fans still resents his success even though he hasn't been arrogant.
Is it bad for the sport that stars are booed. Not in my opinion. It just reinforces the passion of fans and every sport wants passionate fans. Throwing beer cans, however, is criminal and goes way beyond what I consider "acceptable" booing. In some cases today, booing means you have "made" it in your sport but, of course, for others like the newbies or non-stars, it usually means you have messed up big-time. JMO
Last edited by HoosierRacer13 on February 8th at 8:54 AM.
I can say I am guilty of "boo" ing a driver or two as they come around in driver intro's but I would NEVER yell out personal attacks or name calling. Some of the things people yell are absolutely atrocious.
I think a little boo'ing is ok for rivalries and as Sr said, better to get boo'ed than nothing at all! So I like to think those drivers I boo at least know I am watching them! LOL
I admit I'm guilty of some good natured "booing", but in my opinion, that's what it is, good natured. I don't mean anything mean certainly. In my opinion it's more like, for what ever reason you don't like that particular driver. Doesn't mean you can't respect them as a person or even as a driver(Earnhardt Sr for example), you just don't like what they do on the track. And personally, like Klvalus, would never yell a personal attack at anyone, regardless. And as stated above for the most part it's good-natured, but in the recent past, it has seemed to get more nasty than it was say 5 or 6 years ago.
kris.....so right on the Sr. comment. Geoff Bodine must have believed it too. One year at Charlotte during driver intros, as he rode around the track in the back of a truck, Geoff cupped his hands to his ears as if to say "I can't hear you. Boo louder."
rwm.....much agreed on it getting worse. Two of my biggest pet peeves at the track are (1) yahoos cursing in front of children. If you wouldn't say it in front of your grandma, don't say it in front of a stranger's kids. (2) The hundreds of yahoos who don't remove their hat for our national anthem. Not surpisingly, most of these two groups are interchangeable.
countryjag, it just isn't in me to boo. I do, however, mumble quietly so I don't offend others. I just don't get the rude behavior of some people. Enjoy the season.
Sorry to say I have never booed any drivers. I have said some pretty hositle things about a couple over time but not boos. Guess I was remembering back in the days when I raced and got booed for some little incident like putting a driver in a wall or spinning him. It was just racing folks.
Of course back then, you could certainly expect a fight in the pits after the race to erupt if the driver was a favorite at that track.
I am not saying I am above tossing a dixie cup of brew or a roll of toilet paper at a driver but no beer cans.
photogr....didn't I see something on another blog about you living in Charleston, SC in the past? If so, did you do any racing at Summerville Speedway?
photogr - ah the memories of the good ol' days and the fights in the pits - lol. First heat race I ever ran (1973), a guy got completely sideways in front of me and I drilled him behind his left rear wheel mostly on the rear bumper but on the quarter panel too. I turned him so he was facing exactly the opposite direction he was supposed to be with 8-10 guys barreling straight at him. After the checker, he made sure to ram me from behind pretty hard pulling off the track. I got to my pit area and parked and hopped out. Just as I was unbuckling my helmet, a friend who knew it was my first race started screaming at me to keep my helmet on. Lucky for me too, the guy I had tangled with was headed for me with a raised tire iron. These days, they have so many cops and other security guys in the pits we rarely actually fight but the emotions still boil over almost every weekend with at least a couple of guys being threatened with a trip to jail if they don't walk away from each other.
I was in Charleston S.C. in 1974 and ran a "stock" Mopar car. 1975 or 76 I think they opened a drag strip near Summerville. I built a Plymouth arrow and cramed a Mopar 360 in it to run bracket 1.
I ran a Kmart on River Road across from the NAVY base and a housing project. If you know where that is , you know it was a fun place to keep the excitement up. Only one of 5 managers in the company at the time that was allowed to pack a 45 automatic as protection.
Hoosier, That is the reason I am a red neck. Lost a lot of teeth back then. Never had enough sense to back away from a fight.
Last edited by photogr on February 8th at 3:09 PM.
photo.....the drag strip just closed last year. It was called The Cooper River Dragstrip. Hundreds of cookie cutter houses going in there now. The oval track in S'vlle suffered the same fate a few years ago.
The Navy base and the K Mart have been closed up for years now. But the housing project is still incubating future felons.
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