--(Cont'd From Front Page)-- I used to be intrigued by the Silly Season of NASCAR, but I think I’m over it now. When I was a casual fan it was kind of fun to watch the drivers be tossed back and forth and crew chiefs thrown from team to team. Why? Well when I didn’t look at the sport as anything more than something to occupy my TV while I did other thing. Yes, I was at one time a NASCAR heathen.

The announcers would mention that so and so, the driver of the No. whatever car would be finishing this year with the mega team and then be looking for a new ride. Big deal…didn’t make any difference to me simply because I didn’t understand anything about how NASCAR, or any racing venue for that matter, ran its show.

But now, now…I see the driver as he faces the microphone, as his pupils dilate a little more than normal out of nervousness, as he tells the media each intricate detail of the changes. Half the time he doesn’t know what is going to happen next month, much less next year. But he perseveres. If he’s lucky he’s good enough in the sport to warrant an offer from a major team right away. If he’s not…well then, he’s in a real uncomfortable situation.

So I sit here and read all the rumors and gossipy tid bits…hoping beyond hope that things aren’t really as crazy inside the world of NASCAR as they appear from out here. But racing is, and always has been a career that demands high and excellent performance out of its participants each and every single week. And if a driver or anyone else on the team has one too many “bad” weeks, well, their job is on the line.

Unlike a lot of us that sit across the desk from our boss once a year or so and get our evaluation done, these fellows pretty much live under the ever watchful eyes of being terminated or being put up on a pedestal. Sure, they have contracts that bind both the drivers and the teams together, but we have watched as just about anyone that wants to get out of one can get out with a bit of negotiating.

Why on earth would a man choose such an unpredictable career? We all know that answer, even though it is callously thrown around way too often…these guys love to race. They’ll do anything to be able to race faster and more often than they already do. In order to reach that goal, they have to take those chances of being tossed around like marbles from team to team, grinning and bearing it for no other reason than…they love to race.

It still makes me cringe to see my favorite fellows venture out into the realm of being free agents in this big ole’ world of NASCAR. There are way too many young guys with enormous talent coming up through the ranks to allow me to feel sure that when it all washes out everyone will still have a job. But, that’s the world of racing. These talented guys can be on the top one minute, and hanging out at the back gate the next. But our guys all know this from the time they start out running on dirt or at the local short tracks. It comes with the territory, just like the big dreams, successes that are sometimes few and far between and disappointments that abound. As they work their way up, they soon realize that not many promises are actually made and a whole lot less are kept.

Yet, if most drivers were asked if the uncertainty of each year is worth it, they would sigh and nod their heads with a laugh…and then they’d look you straight in the eye and say, “Oh yeah, there’s no other life I’d rather have than this one.”

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