I Know All There Is To Know About The "Crying Game"! By-Heather N. Tygrett- Welcome to InsideThePitBox.com!! Check out ALL our sections and features here!! There is plenty to keep you busy on our main page! Wow, NASCAR just got back into full swing again a little over a week ago at Daytona, and there have already been so many things complained (i.e., whined, cried) about by practically EVERYONE that it it's hard to keep up! LOL! First, of course, it was the Fords and their spoilers in Daytona. After they cried enough, they finally got what they wanted. Like the old saying goes, the "squeaky wheel gets the oil"! Then it was the Dodge's turn to complain (so far to no avail). And, since Rockingham, now a few Chevy's are playing the "Crying Game" too! Maybe, if you cry as loud as the Fords did, you'll get your way too! LOL! And you can't forget [insert driver "A"'s name here] complaining about how [insert driver "B"'s name here] either hit, spun out, or somehow made contact with [insert driver "A"'s name here again] car, causing him/her to have a DNF, fall from the top ten to the mid-thirties, or lose the race - you get the picture. As soon as Rockingham was over, certain drivers (who will remain nameless) immediately started crying because the red flag wasn't thrown with only a few laps to go, like it had been the week before in Daytona. Personally, I was wondering about that myself. I know that NASCAR has said that they didn't red-flag the race due to "time constraints" - but whose stop-watch are they going by? Their own, or the television network's? Who is the one that says, "Time's up!"? The one thing NASCAR does better than anyone is being inconsistent. I agree with what a lot of the drivers had to say about it - stop making the rules up as you go along. Okay, now I'm going to talk about something that people [myself included] have been playing the "crying game" (so-to-speak, please don't be offended, no insult intended) about lately, which I happen to agree with, and would like to jump on board of their "crying game", too, with both feet! What is it I'm referring to? This: NA$CAR.com's so-called "new and improved" website. New and improved? Okay, whatever. What a bunch of "boloney"!!!! The only thing "new" [but not improved] about NASCAR.com's website is that: (A.) You can't find anything you're looking for on there anymore; (B.) The new "look" is confusing and annoying, even when just trying to read the headlines; (C.) You can no longer enjoy the crappy videos that you could barely even see at all last year of interviews, etc. - unless you pay for them!; (D.) You can no longer access the "sometimes it works, most of the time it doesn't" RACECA$T - unless you pay for it! Yeah, like that's worth the money! You can supposedly "zero" in on your favorite driver's in-car audio by purchasing this feature. However, the "favorite" drivers offered are only like eight or nine or something. Well, hello, what if the driver you want to hear isn't the big popular "favorite" that NASCAR thinks is worth listening to? By Golly, if you have to pay to hear that crappy connection/audio (which was sometimes worthless when it was free), then you should be able to listen to the dang' flag waver if you so choose!!! (E.) I've noticed a lot of message boards lately where fans, like me, are upset over the RACECA$T RIP-OFF. Many are even saying that they are now boycotting NASCAR.com because of how they are trying to swindle even more money out of us to access RACECA$T (don't know if boycotting will do much good, but it's worth a shot). Not to mention the fact that you can't even view a video, interview, etc., which has ALREADY been shown on television for all to see, unless you sign up and pay for the "subscription service" - I'll tell you what you can do with your subscription service! Use your imagination!!! NASCAR, forgive me if I'm being naïve, but it's hard for the average fan to believe that you guys (or Turner, or whoever) are so hard up that you have to start charging fees to access "fan features" on your website - which were free last year. You would think that the second most popular spectator sport in America is making plenty of money, and does not need to "nickel and dime" its fans on the web - I was born in the dark, but it wasn't last night! Personally, I really liked the "old" look, it was easy to navigate and find what you were looking for. And no, I am not an internet novice. I use and access the internet on a daily basis for numerous reasons (research, news, writing, etc.), and have done so for over seven years. I consider myself fairly experienced and I know what I'm doing when I go "surfing". So if it's difficult sometimes for somebody like me to find my way around (so-to-speak) NASCAR.com's "new" website, do you think it's easy for an internet "rookie" to do so? I doubt it. Ok, I've ranted and raved about things I'm tired of hearing people play the "crying game" about (i.e., Fords' spoilers, no red-flag at Rockingham, etc.), and I've "cried" about my displeasure with the "new and improved" NASCAR.com. But I stand firm in my beliefs (and I'm willing to cry! LOL!) when it comes to "subscription services" (i.e., RACECA$T, etc.). I wonder sometimes, do they really think we are that stupid? Please don't insult my (and thousands of other race fans') intelligence! We don't appreciate it. But these are just my opinions…I could be wrong. Until next time…be safe. And God Bless America. Heather@TeamDEI.net Thanks for visiting InsideThePitBox.com!! Check out ALL our sections and features here!! There is plenty to keep you busy on our main page! (Editors Note:The views and opinions of our writers are just that, theirs. If you have comments, write to them. We take no responsibility for their articles... Do you blame us?) Article archives Return to the Main Page