I was watching Tom & Jerry with my soon to be 5 year old son, and it had Tom in a dilemma. He had a little Tom with the red suit, horns and tail on one shoulder, telling him to do bad things, and a little Tom with white wings and a halo on the other shoulder, telling him to do good things. Now, I'm not quite sure why unless it's because I'm a little race deprived right now, but I had a picture in my head of a Nascar driver, with a rowdy and loud fan on one shoulder, and a quiet and polite fan on the other shoulder.
In this mini drama in my head, the rowdy fan was bragging about how great his driver was, and bad mouthing other drivers. I'm sure you've all heard that fan. "My driver is the best one on the track, He's really gonna kick so and so's butt out there." Now the polite fan was saying things like, "I've got a lot of confidence in my driver, he's got a great car and can really drive at this track"
I started thinking about drivers and their fans, and the special relationship they have, and I also started wondering how they feel when their fans are acting like total idiots. A lot of fans seem to think that their loyalty to their driver goes up a notch for every bad name they call another driver. And believe me, they can get pretty cruel about it! Does anyone stop to think that they could be talking about their driver's best friend? I don't know about you, but I wouldn't want ANYONE talking like that about my friends, fan or not.
I purposely didn't name any names above, because all the drivers have great fans! They really do. Those are the fans that buy and proudly wear their drivers shirts and hats, fly their flags high in the air, and wait in long lines to get a couple minutes to say "Hi" and maybe get a picture. And they all have fans that must make them cringe when they see some really crazy forms of "loyalty".
Being a Dale Earnhardt fan has given me a lot of perspective. He was the driver that you either loved or loved to hate. I happened to be the former, and it got me in a few sticky situations sometimes. One of the worst (and best) situations was after a Rockingham race a few years ago. Some friends and I were just watching the crowd leave. The worst happened when a crazed and drunken, non-Earnhardt fan charged at me, cussing and swinging his fists. His problem was my #3 hat. As I stood there, in disbelief, wondering what the heck I was gonna do now, the best possible thing happened. When he took a swing at me, (and believe me, it would have hurt me) he fell flat on his face. I'm really proud to say that I didn't step on him when I walked away.
I've had people tell me they HATED Dale because of his fans, and that is about the craziest, and most hurtful thing I've ever heard. No driver has control over the type of people who become his fans!!! You've all heard the expression "You can't pick your relatives". Well, this is the Nascar family, and it's true, you can't pick your fans.
I want my drivers to pick me to be their fan, so I've taken a little pledge. It goes something like this:
"I, Lisa Humes, take on the responsibility of being your fan. I will support you on good and bad days, and will not expect anything more from you except that you do your very best. I will not be a fair weather fan. I will not badmouth your friends personally, although there may be incidents that really tick me off on your behalf. I will not badmouth other driver's fans on the sole basis of their driver. Their behavior, yes, Their driver, no. In everything I do, I will make you as proud to have me as your fan as I am a proud to have you as my driver."
I'm not going to say who my driver(s) are. I want all the drivers out there to think I am their fan. In many ways I am. I only hope it also makes the fans think a little also.
Lisa@insidethepitbox.com
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