Trio's doomsday prophecies are just NASCAR fallacies

It's never a good thing when the media becomes the story, but that's exactly what's happened in the NASCAR world.

Last week Kyle Petty, television commentator and former driver Jimmy Spencer, and TV analyst and former crew chief Larry McReynolds gave their opinions on the state of NASCAR as part of a weeklong blog that appeared on the HamptonRoads.com website.

Brought together by respected NASCAR reporter Dustin Long, the trio sat in a room for more than an hour and touched on a wide variety of topics currently facing the sport.

Larry McReynolds isn't exactly sweet on the current state of NASCAR. (Getty Images)

Let's just say they didn't paint a pretty picture.

In fact, after reading what the three had to say about NASCAR, you have to wonder why anyone would bother watching or following the sport, and how each of them face the prospect of working in it on a daily basis.

According to the threesome, today's racing is terrible, the new Sprint Cup car is the worst thing that ever rolled onto a track, television ratings are on a downward spiral of doom closely followed by race attendance, and NASCAR has absolutely no direction with an impending CART-IRL type apocalypse on the horizon.

One of the blog segments was actually titled "This Sport is in Serious Trouble," a direct quote from one of Spencer's observations.

Nothing was safe from criticism, not even NASCAR's media brigade which McReynolds -- who, remember, works in television -- had in his scope.

"I want to go back and address one other thing about where we're at with the sport," he said. "And this is just my opinion: Our media, I call them our pencil pushers, have not helped."

McReynolds goes on to make an analogy about bad-mouthing a restaurant which in turn causes people to steer clear of the establishment and then having an impossible task of bringing back business even if a new chef, menu and staff were brought in to improve things.

His point is that negative media coverage of NASCAR is turning off interest in the sport and keeping fans from buying tickets or even watching on television.

Ironic in that it is exactly what McReynolds and Co. did in their recent rant.

Are there problems and issues that are challenging NASCAR these days? Of course there are. Several things the trio addressed in their session have to be of concern to the sport.

And those issues need to be dealt with and not just swept under the carpet.

Economic pressures have taken their toll on ticket sales. Corporate cutbacks have forced companies to scale back their involvement with NASCAR and many teams -- some even in the higher echelon -- are struggling to find adequate sponsorship. Television ratings are down, whether it's a result of competing with the NFL on Sunday afternoons or Jimmie Johnson's dominance of the series.

But simply casting inflammatory and controversial statements about NASCAR isn't the way to go about it, especially when it comes from people who should understand the big picture of the sport.

Having an opinion is the right of every person in this country and I respect that Long gave this group an opportunity to voice their beliefs.

What I don't have to do is agree with them.

There was a lot of talk in the series about how today's competition is so much worse than NASCAR in the past. That is just plain wrong.

As recently as a decade ago, there were times when five or six cars on the lead lap was the norm. In 1994, a driver lapped the entire field.

Last Sunday's race at little Martinsville Speedway had 20 cars on the lead lap. This Sunday's stop at Talladega will have even more.

There is also griping about the inability to pass in the new Cup car and how drivers and teams are still having such a hard time adapting to the COT.

I see lots of side-by-side racing, and -- although not all of it is at the front of the field, when sometimes faster cars pull away from the pack -- the competition level is definitely on the rise since the car's debut three years ago.

I remember hearing similar complaints when NASCAR introduced its last new car back in 1981, when the Cup Series entries were downsized from the 115 wheelbase behemoths that had come into play. But as time went by there was more acceptance and the cries from the garage area subsided.

It's human nature to remember "the good old days" as always being good and, unfortunately, fans and many people inside the sport seem to harbor fuzzy memories about NASCAR's past.

NASCAR today is very different than the NASCAR of 1979, 1989 or even 1999. And I guarantee you there were complaints about many of the same things around the sport in any era as there is today. The communications explosion of satellite television and radio, 24/7 coverage on the Internet and NASCAR's evolution from a regional attraction to a national mainstream sport have changed the playing field dramatically.

Constructive criticism and a watchful eye should be an important element in NASCAR, as in all sports. Sensational statements and "colorful" commentary for the sake of shock value are counterproductive to making any sport better.

I'm afraid more harm than good was done this week, and it's a shame.

Garage chatter

• David Ragan and Matt Kenseth will run the new Ford engine at Talladega on Sunday, with the rest of the Roush Fenway Racing stable more than likely getting the new powerplant before the season ends at Homestead.

• NASCAR's new Nationwide Series car, which makes its debut at four races in 2010, will be tested next Monday at Talladega. Current truck series driver Colin Braun will put Ford's new Mustang through its paces as part of the test, while Nationwide Series rookie Justin Allgaier pilots a Dodge Challenger for Penske Racing.

• Mike and Chrissy Wallace will become the first father-daughter combination to compete in one of NASCAR's top three divisions when they take part in Saturday's Camping World Truck Series race at Talladega.

• JTG Daugherty Racing has extended its technical alliance with Michael Waltrip Racing for another season. The two organizations began a technical alliance this year with the JTG Daugherty crew working out of the MWR shop. MWR builds the cars, and then the JTG Daugherty team works on them there.