After a relatively uneventful race with a disappointing ending — for my taste, at least, since the underdog didn't win, I'll try to focus on a little more than the action that happened off the track at Saturday night's NRA 500.
For those who like parity, and I am one, it would have been great for Martin Truex Jr. to break that long winless drought that has plagued him since his first Cup victory at Dover in 2007.
It would have been nice to see him snooker Kyle Busch on that final restart and cruise to victory. But after losing the lead to Busch on the final round of pit stops under caution, Busch cleared Truex and sailed on for his 26th career win.
I had thought and hoped that it would be a much more exciting race than it was. It was OK. No real storylines other than the Penske cars having their rear ends confiscated and barely making it through prerace technical inspection. That's going to be a fun story to watch over the next few days.
The racing was alright. I just wish I'd gotten to see Truex firing those pistols in Victory Lane.
And with that manufactured segway, I introduce you to the real point of this rant — the pistols — and the group that so heavily advocates the use of those pistols: the NRA (National Rifle Association), and this race's title sponsor. Kind of.
A few months ago when I heard that the spring Texas race would be called the "NRA 500" I rolled my eyes, and thought "Well, that makes sense, doesn't it?"
But, after noticing that during the FOX telecast, the name of the race wasn't anywhere to be seen and they didn't seem to be mentioning the name of the race too often, I took to Twitter to investigate. It seems that the NRA bought the naming rights to the race, but not the television rights, meaning the right to use its logo, name, etc., during the broadcast on FOX.
It was odd. But it wasn't unprecedented.
It happened quite a few times during the 1990s, usually during a CBS broadcast. It stands out in my mind that the 1994 Miller 400 at Michigan (one of my favorites, and one of the most interesting, exciting NASCAR races of all-time) was just called "the Michigan 400" on the broadcast and the TV cameras took special care not to show the infield logo.
The same thing happened during Saturday night's broadcast.
After seeing the logo on Karl Malone's (of all people) shirt as he gave the command to fire engines, you didn't see or hear much more from the NRA, unless it was Mike Joy choking out the words "NRA 500" once an hour per the rules of the race/sponsor agreement.
And I couldn't have been happier about that.
During tough economic times, and when dollars are at a premium for race tracks, I can't blame Texas Motor Speedway for accepting a race sponsorship from the NRA. But, I can't understand why the NRA wouldn't just have sprung for the TV rights to utter its name like every other race sponsor these days. I can't really remember the time they didn't do that and always wondered as a kid growing up and watching NASCAR why some races didn't have their names said on-air. Now, thanks to Twitter, you can find out things like that within a matter of minutes.
Did they just want to get their name out to only the largely Texas-based crowd that attended the race in Forth Worh? Did they feel like they would disenfranchise a lot of now-mainstream NASCAR fans that aren't pro gun? Did NASCAR or FOX not like the idea of NRA plastered all over one of their broadcasts?
I don't like being one to ask such cynical questions that seem to immediately infer guilt. But I'd like to know an answer. I'll do some investigating.
The NRA is a controversial organization. And they're only controversial because of the people at the top of the organization. Most NRA members are logical, safe gun owners and that's evident in the over 60 percent of them that are in favor of background checks and increased mental evaluations for those who want to legally purchase firearms. I, a gun owner, myself (though, mine is locked away at my parent's house) grew up around firearms, took safety courses as a kid, and know how to operate one.
And now that I've qualified myself as someone who can logically speak on the matter, I consider people like NRA chief executive Wayne LaPierre to be some of the lowest scum in existence on this Earth. He's not one of those sane people who just like to hunt, or feel safer in their home with a gun as protection, or go to the shooting rage to blow off some steam, or skeet shoot as a hobby.
He a lobbyist. He's in it for making as much money as possible and he doesn't care how he makes that money. He doesn't care how many people die due to gun violence. He doesn't care whether or not gun safety measures would or wouldn't save people's lives. He only cares about his next dollar. And where it comes from. And doesn't care if it's got a few drops of blood on it.
I can only imagine the NRA had already spent all of its extra cash lining the pockets of Republican — and perhaps some Democrat — congressmen so they will block any sensible gun safety measures that the House of Representatives or Senate try to get through.
I had the not-so-great pleasure of reading the tweets of probably the biggest dullard on Twitter (@ImTheSportsDude) making nonsensical comments about how great the NRA sponsorship and NASCAR went together followed by 'Merica!
I honestly follow his account because of the mostly-ignorant, hateful comments make me feel like a more intelligent human.
But his comments are not reflective of what America is about. And that kind of closed-minded thinking isn't what sports are about.
And I'm glad I had to digest as little of that NRA propaganda as possible while I tried to watch the sport that I loved.
But, I would have gladly have endured a whole race, filled with 43 cars, all sponsored by the NRA, with every commercial break brought to us by the NRA, and the scoring ticker with a big AK-47 on it after every loop.
I would have watched it with pleasure if it meant that organization spent its money there instead of buying the votes of cowardly politicians.
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