Imbeciles besmirch NASCAR’s reputation

Much was made – and rightfully so – of Tony Stewart’s incendiary comments last week comparing NASCAR to pro wrestling and saying the sanctioning body was playing God with its arbitrary use of caution flags.

That mess was put to rest when NASCAR reminded Stewart – at 6 a.m. of all times, which had to be more than a minor jolt to the system of the notorious night owl – about who signs the checks and who makes the rules.

But as damaging as Stewart’s outburst was to the sport’s integrity – for sure a rapidly vanishing commodity to any professional entertainment passing itself off as pure and simple fun and games – there was another casualty on Sunday: NASCAR’s image.

With every beer can that bounced off the asphalt of the racing surface or the sheet metal of race cars at Talladega, the stereotype of the sport being nothing more than the province of illiterate, tooth-missing, pot-bellied, drunken louts and their spouses, was reinforced.

Perhaps less than 10 percent of the crowd estimated at 200,000 participated in the latest edition of moronic, idiotic – and in this case, thanks to the speedway’s foresight and willingness to crack down – criminal behavior. But that doesn’t matter.

Neither does the fact that about 10 losers were carted away in ‘cuffs by the law.

The bottom line is that it even happened considering that:

“The sport’s most popular driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr., came out strongly last week against such behavior, his comments getting wide exposure online, in print and on the tube.

“The speedway president made a public announcement before Sunday’s race that anyone caught throwing debris that could endanger the lives of fans and drivers alike would be arrested.

What was the cause of all this madness?

The answer is as confounding as it is simple: Jeff Gordon won a race, his 77th, and passed the sainted Dale Earnhardt on the all-time victory list – at of all places Talladega, the track the late seven-time champion dominated and a track where Earnhardt Jr. has won five times.

The nerve.

The whole mess began a week ago when Gordon won at Phoenix to tie Earnhardt and then paraded around the track waving a No. 3 flag to honor Earnhardt.

The iron-headed faction of Earnhardt’s fan base objected and showered the track with debris, pelting Gordon’s car and making life dangerous for anyone in the range of their ill-aimed missiles.

As hard as those lunkheads tried to justify their actions, their excuses rang hollow then and echo hollow now, just the same as those expressed by the fools in attendance at Talladega.

Here’s one of the best: Gordon did a burnout to celebrate his victory, rubbing it in the face of the Earnhardt faithful. Yeah, that’s a real good reason to throw a full can of beer from the bleachers.

What was Gordon to do, turn tail and run?

Give me a break. Despite the stereotype of Gordon as a goody two-shoes, he is anything but. The four-time champion and sixth-best all-time winner is as hard-bitten, cold-blooded, prideful and competitive as one of the men who came before him. After being the subject of boos and jeers and much worse, he is entitled to roll up his sleeve and flex every now and then.

If it offends someone, tough. What those people are forgetting is the man whose honor they choose to defend by throwing beer cans was the meanest, most ruthless son-of-a-you-know-what the sport had seen in a long, long time.

That another has surpassed his victory total – but will never equal his championship total – with more finesse than fender bending and more guile than pure guts just sticks in their throat like a stubborn chicken bone.

The time has come to get over it and at the same time, once and for all, stop throwing beer cans at racecars.

What’s so hard to understand?