I found myself doing research into this subject and came up with some facts that I didn’t even know existed. I must have been hiding under a rock. Actually, I wasn't born yet. Apparently back in 1961, Curtis Turner earned a lifetime ban from NASCAR racing for attempting to create a drivers union, until Big Bill France commuted his sentence in 1965. NASCAR later put a stop to the Professional Drivers Association spearheaded by Richard Petty, after France held the inaugural race at Talladega in 1969 despite a boycott of the sport's top stars. The sports top drivers didn’t show up to the race but NASCAR ran it anyway. No worse for the wear.

This has been a question that has plagued NASCAR and its competitors since the first time a driver didn’t like the way NASCAR ran things. It also has been an unspoken understanding between the two, that if you rock the boat you will pay dearly. NASCAR has always prided itself on being able to police their sport better than any other sporting league going and have done well over the years. Try and talk about Tim Richmond and you will be shund. NASCAR doesn’t like it when you do it your way. It is their way or the highway.

I remember a quote that was spoken to Dale Earnhardt Sr. by Bill France after a complaint was voiced by Dale to the media on how a certain situation was handled by NASCAR at the time. I don’t recall the exact incident but Mr. France told Dale in an after race meeting, to go get into his jet and fly home to his million dollar ranch and think about it. In other words, we help you maintain your life style and bring you lots of cash to play with just for racing a car, so be quiet and go home.

I guess that’s all well and good but then you have to ask yourself, who is policing the cops on the beat in NASCAR? I have sent several requests to NASCAR public relations with no response but I can guess it is the members of the board at NSCRC. The drivers and owners are frustrated with the current conditions in NASCAR racing today and many of the issues brought up are valid and should be addressed with some realitve quickness.

Yet, NASCAR does things in its own time and leaves many feeling like their words go unheard by the front office and its staff. How many drivers are going to have to crash hard into the inside wall at the track before something is done about it? The smart thing to do is to put up the safer barrier on the inside walls at crucel points on the tracks we race at where it requires it to be there. Does someone have to get seriously injured or killed before NASCAR does something? There are so many unanswered questions and they are all important ones.

Is a drivers union something that would work? Dale Jr doesn’t think so. In a recent article I read by Reid Spencer from Sporting News Wire Service, Dale said, “"We don't sit around and search these things out just to pester. These are things that we actually run into as we go back to these venues over and over and over, and we continue to get frustrated with it and eventually might run into NASCAR president Mike Helton somewhere or someone and say 'Hey, this is what I think, take it for what it's worth,' and that's that.”

"I would like to think that NASCAR does talk to the drivers, the Jeff Burtons and those types. Jeff always errs on the side of safety, and he always has great points and great ideas, in my opinion. I would like to believe that NASCAR does have conversations with those guys somewhere, wherever it would be. I would like to think those things do go on, and that there's a driver influence in a lot of their decisions. I would hope that's the way it is. "It's just a sort of secret society thing that nobody knows about. That needs to be the case. Atlanta was just a reminder of that, really."

"We all do sound off and go push buttons a little too hard sometimes, but for the most part, we don't want to ruin the racing for the sport. We don't want to make it worse for the fans. We want to make it as big as we can make it, just like the rest of the guys in that NASCAR trailer down there do. We've got the same thing at stake when we go home. It's just as important to us that the race is great."

So, as I have found, many of the drivers are all for staying with the current format and how business is conducted in NASCAR if they only could go back to the days of old and listened to the people who actually drive the cars every week. My biggest fear is that NASCAR created its R&D department for learning and advancement purposes but it is also a way to avoid talking to current drivers and team owners whom may have an aggenda. NASCAR sees this as a flaw in reporting issues honestly and impartially and figured if they can research this themselves, there would be no need to talk with the teams at length or use their facilties. They now have their own proving ground in the Research and Development Department. 

Robin Pemberton was hired several years ago by NASCAR as the vice president for competition and was to be the go between for teams and owners to the front office and the newly built R&D Department. His job is to look and listen in the garage area every weekend to help ensure a direct line contact between the teams and NASCAR as well as help the R&D Department in catching those teams who are trying to bend the rules. Robin should know, he was one of the best for years in bending and breaking NASCAR rules. Alas, this hasn’t really helped much and I believe NASCAR is getting there, but not fast enough.

The reality and the most basic common-sense way to approach the whole thing is to have a time set a side every week between NASCAR and the teams, maybe after or before the drivers meeting, to discuss any problems that pertain solely to the drivers and NASCAR. This way you have an open line of communication and no need for the drivers to be represented by a union. You talk to them directly and work out solutions for one common goal. Great fan friendly racing! While they will never be able to please all involved, it sure goes along way with a competition team to know that the sanctioning body is listening.

For the most part the contracts and money issues are settled out between an agent for a driver and the team owner. It is the team owner who ultimately has to make sure his driver is happy and paid well. No need for a union there. As for NASCAR, the drivers being heard every week by a panel set up to address concerns brought forth by teams, would show NASCAR’s commitment to their sport and the growth of their bread and butter, the driver and fan. NO need for a union in my opinion. It would only ruin the sport.

Let’s pick up the pace a little NASCAR. You are doing so well by getting back to the basics, so lets keep making those small subtle changes that make everyone happy and your bank account and this sport, the biggest in the land.

Facts and quotes:

This article was written with the help of facts and quotes taken from an article put out by Sporting News Wire Service and NASCAR PR Services. 

 http://www.nascar.com/2008/news/headlines/cup/03/15/drivers.speaking.up.dearnhardtjr.tstewart/index.html?eref=/rss/news/headlines/cup