NASCAR's Embrace of Yankees and Political Correctness Hurt the Sport Ten Years After Dale Earnhardt's Death

The Washington Post writes, NASCAR's embrace of Yankees in the the northern states hasn't led to growth in the sport. The article parallels the 10th anniversary of Dale Earnhardt's tragic accident at Daytona, which is also partially to blame. Obviously, Dale Jr. hasn't lived up to the hype of his father, no matter how many millions of marketing dollars spent to push him in hopes he will one day be a champion.

In the decade since Feb. 18, 2001,NASCAR has kept racing on the high banks of Daytona International Speedway. But for many, stock-car racing's soul died that day. And all the exhaust fumes, tire smoke, fender-banging and paint-swapping since have amounted to little more than left turns.

In many ways NASCAR has never quite recovered. Attendance and TV ratings have slipped, a product of the malaise affecting the economy at large but also, in the minds of some, the result of a number of missteps made by the sport in reaction to Earnhardt's death.

In its zeal to retool its image by expanding beyond its traditional Southern base to markets west of the Mississippi, NASCAR did not just forget its Southern roots but at times denied them. It created a safer car that, while cutting down on fatalities and serious injuries, took much of the excitement and spontaneity out of the sport. At least that's how purists see it.

Earnhardt was the fourth NASCAR driver to die in a wreck in an 11-month span a decade ago. But his loss, at age 49, was incomprehensible, coming at the speedway where his mastery was supreme. He was invincible, or so it seemed.

Earnhardt's death from what looked like an innocuous crash led the national news broadcast and got front-page treatment in the New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today and the Los Angeles Times.

Safer, cleaner fuel burning cars, talk of greener NASCAR, and obviously removing the risk of the big one is making the sport sterile.