CRANDALL: Why NASCAR needs black hats
Friday, 16 December 2016
Kelly Crandall / Images by LAT
It goes without saying that there will never be another Tony Stewart, but now that he’s hung up his helmet, not to mention his black hat, it’s already left a massive void. In short, NASCAR needs a new bad guy.
When at its best, NASCAR has a traditional narrative with a set of protagonists versus their antagonists. It’s the plot of every successful novel and movie – sporting events too. However, NASCAR recently has featured nothing but 40 good guys driving in circles without a black hat to provide drama.
Sure, Stewart wore his proudly. He stood up for what he believed in and often spoke his mind without care for those who wouldn’t like it. He is a man of conviction. For as talented as Stewart was on track, his sharp tongue played well off the track too. On occasion, Stewart even got physical.
Don’t fear his absence quite yet because NASCAR’s bad boy void could be solved by the arrival of its new entitlement sponsor. Monster Energy is ready to unleash the Attitude Era on NASCAR.
“’Authentic’ is a big word in our vocabulary,” Mitch Covington, Monster Energy’s vice president of sports marketing, was quoted as saying earlier this month after the announcement. “We want to see the emotion – the raw emotion in the sport … And NASCAR is a very emotional sport. The drivers get emotional, and we need to let them be emotional and do what they do.
“We never tell our athletes what to say in an interview. We never script them. We hire them because of the way they are not because of what we want them to say. We want raw emotion and good hard racing.”
It would be a 360 from the past decade under sponsorship from Sprint. A corporate and polished company, Sprint’s NASCAR largely had a clean-cut persona. Rivalries were downplayed and discouraged, with the media often getting accused of manufacturing drama. If drivers spoke their minds or engaged in unruly behavior, a fine was sure to follow.
Those who did try and wear the black hat were quickly vilified. Labels such as
complainer,
punk and
sore loser would be thrown around in addition to criticism about professionalism. Look no further than Joey Logano as the most recent example. After Logano spun Matt Kenseth from the lead at Kansas Speedway in October 2015, Logano all but gloated about it.
He proudly stated he wasn’t going to let Kenseth race him the way he did, feeling as if Kenseth drove him up into the wall the lap before the incident. Over and over, Logano stated he felt he did no wrong in the incident and wouldn’t change a thing.
Soon the Team Penske driver was being serenaded with boos every Sunday, the subject of columns written about how he should have handled things differently, and repeatedly criticized and insulted on social media. When Kenseth wrecked Logano in retaliation at Martinsville Speedway two weeks later, Logano stood his ground and called it a "coward move."
Then came Logano’s change in course. He slowly started to back down from the feud through 2016 by deflecting questions as the past being the past. By the time the Chase started again, Logano had come out and admitted he should have called Kenseth after Kansas to avoid any further conflict.
So perhaps Logano didn’t have it in him to wear the black hat – to be a good villain. But surely there is someone in the garage willing to step up to Monster’s expectations.
Keselowski vs Gordon at Texas in 2014.Logano’s teammate Brad Keselowski certainly has the right attributes. The 2012 champion has come into his own in terms of speaking his mind and showing how passionate he is about the sport’s overall health. But Keselowski is considerably more methodical about his approach.
It’s unlikely we’ll ever see Keselowski throw a helmet, a la Stewart at Bristol in 2012. Keselowski will also never stand up and say he could take on anyone in the garage.
Kurt and Kyle Busch were labeled bad guys early in their careers, but both have been more sponsor-aware in recent years. Still fiery on the radio, Kyle Busch hasn’t flipped off a NASCAR official, intentionally wrecked anyone, or hurled insults in an interview in quite a while. Kurt Busch has moved on from threatening reporters.
As NASCAR’s image has changed throughout the years, so too have the rules. As recently as last year a new behavioral policy was introduced when it comes to conduct both on and off the track.
But, a year later, its new title sponsor seems ready to go a different direction. The question now is, can team sponsors do the same and allow their drivers to embrace their inner monster?
Just as Tony Stewart embraced wearing his black hat.