[LSC9901]

One thing I don't understand about sports fans is how - or why - they keep trying to draw boundaries around the whole concept of "fandom."

In NASCAR, for instance, I get fans telling me that they can't understand why anybody would follow a driver when he switches from one team to another. I get just as many fans who tell me they can't understand how you can be a fan of a driver and NOT follow him when he goes to a new team.

The same goes for manufacturers. A long time ago in stock-car racing, people pulled for Ford or Chevrolet or Plymouth, not for the drivers who were in those cars. Over the past 20 years or so, however, that has changed dramatically. In recent years, it's all about the drivers.

But that pendulum may be swinging back a little bit. A lot of fans have complained to me this year that Chevrolet has been too dominant in NASCAR, too successful for the overall good of the sport. I think it does matter, on the grand scale, that more than one type of car is a threat to win.

That's one of the reasons I think it's good, in that whole big picture way, that Joe Gibbs Racing is going to swap to Toyota for 2008 and beyond.

I am in favor of anything that creates potential rivalries in NASCAR, whether it's driver vs. driver or team vs. team or whatever. If you look at the driver lineups for next year, Tony Stewart-Denny Hamlin-Kyle Busch (at Gibbs) vs. Jeff Gordon-Jimmie Johnson-Dale Earnhardt Jr.-Casey Mears (at Hendrick) is good stuff. The fact that they will now be in different types of cars makes it that much better, I think.

If a fan who has been behind Tony Stewart for his whole career decides he or she can't pull for him in a Toyota, that fan has every right to feel that way. If an Earnhardt Jr. fan can bring himself to pull for a driver at Hendrick Motorsports, that's OK, too.

The whole point I am trying to make is that I don't think it's my place to tell anybody why he should or shouldn't like or dislike anybody or anything there is about sports.

Don't tell me that just because I live near Charlotte the Dallas Cowboys can't be my favorite NFL team. Don't tell me I can't pull for a team because a guy I liked 20 years ago played there, but also don't tell me I can't completely lose interest in a team if my favorite player retires or goes somewhere else.

A fan can be as illogical and as irrational as he or she wants to be in deciding who or what to pull for or to pull against. That's why the whole thing is so much fun.

Life in the Turn Lane: The fun of being a NASCAR fan

[Quality88]

I guess I'm gonna have to agree with you there.... as bad as I hate to.

[wingkey1]

I struggle with those who cannot grasp the concept that a successful sport is one that grabs the guts of the broadest base of "fandom".

I struggle to understand why any one "fan type" does not understand that the complimentary and opposing fan types comprise the whole that is the foundation of the sport that each appreciates though perhaps for different reasons.

There is value in difference but only if each takes the time to consider and appreciate the views, opinions, of those of difference while realizing the sport of common love survives on the collective.

Once one locks ones view on the self serving without the flexibility to "help" others towards the broader view, the one becomes useless.

Appreciate all. Differ with grace. Fold for value. Eat frogs only on Tuesdays.