God and NASCAR

I never, ever watch network news. I can find far more information on the Internet and I trust those source much more than the nets. However, last night I made a brief exception. I flipped on the TV and was getting ready to hit the button on the TiVO to look at something I had previously recorded when the network newscast that had come on ran a piece on God and NASCAR.

It described accurately that NASCAR is the only major sport that starts each event with a prayer, and Motor Racing Outreach has chaplains that attend each race, conduct chapel services before the race, and go around to each car and pray with the drivers and their crews and families before the race. The overt Christianity displayed by many NASCAR drivers and crews is one thing that has always attracted me to the sport.

The report featured Dale Beaver, one of the senior MRO chaplains along with several drivers, including Michael Waltrip, an unabashed Christian. Beaver was the guy who conducted the funeral service for Dale Earnhardt back in 2001 after he died in an accident at the end of the 2001 Daytona 500, a race won by Waltrip.

The report seemed reasonably fair until the very end. As they closed the report, they stated that as NASCAR moves into New York (and by inference other "sophisticated" areas), they'll have to tone down the religion stuff. They even interviewed Rick Reilly from Sports Illustrated who said that non-Christians might not feel welcome at NASCAR events. Baloney.

For one thing NASCAR already has races in several blue states, including California, Illinois, Wisconsin (Busch series), Michigan, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New York (upstate) and New Hampshire. I don't see the crowds dwindling at those events because they open with a prayer.

And anyone who thinks that all 160,000 people that attended the race in Talledega, AL last weekend were all devout born-again Christians is kidding themselves. Not every Red-stater is a Christian, and certainly not all current NASCAR fans. There's room for everyone at a NASCAR event.

However, I'm confident that you won't hear any prayers to Buddah, Allah, Confucious, or any other "diety" at future races. It would make the racing a little awkward if the drivers had to stop several times to get out of their cars and bow to Mecca. You could lose a lot of laps that way.