This past week I sat in a salon and received a haircut from a lady named Adeline who is in her sixties.  I was surprised to find that Adeline, a transplant from the North, loved to talk about racing, specifically NASCAR. After leaving the salon with a head full of drafting, sling-shotting, and strategic pit stops, I could not help but reflect on how much racing, and its fans, have evolved over the past 30 years. My experience at the salon, with Adeline, left me with a question, ‘Who are the race fans of today’?

30 years ago this question could have been answered more easily. Then, if racing and/or its fans were brought up in a conversation, a stereotypical picture in the mind’s eye would appear, a picture of a wild group of beer drinking, good ‘ole boys barbequing in the backyard, each of them hooting and hollering for their favorite driver to be victorious.

The picture of today’s race fan is completely different. They, we, are a diversified bunch. Now, race fans exist over a broad spectrum of careers, ethnicities, and backgrounds. They are construction workers, short-order cooks, doctors, lawyers, as well as mothers at home rearing the fans of tomorrow. One thing is for sure. No matter what their occupation, race or age, they all have one thing in common – a love for speed, adrenaline, the sound of a screaming engine being pushed to its limit and the smell of hot tar and burning rubber on a lazy afternoon.

Racing has come a long way from the dirt tracks and low-budget stadiums of old and the sport owes it all to you – its fans, no matter who you are or what you do in life.

 MORE NASCAR NEWS