What would happen if a Soccer mom was married to a NASCAR dad? They would most likely have a little kid that kicked ass.   Okay, I just had to do that.  Sorry, it just had to be said.  

Okay, let's hit the brakes on all this NASCAR dad stuff.  It's just foolish!  First of all, it is a kind of stereotyping that is very dangerous if you're running for President.  To say that all NASCAR fans are the same just shows ignorance.  Not all NASCAR fans are southern.  Not all NASCAR fans drive pickup trucks, and for goodness sake, not all NASCAR fans have little Confederate flags on their trucks or anywhere else. 

Everyone is spouting about NASCAR dads, and by the way what about NASCAR moms?  They vote too you know.  Some who love NASCAR are neither moms or dads.  Most who love NASCAR blend in nicely with mainstream America.  They blend in very nicely, thank you very much.

When someone starts describing the people who love this sport, they remind me of the people who used to think they knew all about African Americans.   You remember, the people who didn't even actually know an African American, but they sure as hell knew the profile of those people.  It wasn't fair to African Americans and it isn't fair to fans of NASCAR either.  I get the impression that most would profile NASCAR fans as southern, ignorant, poor people who have nothing to offer but a vote in the voting booth.  If you agree with that, then consider yourself ignorant - big time ignorant.  I'm not saying you're stupid, I'm just saying you are unaware of what you're talking about.

Let's start at the beginning.  NASCAR's roots are in the mountains of the south.  Once upon a time, liquor was brewed in stills in the south.  Because this was illegal, the men who owned the stills couldn't exactly advertise their locations, so someone had to transport the moonshine to the customers.  The young men who did the transporting needed cars that were faster than the revenuers cars.  So they souped up their engines and made their cars fly down the road.  Well, humans that they were, these transporting drivers decided that one had a faster car than another, and to make a great story short, they started racing.   If there were good ol' boys, then perhaps they were originators of that term.  In the south it is not a negative to call someone a good ol' boy.  It's a compliment.

Their cars were stock cars, meaning that they were cars from a car dealers stock, but they were modified for speed. The cars in today's stock car races may look like showroom cars, but that's where the comparison must end, because the stock cars you see racing at a NASCAR race have never seen a showroom floor.  The cars you see racing in NASCAR are built from the ground up with one goal in mind, racing.  You could say that they wear a stock car costume, but underneath they are just flat out speed machines.

And just as NASCAR stock cars are no longer true stock cars, NASCAR drivers are no longer just good ol' boys driving moonshine in order to make a buck.  Today's drivers are athletes, and they make big giant bucks.  You will find the younger drivers sporting college degrees, and instead of a load of moonshine, they carry a ton of knowledge.  Today's drivers for the most part are serious professionals who are involved in a dangerous occupation.  Why do they do it?  Why do men play football? Why do people fly airplanes?   Maybe it's just the love of their craft, maybe it's the big money, maybe it's a combination of both.  That question can only be answered by the people involved.

Although NASCAR had many of it's roots in the south, now NASCAR race tracks are located all over the United States, and more tracks are planned for the coming years.  You will find just as many people at a race in California or Michigan as you will anywhere else.  NASCAR today isn't your grandpappy's dirt track race.  No siree.

There's another side of the NASCAR industry that is somewhat unique.  NASCAR teams and cars are financed to a high degree by companies.  The company finances and sponsors the car, and in return their company name is absolutely equated with the driver and the number of that driver's car.  Their advertising dollar becomes a speeding billboard seen by thousands and thousands of fans. 

For example, Jeff Gordon is a NASCAR driver.  His car is number 24, and it's sponsored by Dupont.  Every NASCAR fan chooses a favorite driver, thus the cheering etc. at the races.  But, you can be sure that even though not all fans cheer for Jeff Gordon, every single one of them know that he drives the 24 car and his sponsor is Dupont.  Every single solitary NASCAR fan knows that!   If you ask a NASCAR fan, "Who drives the Kellogg's car?"  You will get a big smile and hear the words, "Terry LaBonte".  If you ask a NASCAR fan, "Who drives the number 8 car?" You will get another big smile and hear the words, "Dale Earnhardt Jr."  If you ask these questions of someone who claims to be a fan, and if they can't respond correctly, you have an imposter on your hands. 

Fans even take their dedication one step farther, they are sponsor loyal.  That is they will buy a product because that product is a sponsor of NASCAR.  It doesn't have to be their favorite driver's sponsor,  just as long as it's a sponsor of a NASCAR car.  The sponsor's name not only becomes synonymous with the driver, it becomes synonymous with the sport.   How many other sports can boast a deal like that  to advertisers?  If a company is relatively unknown, but can afford to sponsor a really good racer, that company's name will be at the top of NASCAR recognition within a year.

Then we have the fan paraphernalia.  Many many NASCAR fans, just like all other sports fans, purchase sport related merchandise.  There are a bunch of eighteen wheelers that go from race to race.  They park near the race track, open up the side of these rolling gift shops and sell fan gear.  Shirts, jackets and anything that bears a drivers number and or name.  These same articles also bear the sponsor's name.  There are also the diecast cars.  Diecast cars are miniature cars made to scale, and they look exactly like the NASCAR racing cars.  Many NASCAR fans collect these little cars and invest a lot of money into this hobby - a lot of money! 

So to just sort of sum this up, NASCAR fans are just Americans who love to watch cars race.  Driving a car is something everyone knows how to do, so it's a sport that anyone can identify with, unlike football, which does not resemble most of our daily activities.   

Race fans are not prehistoric creatures.  They aren't a bunch of poor folks.  Tickets to a race are not cheap.  The fan paraphernalia is not cheap.  And those little diecast car hobbies are surely not cheap.

So, we come to the question, why do NASCAR fans vote Republican?   That in itself is a ridiculous question.  NASCAR fans are not a political block, they're just sports fans.  Don't put all NASCAR fans in the south and don't make all southerners NASCAR fans.  If you want to know why southern states were colored red in 2000, look at the conditions in those states, ask the people who live there, but don't try to package up the south, toss it in the back of a pickup truck and slap a confederate flag on it's tailgate.  NASCAR is just a sport, it's not a religion, and it is no longer a region. 

ps  If you thought that NASCAR was just for ignorant folks, then by your own definition, maybe NASCAR is for you.

patricia