While most normal people were celebrating or getting ready to celebrate the New Year, I found myself embroiled in yet another unbelievably stupid Twitter argument. Of all of the stupid Twitter wars I have started and engaged in, this one is probably right there at the top.
It wasn't about Dale Jr.'s chances of ever winning a Cup championship or restart zones or tandem drafting or which make of racecar is the best. Those are actually worthy topics of debate. No, it was whether or not racers should make negative comments through social media about their local tracks.
I have said for years that racers are their own worst enemies. When it comes to spending, they most certainly are. Racers will bitch about how much tires cost, or how much fuel costs, or how much their engine bill is but then go and spend extravagant money on haulers or pay someone to write press releases that my 12 year old could run circles around.
But now racers are their own worst enemy in the public domain.
Some tracks are now enacting policies that state racers can be fined or suspended for critical comments against the track via social media. And true to form, there's been immediate push-back by some because despite it being against their own self interests, they don't like anyone telling them what they should and shouldn't or could and couldn't say.
Racers being critical of the sport they profess to love through social media channels goes against every public relations principle they'd be taught at any college in the country. The analogy used by Michigan International Speedway track president Roger Curtis is 100 percent correct: why would anyone want to come to a restaurant if the wait staff tells everyone the food is horrible? Why would fans come to the track if the racers are saying it's a horrible place run unprofessionally with horrible food and dirty bathrooms?
Two racers from somewhere in the Midwest spent hours telling me it's their right to say "the track is junk" when one of their local dirt tracks is rougher than their preference. It is their right, and while "the track is junk" is something I readily understand, what happens when some family looking into going to the races for the first time the next week sees that comment and doesn't fully understand the racer's lingo? Why would that fan want to come to a track that a racer says is junk?
If you're a racer and you have an issue with a track promoter over anything from track conditions to the purse to the food to the cleanliness of the bathrooms, do yourself the favor and search the promoter out for a private conversation.
Maybe race night isn't the time or place for that conversation. Just like when you get dumped racing for the lead, you may not be in the mood for a chat after the conclusion of the night's activities. Give the guy running your track the same consideration if he's had a rough night. Wait a day or two and pick up the phone. Have a conversation. And if you're going to give him a list of complaints, particularly about track conditions or how the facility is run, make sure you have a list of suggestions to make things better.
Someone else told me that it's okay to make such negative comments through social media because it's okay to point out that some tracks are poorly run and those tracks deserve to close.
I can't even wrap my brain around that one. Conversely, would it be okay if the track promoter told your sponsor they should leave you on a night that you have car problems and finish sixth in the B-main and don't make the feature?
We're supposed to be in this together. Racers need a place to race. Tracks need racers to put on a show. Both entities are taking a huge financial risk and in this era racers and tracks alike are going out of business at an alarming rate. If that trend continues, short track racing as we know it will be a thing of the past, like drive-in movies.
Sure, some places in this country have multiple short tracks to choose from. I live in one of those areas where I have a dozen tracks within 90 minutes. Some are run really well. Some a run poorly. But I don't want any of them to close. Even the ones that have a promoter or employees I don't personally like.
Then there's the whole "but it's not my job to promote your track" argument. And while that is technically correct, any racer that has a sponsor on the side of his racecar has an obligation to promote that sponsor. That company spent money with you wanting positive impressions through motorsports. The more people who see your racecar, the more value that sponsor gets and the more likely that sponsor comes back to sponsor you again. You know, so you can race some more. Something you supposedly enjoy doing.
Being negative on social media isn't "got wrecked by so-and-so" or "can't believe the officials put me to the back". It's "this place needs to get its shit together" and "I'm never coming back to this shithole because the idiots who run it put me to the back for spinning that asshole out". It's not blowing off steam, but rather the stuff that makes the entire sport look bad.
And before you go and say "but Cone, you make fun of everyone and everything in racing, what's the difference," understand that while I might be critical of a call or an incident on track, I don't say "I hate NASCAR" or "I hate this track" or "I am never watching again" or anything else like that. Futhermore, if I go to a track and have a bad experience the first time, I understand what many of these tracks are up against and I'll give the benefit of the doubt that they'll get it right the next time.
I don't like dirty bathrooms, but I also know if I use the facilities at the end of the show it's not going to be as clean as it was before hot laps started. I don't like shows that run long, but I also understand sometimes you have one of those nights. I don't like dusty or rough dirt tracks but I also know the millions of factors that go into track prep and how hard it can be to get it right, especially when weather is so changeable in the heat and humidity of the summer.
Social media interaction helps build an interpersonal connection. Seriously, there are 72,000 people that follow a orange traffic cone! Why? Because I work hard to interact with people. Granted, many short track promoters do not have the time to spend doing that the way I do.
If you run a short track, spend a little time checking your interactions. Respond to people. Find a positive way to respond to critical interactions. Turn negatives into positives. If you don't have the time, or even the communicative skill, to do it, find someone who does. It works.
