Bloodhorse Executive Editor Dan Liedman took his turn in the “What’s Going On Here” section of the Blookdhorse in last week’s edition.  He brought to light some thoughtful comparisons (although it seemed to me went on about it a bit) between NASCAR and horseracing.  Then he went into depth (same way the Pacific ocean goes into depth) about NASCAR’s changing approach to marketing and the pursuant success the sport has seen.

That’s nice.  Don’t ya think?  Gripping stuff!

Where is the comparison most of us want to see?  Here, I’ll help out…. follow this link, or do a Google search on this string:  Gordon + Johnson + penalized + NASCAR.

I’m not going to spend a whole lot of time picking on the Bloodhorse because I enjoy their publication.  But for crying out loud I wish they would use some of their industry muscle to be a proponent for change.

Here’s the Cliff Notes on the article in the link:   At Charlotte, NASCAR handed out some serious fines and penalties to two of its top drivers for failing a pre-race inspection. 

These fines could definitely be material enough to affect the Nextel Cup standings.  And these are two big names in the sport, not some expendable chumps, that were made an example of.

Rick Hendrick (a finee) called the punishment “excessive” per the AP wire.

Good!  Damn right Rick!  If you want to make yourself crystal clear and make sure nobody thinks this is just a wink and a nod, you gotta upset some people.  Give that pendulum a good shove to get it moving back across bottom dead center.

Robin Pemberton, Vice President for Competition returned with “In the old days, there was a gray area… in the new days, it’s not a gray area.” And then later, “But we owe it to the teams and the industry to uphold the standards of the Car of Tomorrow for the integrity of this sport.”

Way to go Robin!  Way to go NASCAR!  And this comes from a card carrying horse racing fan that thinks NASCAR barely meets the definition of a sport!  Someone who can’t understand how anyone can endure 2+ hours of cars going around in a circle, heavy drinking and permanent hearing loss.  Well, the drinking I get.  But that is not my point anyway.  Just way to go.  That’s my point.

Meanwhile, last year’s Eclipse award goes to a trainer who served medications violations related suspensions (Pletcher).  The top two finishers in the Belmont Stakes (Pletcher, Assmussen) both served suspensions last year for medications infractions.  And no one hardly says boo about it.

Elsewhere in the same edition of the Bloodhorse… Q&A interview with …. (drum roll)… Todd Pletcher!

Also elsewhere in the Bloodhorse…Feature on Veterinarian Steve Allday - “There need to be more (medications) regulations and there needs to be zero tolerance.”

And finally, this also found in this week’s Bloodhorse, “Belmont Stakes Ratings Down 12%”

Now I’m not saying it is that simple, clean up the sport and fans will return. 

Wait, nevermind.  That is what I’m saying.  There are some dots here asking to be connected. 

For the record, I hope no one thinks I’m putting down NASCAR when I say that I can’t bring myself to watch it.  I could maybe watch it if they only went around the track up to 5 times.  But 500 miles?  How many times can you lean over to the drunk guy next to you and scream in his ear, “WHO DO YOU THINK WILL WIIIN?” get his reply, “WHAAAAAAAAAT?  THERE’S MORE IN THE COOOOLERRR” and still call it entertainment.  They tell me it is even worse when the cars start their engines.

But that’s not the point either is it?  The point is that NASCAR gets it and horse racing doesn’t.  NASCAR is willing to do what it takes to keep the sport clean while horse racing still refuses to take their problems head on.

Oh, yeah, and NASCAR’s approach to marketing is also better.Â