NASCAR Drivers: 59 % Republican, 0 % Democratic

[TSIAS]

Taken from a recent Sports Illustrated article. I'm not saying that all NASCAR fans are Republican, but this survey clearly showed that none identified themselves as Democrat.

Heck, even professional golf (David Duval) and tennis (Agassi and McEnroe) had token Democrats.

I'm not saying that we should like/dislike a sport because of its participants political leanings. But it's quite hard for me to care about a sport where no driver will admit, in a private survey, to being a Democrat.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/racing/06/27/nascar.survey0702/2.html

Republican, Democrat or Independent?
Republican.................. 59%
Democrat.................. 0%
Independent.................. 18%

[DemGa]

1. Wow, maybe helps explain my natural revulsion to the "sport."...nt

[durrrty libby]

9. Me too

[Exultant Democracy]

2. Liberal shouldn't spend their money lining these guys coffers.

[rateyes]

3. Who are the 23% that abstained from the question?

59% + 18% = 77%

I guess some drivers aren't anything. LOL. Or, they asked "what's a republican or democrat?" :evilgrin:

BTW, I'm a Nascar fan, and have actually stood on top of the transport of the #90 team (when there was one) to watch races. I don't put much stock (no pun intended) in that poll.

[TSIAS]

6. Some respondants didn't answer

That's why the poll was a bit flawed.

I can't believe there was one driver who voted Bill Elliott as the current best driver in NASCAR. Maybe it was Kyle Petty and he still thinks its the late 1980s.

[rateyes]

13. He's not a current driver...

I don't think. I thought he retired years ago. If not, there's NO WAY he's the best right now.

I don't think Earnhardt, Jr. is much of a Bush fan, is he?

[liberal1973]

39. Well as for that 59%

Dale Earnhardt who passed away in 2001 was a Democrat.

[greenbriar]

46. Kyle Petty still drives

He got into a great scuffle yesterday



I like nascar...

[Jack from Charlotte]

64. Elliott stills drives...part time. (NFM)

*

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

8. Democrats who didn't want to upset the fan base?

:shrug:

[tyedyeto]

24. Some could be non-Americans, such as Juan Pablo Montoya n/t

[Renew Deal]

42. Who got booed at Bristol a month ago for being "not an American"

I was at the Bristol race a few weeks ago and he got booed. I asked why and the guy next to me said that it's because he's not an american. There were also lots of confederate flags. There's Nascar tracks in some very blue states (NY, California, Michigan, Illinois, Pennsylvania, NH, Delaware, Wisconsin) and states with good Democratic representation (TN, IN, Kansas, Virginia, AZ).

I would take those results to be 59-41 and actually better than that. There's a whole section of confederate flag waving hillbilly's that some of these guys are pandering to. BTW, most of the drivers are from deep south states. The kind of people that won't be able to afford Nascar by the time Bush is done.

[Elidor]

52. Being non-American is downright un-American

Who are these people from other lands who think they can just come here and...and...and do the things we do? How did we let this happen?

[Elwood P Dowd]

53. Most of the drivers are from California, Nevada, Wisconsin, Indiana, Missouri,

Washington, and other non-southern states. Go look at the 12 drivers in the Chase. Only two of them are from the South.

[Jack from Charlotte]

65. True. The Charlotte newspaper had the bio of all drivers.....

and fewer than 10 total out of about 50 full and part time drivers were from NC, SC, GA, Va, Ala....

[Bluebear]

31. 'Or, they asked "what's a republican or democrat?" '

:spray:

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

4. republicans like going around in circles really fast

and getting nowhere.

[TheCowsCameHome]

22. They call it the "Iraq 500" - except the finish line keeps moving away

[TomInTib]

5. I have a hard time believing that 41% own airplanes.

Some of those questions were just inane.

But most of the NASCAR/Busch/ARCA people I know are 'pub all the way, from team owners to fans.

[Ilsa]

7. I'm not sure I believe that. It may be true of a lot of golfers, though. nt

[laconicsax]

10. I know a NASCAR fan who's a Democrat.

However, this poll is of drivers, not fans:

In a high-octane, if highly unscientific, survey SPORTS ILLUSTRATED recently polled Nextel Cup drivers to get their opinions on matters both on-track and off. More than a third of the Cup regulars (18) responded, though some of the drivers declined to answer certain questions (thus the percentages given don't all add up to 100). Some who did respond added comments (anonymously), the most notable of which are included here

[Clark2008]

57. Ahhh... that's not the way the OP defined it.

(S)He said "I know not all NASCAR fans are Republicans..."

[NYVet]

11. And this matters in what way?

I don't watch Nascar to hear them talk about politics. I watch to see the trading of paint and the wrecking of cars.

[PDenton]

12. I don't believe the survey is accurate

NASCAR is not all Republicans. Plus at the local stock-car dirts and modifieds level I bet there's alot of apolitical types.

I'll admit NASCAR isn't exactly highbrow stuff that will appeal to Ivory Tower elites who do nothing more daring than checking the status of their trust funds or buying up real estate, but to dismiss the fans as drooling rednecks is petty. At least NASCAR has saved Watkins Glen from abandonment.

I like Harry Reid; he's a man's man and had his face beat in as a boxer. That makes him OK in my book. Democrats could learn a thing or two in life in doing some everyman type stuff instead of berating flyover country and their sports.

[tabasco]

40. You are repeating stupid stereotypes.

You think Democrats are wussies, huh?

Say it to my face, tough guy.



We're not tough guys like Limbaugh and Savage or a Nascar driver?

We can't produce a candidate like war hero Bush?

Take your right-wing horseshit somewhere else, faux tough guy.

[NMMNG]

61. Dems are Ivory Tower elites with trust funds and real estate?

:rofl: I guess nobody clued me in. I don't fit that profile.

[ileus]

14. I know many fans of naFcar both D's and R's

It really depends on the issue...

[angrycarpenter]

15. 100% wasteful

Tires that only last 150 miles, mass quantities of fuel getting to and during the race, Expensive tickets, expensive ad space, huge salaries. sounds like a republican sport to me.

[BlackVelvet04]

17. And the NFL doesn't have expensive tickets,

expensive ad space and huge salaries? Their fans don't drive or fly hundreds of miles to see a game? They don't spend millions of dollars for stadiums? They don't produce any trash with all the drink cups, napkins, hot dog wrappers, etc. at the games?

[angrycarpenter]

25. sorry to single out nascar

I am not a sports fan period. I have never understood the hero worship in sports fandom. Love to play, hate to watch. Bores me out of my skull.

[BlackVelvet04]

16. So what?

HEY, WE GET IT. MOST DUer's are way too sophisticated, politically correct and intelligent to like NASCAR. Us NASCAR fans are just a bunch of dumbass, beer swilling rednecks. Maybe we should all leave and let you have your pure forum to yourselves.

[Rick Myers]

21. I'm the biggest friggin' liberal I know, and

..I have watched NASCAR since I was 13. I'm 50 now... I'll agree what the sport has a distinctly 'red' fanbase. But I've watched teams and drivers for years and it's a hell of alot more than 'go fast, turn left.'

I don't spend much money on the sport, only once ever went to a race, with my sister and nephew, at Charolette, NC. The churches there don't have crosses, the have big Number 3's!!! I wore a DU shirt and felt like I should have had a target on my back. The GOP had a big truck there...

There is no way you can lump EVERYONE into one big group! There are LIBERAL NASCAR fans...

And GUESS WHAT???

There are liberals that own guns!

Imagine that?

[BlackVelvet04]

29. I own a gun, too. A number of guns actually. n/t

[Rick Myers]

30. I wasn't addressing you with that comment, sorry if you misunderstood

Just addressing the thread as a whole.

I think it's important to know that liberals do own guns too!

Peace. :hi:

[BlackVelvet04]

32. I didn't take it that you were.......

just throwing in as a gun owner.

[PDenton]

54. I like anything involving racing

NASCAR is OK. I really like dirt racing, but unless you live in a rural area, it is hard to get. I used to play a dirt racing simulator online (I own a force feedback racing wheel and the whole bit). People who say it is just going around and round in cicles don't get it.

Sometimes I watch rally racing on SPEED channel. I wish they had more MotoGP motorcycle racing.

[MindPilot]

58. I wonder if some of those highbrows who look down their noses

at us unsophisticated lowlifes would be kind enough to enlighten us as to exactly what sport we should be watching?

[pretzel4gore]

18. and Bush is their leader- he speaks for them

he decides their futures, their kids futures and he gives them rope for the hangmen/women (cuz bush truly hated amerka; he sure ruined it, and America will retaliate against the busheviki)
posts like this, which hilight the intractable ignorance of people who should know better, also make bush a heroic figure to anti-fascists and progressives. Bush is wrecking something that the democratic party insiders watch despairingly, and they reach out in friendship vto the gopigs, hoping that they get control in time to mitigate the damage and urging restraint meanwhile. But Bush, meanwhile, is a nazipooh pied piper, tootin his little horn and luring onward the mob of nitwits who think it's john philip sousa! Lemming-like, the USA approaches a raging river, and lil toot aint gonna be there when the naskkkar/repuke mob are up to their necks in it!
:rofl:

(yes yes yes, we'll be up to our necks too, but hey we were right, knew it all the time, and they were wrong, and discover that when the chilly fingers of misfortune grab em by the ... hahaha)

[DemocratSinceBirth]

19. Who Needs NASCAR

I can put a lawnchair by the side of I-95 and see the same thing for free...

[Arugula Latte]

20. Dumbass "sport"

Dumbass drivers

[Clintonista2]

23. Remind me how this is a "sport" again?

Is it kinda like how eating lots of hotdogs is considered a sport?

[Arugula Latte]

28. yes, and it's like how Carrot Top is considered a comedian...

:D

[dajoki]

41. I saw a driver being interviewed...

one time, he looked in his 50's was about 5'9" weighed about 240 and called himself an athlete. Now I don't know the guy, maybe he can run a half-mile, but he didn't look like an athlete. Maybe some drivers are athletic, but this one didn't appear so.

[Elwood P Dowd]

45. There are zero drivers as you describe in NASCAR's Nextel Cup

You are making up shit.

[dajoki]

47. I might be making up shit, but...

I'm not making up what I saw, whether you like it or not.

[Elwood P Dowd]

50. The average NASCAR Nextel Cup driver weighs about 165 pounds.

Even Tony Stewart has lost weight. Have you ever tried to drive a car for 3-4 hours when the temperature inside is 130 degrees and you're side-by-side with other drivers going 150-200 MPH? I don't think you would last very long.

[dajoki]

59. You're right...

I wouldn't last very long. Although I do not like NASCAR, the drivers are very talented. But you don't have to be an athlete to be a driver, although you can be an athlete and a driver, probably most of them are. BTW, its not just NASCAR, I feel the same way about some other sports also.

[Stuckinthebush]

26. In the words of Jeff Foxworthy regarding NASCAR

"Not even a retarded dog would sit and watch cars go around in circles."

[tammywammy]

27. I loooove me some Nascar.

And I'm definitely not a republican. Plus, I could careless. I watch it for entertainment and not politics.

[Renew Deal]

43. Same here.

And Dale Jr. says that he's not a republican.

[liberal1973]

33. Republican idiots

I'm a southerner and went to a number of nascar events in the past. Nascar is full of Neo-nazi republican bigots. The KKK loves nascar.

I would like a list of the lowlife republican drivers. Strange we don't have their names. I guess they're all typical republican cowards. That way we could inform the sponsors of these republican drivers.

[B Calm]

34. My best friend is a huge NASCAR fan & he votes DemocraTIC!

[The Gunslinger]

35. But they sure turn left a lot............ .................. ...... nt

[AX10]

36. I was never a fan of moonshine racing in any case.

.

[Jacobin]

37. And to think that they spend their days in one long left turn

:-)

[liberal1973]

38. Don't forget

These idiots had the audacity to send richard petty and that peckerhead darrell waltrip to the Pacific Northwest to push for a track there. Nascar is just as bad as walmart.

Nascar is not a sport.

[Elwood P Dowd]

44. Dale Earnhardt Inc is run by a woman and a black man.

Most of the NASCAR drivers are brainwashed by mega-rich corporate sponsors. Even the drivers who rarely finish in the Top 20 make millions of dollars a year. I don't think you will get many honest political opinions from most drivers.

http://www.daleearnhardtinc.com/content/corporation/bios.aspx

[PDenton]

56. republicanism/conservativism probably

appeals to sport stars. It's obvious why. Do you think, for instance, that Objectivism or Libertarianism as a philosophy would appeal to a guy who scrubbed toilets most of his life, and knows he'll be doing that 20 years from now? Of course not. Likewise, it appeals to people who are the focus of attention because it legitimizes their greatness.

[Dukkha]

48. It's always been a right wing recreation*

*i.e. not a sport

I'm amazing at the level of denial that it isn't.

[rabbit2484]

49. Jeff Gordon didn't endorse Shrub in '04

He was the only driver in the top 10 who didn't, he also didn't visit the white house with the other drivers. I've always been a fan of his, but this made me pull for him even more.

[BenDavid]

51. your post is wrong...you say nascar drivers, then

you write "Taken from a recent Sports Illustrated article. I'm not saying that all NASCAR fans are Republican, but this survey clearly showed that none identified themselves as Democrat." Which is it.....Drivers or fans? and really, who gives a chit. If someone likes a sport and you don't then why berate someone.....

I like NASCAR and like #48.....Liberal and graduate of Ole Miss.....Are you ready? Hell yes! Damn Right!Hotty Toddy, Gosh almighty
Who in the hell are we - Hey Flim Flam, Bim Bam Ole Miss By Damn!

I thank you
Ben David

[Clark2008]

55. My son's a Democrat (or will be when he's 18) and

he's a NASCAR fan - so was my step-father, but, thanks to TennCare restructuring and lack of affordable private health care, he's no longer with us.

There is/was two. I know others.

[kenny blankenship]

60. Maybe somebody already pointed this out, but what this shows

is not that there are NO Democrats at all in NASCAR's visible ranks, but that it's NOT OK to vote Democratic or to be a registered Democrat in NASCAR.

There are Democrats in NASCAR no doubt. But evidently it is not something that a visible NASCAR figure dares to admit.

That's even worse than the imaginary scenario where every NASCAR driver is revealed to be a registered Republican and gave to the RNC in the last election: it demonstrates the existence of a cultural prohibition on political heterodoxy. People being all of one opinion is one thing, a strong taboo against being of a different opinion is a bad thing.

[Va Lefty]

62. All the owners and most drivers are very wealthy

It is not surprising that most of them would vote republican. That is, by and large, what rich people do. Not saying it's right but that's the way it is.

[slackmaster]

63. We should figure out which ones are Democrats and "out" them

For the Children.

[KansDem]

66. Stands to reason...

NASCAR drivers spend a lot of time making a lot of noise by spinning around in circles without going anywhere.

Sounds like Republicans to me!

[fishwax]

67. Just for the record, the democrats in tennis aren't tokens, they're the majority

I'm not sure why tennis players (well, at least those who make political contributions) tend to be democrats while golfers tend republican, as both have a traditional image of elitist country-club sports, but it holds pretty true. Perhaps it is because tennis is a more international game? I don't know, but among the major figures in tennis, Chris Evert is an exception as a notable conservative. McEnroe, Agassi, and Martina have all given heavily to democrats, and I recently read that Jimmy Connors showed up at Oprah's fundraiser for Obama.

:hi: