Opinions must vary if sport is to capitalize on growth

Larry McReynolds, Kyle Petty and Jimmy Spencer are well-respected voices in the NASCAR community. They've "been there, done that" and that experience lends to their credibility. They're also fans of the sport who pay their bills by offering opinions -- none of which are filtered by the sanctioning body, as evidenced by their roundtable discussion with Dustin Long.

Dustin's six-part series in his Frankly Speaking blog touched on a lot of topics that are top-of-mind for fans and racing insiders. Again, Larry Mac, Kyle and Jimmy meet both of those criteria and spoke openly about the sport that has given them so much (and to which they have given).

Given that Jimmy was part of the discussion rest assured that there were some comments that ruffled a few feathers. Certainly the interview was not NASCAR-sanctioned; it was frank, open and on the record. It was a dialogue that a lot could be taken from for more discussion:

The daily highlights:

• Oct. 20
Spencer: "I'll tell you how to point it in the right direction. This series is in trouble. This series is in serious trouble. All you've got to do is look at the grandstands. And when you see less and less people involved in this sport. It's not the drivers. It's not the car builders. It's simply competition is not where it needs to be."

• Oct. 21
McReynolds: "You know the debris cautions drive me freaking crazy. They do. But it's a catch-22. ... These cars are very fast, and, you know what, they can't sit there and debate. Is it something that could cause a problem or not while they're debating and somebody runs over it and cuts a tire and hits the freaking wall, then you always ... I do applaud them erring on the side of safety or conservative or whatever you want to call it with cutting a tire down and hitting the wall."

• Oct. 22
Petty: "[Becoming a parent] changes your perspective on where you're at in life. Anybody that says having kids doesn't change where you're at in life is full of crap. That's the fact, Jack. It changes your perspective. ... You don't take as many chances. You don't do as many things. Unconsciously. It's not that you think, 'I'm going to stuff this thing down in there.' It's different."

• Oct. 23
Petty: "With drivers coming in with cash, buying rides, the consolidation of a single car that all look alike with the same wing angles and the same stuff, with two or three engine manufacturers, lining them up in cars and let's go racing. It killed those races. [And consolidated] ownership. It killed those series. We're right there at that right now. It's not going to be a step or two more. If we don't study what happened to those two organizations 10 or 15 years ago ... then we stand right on the edge of that abyss reading to leap into it."

• Oct. 24
McReynolds: "Our media, I call them our pencil pushers, have not helped. ... Darrell [Waltrip] has put a great analogy. He goes, if you go to a restaurant and you've been going to that restaurant for years and you love that restaurant but you constantly read in the paper, 'It's a bad restaurant, it's a bad restaurant.' Eventually, you're going to say, 'I'm not going to that restaurant.' Even if they rehire a complete new chef, staff, you're still going to be hesitant about going back to that restaurant. Like Kyle said, one thing has not put us in the boat that we're in. Not even close."

• Oct. 25
Spencer: "They're supposed to freaking race and win. You're supposed to come in here and if you push that guy out of the way, say that I really didn't mean to do that but that's part of racing and I won. These guys have lost focus on trying to win races. Old man Earnhardt didn't care who it was. He tried to win the race."

As we learned Newton's laws of motion in school, "To every action there is an equal and opposite reaction." Larry Mac, Kyle and Jimmy spoke out, NASCAR answered back. In response to the series, NASCAR's managing director of corporate communications, Ramsey Poston, posted a blog in the NASCAR.COM Community:

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"Throwing out 'controversial' statements isn't 'telling it the way it is' or 'righteous' if there are no facts and is driven by ego. It's meaningless. Every executive at NASCAR would be quick to say that there is room for improvement. We know that not all fans are satisfied and we've taken steps to improve NASCAR on and off the track. ... We want to make it even better and even more competitive." (Continued)