Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2009 | 9:33 p.m.
Remember when drivers were lavished with attention because their statistical information warranted it? In an era when the sport was more grounded, NASCAR’s athletes earned fame with their performance on the track. The hype about their status as drivers didn’t seem to kick in until they had actually carved out a racing reputation.
Today, hype creates a sports star before the attention-lavished driver even wins a race. Joey Logano is but one example. After hearing, reading and viewing all of the attention directed toward him recently, I began to think I was losing track of what was reality and what was hype.
But that’s not Logano’s fault. The NASCAR-media-corporate sponsorship machine that drives the sport is responsible.
There’s no doubt that Logano is very talented and that his talent has come in a very young package. Having an 18-year-old drive in the Daytona 500 is definitely a story. We all know that sponsors want their drivers to be very visible in order to promote their products and we also understand that Logano has stepped into one of the biggest rides in NASCAR. A certain amount of attention comes with these circumstances. But a tsunami of attention lavished on any driver who has never finished first in a Sprint Cup race seems to be a bit of overkill.
The time will come when Logano has the on-track reputation to match the hype. I’m looking forward to that.
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