NASCAR: It's The Cannon Fodder Don't You See?

WASHINGTON — The Minnesota (left wing pinko socialist who hates God, America and NASCAR) Democrat who's out to get rid of the Pentagon's sponsorships for NASCAR teams says she won't back away from her efforts and, despite GOP resistance, will broaden her fight to repeal tax breaks for track owners, too.

Rep. Betty McCollum says her work could save American taxpayers tens of millions of dollars. But Defense Department officials and lawmakers from NASCAR country say the sponsorships help military recruitment, and that the tax breaks could save jobs in the struggling economy.

In an interview Friday, McCollum said it doesn't make sense to keep the benefits for NASCAR teams and track owners when other cuts are being made to community health care, programs for homeless veterans and Head Start.

"I started to look what is in this large defense budget to see what's not related to security that we could redirect to critical supplies or mission support," she said. "Or in the case of racetrack owners, what are some of the special tax perks that some of the special interests are getting?"

She plans to file legislation to prohibit Pentagon sponsorships of dragsters, Indy cars, stock cars and motorcycle racing, affecting just about every level of motorsports. more

There has for some time now been lurking in me, an article about the US Army's picking ground for its cannon fodder, the NASCAR weekend. So having been made aware by email of Betty McCollum's efforts to curtail tax payer sponsorship, via the armed forces, of various motor sport events, I did a quick search of the net, and sure enough, there was enough there already writ that I could have let others do it for me.

But rather than chose one of the current articles to do the job for me, I settled for a 2005 piece that was straight from the horses mouth so to speak, NASCAR itself.

What I will do however, for the enlightenment of my less informed readers from around the world, is to up a couple of short clips of some of the goings on at a NASCAR event. With one such clip I have imported comments n'all.

I have chopped this article up, just to give you the relative content, full article at the link.

Armed services target NASCAR and its fans

If you look at the pit area at a Nextel Cup or Busch Series race, you see a lot of different logos.

What you'll also see is $30 million of advertising aimed at NASCAR fans by our nation's armed forces.

Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines. ... they're all there, and the reason is simple: NASCAR fans are some of the most patriotic citizens we have, and if you're in the business of recruiting, you go where potential recruits will be.

More jingoistic military shite here.

The mobile marketing compound that helps anchor the midway at most every race features a 25-foot climbing wall, a Humvee simulator and an interactive "patrol" where the potential recruit shoots laser "bullets" at imaginary enemies. There's also a station where visitors can get their names stamped onto replica dog tags, and a trailer that houses other exhibits explained by Army specialists.

All this is cool, but what does the Army get for all the high-tech, high-dollar advertising?

Plenty. According to a recent article in the Boston Globe, NASCAR is the Army's top program for generating leads for its recruiters. Col. Thomas Nickerson, the director of advertising for the U.S. Army, told the Globe that NASCAR has "a massive fan base that allows us to talk to as many people as we can.

Our goal is to talk to face to face, in influencers, parents and prospects. It makes good business sense."

Recruiting is the backbone of the Army, since the United States military is all volunteer, and using NASCAR to promote service to one's country is an idea that works well.

One Army recruiter said that NASCAR events were the kind the Army wanted to be part of, as race fans are traditionally very supportive of the nation's defense.

Which leads me to beg the question, who sponsored this, surely not....?

According to the Army, a typical weekend at a NASCAR track yields from 1,000 to 2,500 potential recruits. Extrapolated out over the full NASCAR season, that translates to about 40,000 names. All will be contacted at least once by the recruiting office in their region.

In addition to the Army, the other branches of the military are also using NASCAR as a resource to aid recruiting.

Military presence at NASCAR races has always been high, from the pilots who do the flyovers to the Color Guard, and they are by and large welcomed with open arms. That is especially true since 9/11.

Or better still, this! George Bush's Whitehouse?

NASCAR fans, like few other groups, have embraced the men and women who defend this country at home and abroad, and most of the military personnel at the tracks are amazed at the reception they get from fans and competitors alike.

The Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines recognize that NASCAR fans are patriotic, stand-up people, and they recruit from a base they know is suitable to their needs. That's similar to what all the other companies involved in NASCAR do, when you boil it down. full article

You can say what you like about NASCAR, but it puts on a show and it puts bums on seats, but it also has God by far too much in a bad way.



No comment, other than perhaps, I wonder what Montoya makes of it all?

• What a disgusting & garish display of religious kitsch and hillbilly / jingoist nonsense. I hope the tax payer did not have to pay for this inbred, mountain dew display.
DavidKWegley 3 months ago


Reply ******
• @DavidKWegley Men like me give a lives every damn day so that you can post shity comments like that. We give up a chance at a comfortable job and put on the uniform of this great nation. When some one wants to do a Tribute to all those that die for you every damn day with out thought or question. You wonder where or not the taxes pays had to pay for it. I wonder if the taxes pays had to pay for your lap top that you bought with you unemployed checks that I fight to provide for you every day ******
musicMan1445 2 months ago


• @musicMan1445 Um...er...this is a silly driving game, not WW2. Stop glorifying yourself like you are some sort of queer catholic saint. You may be a tax and spend liberal, but I don't think the taxpayer should supply the military crap for this emotional hillbilly kitsch. I can tell you that a Gay Man named Alan Turing stopped Hitler in his tracks and invented your computer so you can vomit this filth for the world to see. SEMPER FI to all Lesbian & Gay Marines.
DavidKWegley 2 months ago


• @DavidKWegley Lot a blood sweat and tears were give to stop Hitler so cock sucking mother fuck dumb shit like you could bitch about a little tribute that Nascar had to fucking pay for out of there now pocket. There are a hole hell of a lot of shity things that are government gives you for nothing.
musicMan1445 2 months ago


• @musicMan1445 Yeah, well fuck you and fuck NASCAR. You midwesterners are a real hoot.
DavidKWegley 2 months ago


• Comment removed
youngtroy84PFC 1 month ago


• @DavidKWegley Good one, your the imbred
youngtroy84PFC 1 month ago


• @youngtroy84PFC OK, well, it's inbred, but nevermind.
DavidKWegley 1 month ago


• @youngtroy84PFC Do you say Valentimes, also?
DavidKWegley 1 month ago


• @JackHabbit When people say "America," they usually associate that with the USA because we have the same word in the name of our country. USA stands for United States of America. North America is a continent. This is where the USA is located. Canada, for example, didn't include the word America in it's name so nobody refers to Canada as America, even though it is on the same continent. Nobody is associating you with us. We wouldn't do that.
robgeezy785 3 months ago


• America is a continent not a country!!! The U.S only have a small portion of North America... not even 20% of America is part of the U.S so quit associating the rest of us with you uneducated patriots.
Be proud but quit being insolent. Nice insertion BTW, I looove MH-6's
JackHabbit 4 months ago


• all I can say is: FUCKING AMAZING! God bless the USA
SuperMike82 5 months ago


• im not a waltrip fan, but you dont get this type of thing anywhere else exept the
US of A.
350z350zify 8 months ago


• My dad was one of the persons in the ch-47 in this video
patrioticman1 1 year ago


• This video is all kinds of hooah!!!!
casimer76522 1 year ago


• The NBA never does cool stuff like that, it's just some idiot making 20 million straight out of high school whin ing about how rough he's got it.
kdraper2007 1 year ago 2


• Shit, I would've been honored to be in that flight. Peferably in the Little Bird.
SUFI194189 2 years ago 2


• Now those are real pilots. NSDQ!
SUFI194189 2 years ago 2


• Beat that for an entrance!
Laxpowertoo 2 years ago


• God Bless em!
johnnyd911 2 years ago


• Dude that is fucking kick ass!
SuperRobot7 2 years ago

*****Well; what are we to make of musicMan1445? Is he a Solja Boy, or is he just an undereducated semi-literate redneck wanabee? I may be wrong, but I will go for wanabee, based on the assumption that anybody who had actually experienced a stint of combat might not be so vocal or so keen to try and glorify this shite.

And I have never quite grasped the logic, even though I am the recipient of such, of how invading Iraq somehow gave me the freedom to, post shity comments like that.

But what do I know, I'm just a fag that drives a Prius.

That's more like it.