Danica and Jimmie: Hype and Performance

By Bass Masters
Rowdy.com

Danica Patrick is chasing the money. Well guess what? So am I.

Many NASCAR fans and commentators appear to be shocked (SHOCKED!) that a one-time IRL winner would try to get $300,000 a race, according to some reports, for part-time duties in NASCAR’s Nationwide and Truck series. And here is a person who hasn’t driven a single NASCAR race and has only a single IRL victory to her credit.

But let’s be honest with ourselves here. Danica Patrick is trying to make as much money as she possibly can—and that’s exactly what you or I do in our own working lives. In the end the sums of money that athletes or actors (or anyone else, for that matter) make aren’t reflections of moral worth or value to society. They’re just reflections of the law of supply and demand.

It’s not hard to see that the great interest in Danica Patrick doesn’t come purely from her performance on the track. But there is great interest in her nonetheless, and when she does finally slip through the window of a stock car for the first time, there will be a lot of people watching.

And that’s where the money comes from: from people caring, people paying attention, people wanting to see what happens. In sports, which we idealize as the ultimate meritocracy, we think compensation and fame should be related to winning. But it ain’t necessarily so.

Which brings me, of course, to Jimmie Johnson, the driver about to complete the best four-season run in NASCAR history. Clearly, Jimmie is the ultimate when it comes to on-track performance, but so many of us race fans spend our time lamenting his dominance and his so-called “vanilla” personality. Jimmie, you see, isn’t trying to entertain us with his antics. He’s just trying to win—with great success—but apparently that’s not good enough, either.

So Danica and Jimmie are both bad for NASCAR, we all seem to be saying: Danica because she’s all hype and no performance, and Jimmie because he’s all performance and no hype. But maybe there’s another way to look at it.

I cannot begrudge Danica her shot a fame and fortune just because she didn’t “earn” it with on-track performance. It’s a simple as realizing that many of the opportunities we have in our own life, we didn’t “earn” either. Each of us, for the good things we’ve enjoyed in our own lives, has had plenty of luck and plenty of help. Hopefully we’ve done our best with the opportunities we’ve received.

Sure Danica’s going to make a lot of money in NASCAR, but she’s also taking a huge risk. The spotlight is going to be 10 times brighter over here, and the experiences of Sam Hornish Jr. and Dario Franchitti, who were vastly superior in the IRL, mean failure is a distinct possibility, or even probability. But she’s ambitious, and she’s going to give it a shot. And I see no reason why she should turn down the opportunity or the money.

Jimmie Johnson, on the other hand, may not inspire passion with personal flamboyance, but he’s giving us all the chance to witness history. I think back to the reaction many fans had when Jack Nicklaus first became the dominant golfer of his generation—there were laments about his dominance and robot-like personality just as there have been about Jimmie. But in the end it just took a bit longer to get to know Nicklaus and appreciate him.

In an era where a lot of people are indeed “famous for being famous,” Jimmie is the polar opposite: a guy who’s just damn good at his job and doesn’t ask to be treated like a king because of it. In time, maybe when we get to know him a little better, we’ll appreciate that, too.

Bass Masters is a co-host of Rowdy.com. For the best NASCAR community on the internet go to Rowdy.com. 

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