To the editor:

There is an old cliche that states, the person shot himself in the foot, of course, meaning he was his own worst enemy. NASCAR seems to have done the same thing.

Every time the Madison Avenue advertising agencies get involved with motor sports the whole sport seems to go downhill. Of course, we all know that Winston cigarettes promoted the rough and tumble aspect of racing for many, many years until additional carcinogens added to our food, water and total health environment deemed cigarettes inadmissible for athletic advertisement.

The history of NASCAR is very plain. It was originally an off-shoot of the moonshiners in southern states such as North Carolina, Georgia, Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee and Kentucky where the mini factories of the pure brew were hard to locate.

Hence, our busy body government entered the scene. “I’m from the government and I’m here to help.” Ha, ha. After first seeing the movie, “Thunder Road” with Robert Mitchum I would dream of emulating that anti-hero in my memories.

Well, as ingenious individuals like Bill France, who started NASCAR in the early ’50s, eventually relinquish control to their offspring of a different generation somehow and sometimes the sport suffers because of the disjointing of the raw blood and fire of the born again mechanics, drivers, sponsors, spectators, advertisers and come-alongs to a new Madison Avenue approach.

It is a typical blue-state mentality that alienates every red blooded Confederate and Midwest farm belt Second Amendment supporter from the Neocon Blue Pinkos.

As a former race car driver at near the lowest level of racing (street stock) my only victory was the 1986 Fall Demolition Derby at Okeechobee Speedway in Hialeah, Florida. That win was enough for me to get out and kiss the ground of life in complete exuberance.

The Madison Avenue elitists would tell us not to take our Confederate flags to the track as it might offend some neophyte as the cameras scan the scant crowd (less and less each year) because of their disconnect with sound, home grown, freedom loving, work loving, creative “country boy can survive” mentality. Well, for those Madison Avenue blue state ignoramuses, I say may a pox be on all your houses.

Jon Larsen Shudlick

Fort Myers