Although NASCAR has seen a dip in popularity in recent years, it still remains as one of the top spectator sports in the country. Last night, one of NASCAR’s great races, the Southern 500, took place in Darlington. Darlington Raceway is known for a particularly physical style of racing seen usually on short tracks. So, naturally, two of the sport’s most notorious hot heads – Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch, would go head to head and play the feud in Darlington at the end of the race.
In a video that has been everywhere around the internet in the last 14 hours, Harvick gets out of his car on pit road to confront Busch in his car behind him. Once Harvick got out of the car, Busch, who later said he lost reverse, took it upon himself to plow into Harvick’s car parked in front of him and send it into the pit road wall. As Busch drove away, Harvick got a punch in at Busch. In the words of Fox announcer Darrell Waltrip, “HOLY SMOLY!” The action really gets started at the 1:20 mark…
I have to say, that’s the first time I’ve ever heard an announcer say the words “holy smoly” during a telecast. This video does lead to a point on announcing and NASCAR (and outside the stupidity and recklessness of the drivers involved). I appreciate Waltrip and NASCAR announcers who don’t pretend to be something they aren’t. Yes, saying “holy smoly” and “dad gum” sound hokey to a large portion of the country, but I’d rather hear a NASCAR announcer be authentic and say that than try to be someone else for a coveted demographic. Sports like NASCAR and soccer are much better, especially on television, when they are presented for what they are and not dumbed down or sold to an audience that wouldn’t care in the first place. Oh, and have a holy and smoly Mother’s Day!
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