In the interest of full disclosure, I’m not what you’d call a lifelong diehard follower of the ins and outs of open-wheel racing. But even in a short time of being around the paddock at a handful of NTT IndyCar Series events in the past two years for this website, one quickly learns that some things are and should be treated with the utmost respect.
With that said, I am someone who was raised to quickly understand how you treat the surroundings when you are somewhere else as someone’s guest, especially when asked to specifically not do something and leave behind a mess for others to work hard to clean up behind you.
That’s regardless of whether or not Carson Kvapil meant to do a burnout across the hallowed yard of bricks on Saturday (July 24) at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. A wrong is still a wrong, no matter how it happened.
If you walked on the field at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, you wouldn’t walk off with clumps of grass. If you walked into Cameron Indoor Stadium, you wouldn’t leave a mess of Tar Heel-blue paint behind. If you are ever fortunate enough to attend The Masters, you certainly would not leave piles of trash behind for volunteers to clean up.
Why? Because all of those places and many others are worthy of respect, and one way of showing that respect is that when you are asked not to do something, you don’t do it.
Follow directions. If children in a kindergarten class can do this, professional stock car drivers can do the same.
It does not matter if someone forgot to tell Kvapil when he won the race not to use the yard of bricks for a burnout or whether it was stated in the drivers’ meeting and he simply forgot. Drivers, regardless of any series, should know better. And what certainly doesn’t help is when an owner of Kvapil’s race-winning car appears to pull a reliable quote from that one customer service representative whose employer accidentally billed you an extra $20.
Damaging a cherished piece of a racetrack is hardly an “inconvenience.”
Yes, the damage from Kvapil’s exuberance was cleaned up by Sunday morning, but is it OK to make a mess as long as someone cleans up behind you like a bunch of janitors?
Many things make Indianapolis Motor Speedway special, and you don’t even have to have been there once, even for a track tour, to know how special they are. You don’t even have to be a hardcore fan of this racing series to have a concept of how revered things are at this place, such as “Back Home Again In Indiana,” the drinking of the milk, and yes, the yard of bricks.
Tradition means something. And at the end of the day, any racing series besides NASCAR is a guest at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The actions of everyone involved, top to bottom, should reflect that.
Brad joined Frontstretch.com in 2020 and contributes to the site's 5 Points To Ponder column and other roles as needed. A graduate of the University of Georgia's Henry W. Grady School of Journalism and Mass Communication, he has covered sports in some capacity for more than 20 years with coverage including local high school sports, college athletics and minor league hockey. Brad has received multiple awards for his work from the Georgia Press Association.
I love the Speedway and understand and respect it’s traditions, but did we really need a whole story about cleaning the bricks after a burnout?
I’m sick of the clowns in the NFL performing a 30 second skit in the endzone every time they score a touchdown, and I’m sick of burnouts every time someone wins a race. I don’t need driver somersaults, fence climbing, sarcastic bowing or smashing pumpkins either. Blaney used to show his class after a win, but I’ve lost respect for him now that he’s joined the burnout crowd too.
Kulwicki’s “Polish Victory Lap” was timeless and classy. Dale Sr’s pit road high five and spin across the grass after his Daytona 500 win was a sign pure joy and jubilation. The rest of it all has just become contrived, self aggrandizing. The whole burnout thing, and other victory nonsense is just silly and boring anymore.
^^^This^^^
Looks like gbvette62 already covered what I was thinking.
Ditto
This is a potentially “bigger deal”…
A fan since the early 1960’s… I have been getting more and more concerned about the (unnecessary) post-win burnouts. Not so long ago NASCAR forbid team members, etc., from leaving their pit box and running out to the track’s retaining wall to celebrate.
Fast-Forward to the current season. Now team members, family members and whomever are not only allowed to stand by the track’s retaining wall — they are standing up on it with their driver doing the burnouts right in front of them, or while passing within a few feet of them.
Lately team members have been on the track-side of the wall while burnouts are taking place… virtually right next to them. This weekend (Saturday) Kvapil was in burnout-mode as he passed within a few feet of JRM’s crew members standing on the business-side of the track at Indy!!!!!
So, NASCAR, explain to me how this is going to end well??
I’m sick of burnouts and “signature” celebrations. I really wish drivers would just go to victory lane. Even Alan Kulwicki only did his “Polish victory lap” twice.
I can remember someone asking Mark Martin why he didn’t do a burnout after he won and his response was that someone back at the shop, who is already working a lot of hours, has to clean the car up and he had too much respect for his guys and he didn’t want to wreck or break a car that just won him the race – that’s good old school advice – plus he was from an era where drivers also worked on the car – today, they’re not swinging any wrenches. Today’s drivers should have the same respect – real fans would get it too.