Splash ‘n’ Go: The days of rough and rugged NASCAR stars are long gone (NASCAR.com)
September 10, 2010
When Paula Cole sang “where have all the cowboys gone” I imagine the men of yesteryear who wore flannel and smelled of oak, their hands callused from manual labor and their faces weathered from the wind.
Once upon a time, NASCAR drivers fit that description. They were rough and rugged rednecks whose only cologne was the scent of deodorant and clean laundry. They were raised on southern charm and worked in factories and on farms. For them, racing was an escape from real work.
Today, the manscape in NASCAR is a stark contrast. It has simply gone soft. The men are now manicured, buffed and plucked to perfection because corporate sponsors call for clean-shaven and well-spoken pitchmen. Also, the ladies have become too accepting of the overused term “metrosexual.” No longer are men purely men, but now they are supposed to be metro? This leaves women today hard pressed to find, as Cole points out, a Marlboro man or lonely ranger.
So, ladies, if you’re looking for that proverbial good ol’ boy you once adored in NASCAR—you won’t find him.
At first glance that is. Dig a bit deeper and you still might find a few gems. Bill Elliott, Bobby Labonte, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. for starters, along with Ryan Newman and Tony Stewart to a degree.
These are the men you won’t find with waxed eyebrows or plans for hair restoration. They embrace their imperfections and would rather spend time casting a line than updating their appearance.
Stewart, a self-described small town boy from southern Indiana, has yet to fall prey to the Hollywood/Manhattan lifestyle other NASCAR drivers have grow accustomed to in recent years.
He has stayed true to his gritty and at times unkempt exterior. If any female would attempt to buff out his rough edges, I imagine they are shown the door in quick time as Stewart is meant to be appreciated for who he is, not for what he could become. The driver has maintained the same persona since his entry into the Cup Series in 1999.
“I’ll be honest, I guess it’s just me being me from a certain standpoint,” Stewart said. “I enjoy being home. I guess I’m just one of those people, whether it has been racing, it has pretty much been every aspect of my life; I’ve just kind of been me from day one and have always stayed that way. I don’t have the desire to do all that other stuff.”
All that other stuff like being fashionable or magazine cover material.
“Shoot, I have to send girlfriends out to go shop for me because I can’t even tell you what the current clothes are,” Stewart said with a laugh. “I have to send somebody to do it for me so I don’t look like I’m stuck in the ’80s anymore. That is the only shot I got at looking current is to send somebody else to go do it for me.”
His low-maintenance attitude is refreshing and harkens back to the day when your boyfriend laughed at the thought of getting a pedicure. Now, through a turn of events, he wants to go with you!
Don’t misunderstand me. I like a clean, presentable man. I’m merely pointing out that all the cowboys have seriously gone. They all dissipated releasing NASCAR’s southern stronghold. Earnhardt, maybe the last to speak with a heavy drawl, is the last driver left on the track hailing from North Carolina. NASCAR has become nationalized and internationalized producing drivers from all across the globe.
Like Earnhardt and Stewart, Bobby Labonte is another driver who, in my mind, is among the last good ol’ boys in the sport. A true cowboy from Texas who follows the rodeo, Labonte knows he’s not trendy. He’s had the same haircut for decades and enjoys watching the Weather Channel. He, along with Bill Elliott, is a dying breed.
“Well, I don’t know about that,” Labonte said. “I consider myself pretty young still. You may consider guys like myself, Jeff Burton, Mark Martin or some guys like that who have been around for a while. We’re just more veterans than cowboys of the sport. Guys like Dale Earnhardt or Richard Petty or even Richard Childress are the real cowboys of NASCAR.”
And of course, no one may ever fill those shoes, further proving my point that all the cowboys have truly gone.
“Those guys are legends,” Labonte said. “You can probably even put my brother Terry in that group too. The guys today came in a lot younger than what we did. The sport changed and the image of the typical driver did too. That’s good because it helped create new fans.”
So for the veteran fan or the female fan still looking for her cowboy like Paula Cole—look no further than Labonte.
“Hopefully I still have them,” Labonte said. “And the fans like us veterans.”
The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.
