The Cars Effect

So… the boy loves the movie Cars. As many of you know, it is about stock cars, and it has racing scenes, much like NASCAR. Tiernan, my son, has seen the movie 800 times. So I thought it would be interesting to see what his reaction to a watching a real NASCAR race on TV would be.
First, a caveat and some history, we live in New Jersey. I am not a NASCAR Dad. I’ve never watched an entire race in my life. I know it is a very popular sport. Working as a journalist cover retailers, like Target and Lowes and Home Depot, as well as, and consumer goods manufacturer’s, like Budweiser, and Pepsi, I have written stories on NASCAR. Hell, I’ve even met a driver or two at trade shows, but I’ve never been a fan of the sport.
Now the history, Tiernan loves to play with his Lightning McQueen and The King die cast matchbox cars from the movie. He got them for Christmas. (He got all the Cars cars for Christmas.) But there are only two or three characters from the movie at are actual race cars, and he wanted to pretend to pretend to have a race with more than three cars. So for his birthday, which was about 10 days after Christmas, I got him some die cast NASCAR cars. I got whichever three cars Wal-Mart had. They were Dale Earnhardt Jr. (Junior, to his friends and the rest of the world), Kasey Kahn, and Jimmy Johnson. It is Important to note that Junior, has a cameo in the movie, playing himself as a race car.
So, the NASCAR season starts with the Daytona 500. There is no football, there is no hockey on, and there is nothing else worth watching on cold Sunday. We watched the last 100 laps of the race. Tiernan was very excited, however, he was excited to see Lightning McQueen and kept asking me where he was. It took me a while to explain to him that Lightning is not a real race car, but he finally started to understand.
Then, he saw Junior in the red Number 8 car, a car that he’s been playing with and seeing in the movie for three months. That is a real car. This confused him. I can understand why, he’s three.
To further add to the confusion, legendary stock car driver Darrell Waltrip is a commentator on Fox’s coverage of NASCAR. He is also the commentator for races in the movie, only in the movie he’s Darrel Cartrip. Tiernan recognizes the voice.
The end of this year’s Daytona 500 was in fact one of the most exciting conclusions to any sporting event, I’ve ever seen. It was very much like the movie. Two cars are racing to the finish line, and 500 hundred yards, form the finish line, the rest of the field is involved in crash behind them. So as these guys are racing to the finish, all hell is breaking out behind them. Cars are going every which way into the infield, into the wall, there is smoke and fire, one car actually crosses the start/finish line sliding on its roof. It was amazing. Tiernan’s eyes popped. My eyes popped. I don’t remember who won, but it wasn’t Junior. But, I was impressed, there is something to this sport.
Couple weeks later on a Sunday, its snowing there is nothing on TV. We watch the last 150 laps of another race. The whole time we’re watching Tiernan is asking me, “Where’s Junior?” Every three seconds, “Where’s Junior?” And then the red 8 car would wiz by. “There he is, Dad. There’s Junior.”
However, Junior didn’t win that race, Jimmie Johnson won. Tiernan has a Jimmy Johnson matchbox car. Jimmie Johnson, drives the number 48 Lowes car. “Daddy, we go to Lowes? I like Lowes.” It’s true. Tiernan has been to Lowes, and he knows the Lowes brand logo, because I never told him that Lowes is the store we go to. He knew it by looking at it. The marketers of America should be very proud. (He also knows the McDonalds logo, which is a story for another time. “Mommy, I like McDonalds.”)
Tiernan remembers going to Lowes and riding in the special shopping carts that Lowes has, which are made to look like Jimmie Johnson’s Number 48 Lowes car.
On a recent Saturday, we were watching a few moments of the Busch Cup NASCAR race “Daddy, where’s Jimmie Johnson?” “Daddy, where’s Jimmie Johnson?” “Daddy, where’s Jimmie Johnson?” But, since he’s three, Jimmie Johnson sounds very funny coming out of the mouth of a three year old. “Oh, Daddy, there’s Junior! Daddy, where’s Jimmie Johnson?”
OK here is lesson for those of you, like me, who don’t know a Busch Cup Race from a Breeders Cup Race. In the NASCAR world, the Busch Cup races are held on Saturday, they are generally lesser-known drivers, and the money for winning is much less than the Nextel Cup Races which are held on Sunday. The Saturday race is quite literally a Bush league race. However, to add to the confusion, many of the top Nextel Drivers still race in Busch Cup races. So, the will race both days.
So, I spent an hour watching the race on Saturday listening to “Daddy, where’s Jimmie Johnson?” “Daddy, where’s Jimmie Johnson?” Before I looked up the whole Nextel/Busch Cup thing online. And found out that Jimmie Johnson is not one of those drivers who drive in both races.
Now, that Tiernan is hooked on watching NASCAR and we’ve been watching the races for a couple of weeks, Tiernan know wants to know who every driver in every car is.
I don’t know every driver. Before two weeks ago, I only knew Junior was 8, and Jeff Gordon was 24. And I only know that because of all the bumper stickers with Calvin pissing on him. I don’t know who drives the FexEx car or the KFC car, but I am learning. And becoming a NASCAR fan. There is something to this sport.
Also, Tiernan is learning more corporate logos.