NASCAR's Drinking Problem?

Jeff Gordon passed the late Dale Earnhardt Sunday when he won the Aaron's 499 NASCAR Nextel Cup race at Talladega Superspeedway. The checkered flag gave Gordon 77 career victories, sixth on the all-time list, while Earnhardt ended his career -- and his life -- with 76.

The story to me, however, isn't Gordon's accomplishment. The debate isn't whether Gordon is better than Earnhardt. What bothers me is how some of the 180,000 fans on-hand at Talladega treated the accomplishment. Gordon wins the race and fans toss beer cans -- some empty, others not so much -- onto the racing surface.

Just despicable.

Let me just say first and foremost that I have, over the years, been a Gordon fan. I've been a fan of his since he won his first Brickyard 400 in 1994 and I've continued to follow and root for him even as a good portion of my NASCAR allegiance has shifted to the red No. 8. I'm a proud member of the Junior Nation, but I still have a spot in my racing heart for Gordon.

But regardless of allegiance, what the fans at Talladega did Sunday was disgusting and humiliating. NASCAR has seen tremendous growth in the past 15 years -- so much so, ESPN forked over a ton of money to start broadcasting races again starting this season. National opinion of NASCAR as a sport might be up for debate, but chances are if ESPN says it's a sport, the sporting nation will, eventually, follow suit.

But if NASCAR is intent on continuing to grow, if the top motorsports series in America wants to be seen in the same light as the NFL, NBA and Major League Baseball, things like this have to stop. NASCAR's image is largely still one of the south; a lot of people see NASCAR as nothing more than a good ol' boy southern thing, something only simple, mindless rednecks indulge in.

And scenes like Sunday's at Talladega will do little to change that opinion. As a NASCAR fan, I am embarrassed by the display at Talladega. I'll defend NASCAR -- as a sport and as a sanctioning body -- but I cannot back the actions committed Sunday. It's embarrassing, it's disgusting and if NASCAR doesn't do something about it soon, all that growth the sport has enjoyed might start to go away.

I can speak from personal experience how passionate NASCAR fans are about their drivers. Every fan has that one driver they love, and that one driver they can't stand. For me, the hated driver is Tony Stewart. But for the majority of NASCAR fans, the hated is Gordon.

And I get that; I'm used to going to a Nextel Cup race at Richmond or Charlotte or Martinsville and hearing three-quarters of the grandstands boo Gordon at driver introductions. I'm used to the crowd cheering whenever Gordon wrecks or has a mechanical problem. In many ways, it's comical to see.

I've also heard some of the things NASCAR fans say when a driver they hate (namely Gordon and Jimmie Johnson, from what I've seen) wins a race. I won't repeat any of them in the interest of cleanliness, but suffice it to say a lot of homophobic slurs and the like are screamed. Often loud enough for children to hear.

But this? Chucking beer cans onto the race track? I hate Tony Stewart, but not once have I ever thrown something at him after he won a race. I'm all for booing, mocking and taunting ... but there has to be a line. And for me, that line stops at potentially endangering the drivers and other fans.

For every beer can that made it onto the track, how many didn't? How many half-empty cans of beer went sailing into the air for Gordon's car, only to wind up in some fan's lap -- or worse, off the back of some fan's head? How many more times do we have to see embarrassing displays like this before someone gets hurt?

I can't help but wonder how many fans went to Talladega Sunday for their first Cup race, only to see what the drunken minority did and think to themselves, "I'll never come back to one of these." The racing's great, the pageantry in-person for a NASCAR race is unlike anything else, but if fans fear for their safety, they're going to stop coming to the races.

And that's going to cost NASCAR and its sponsors money.

It's not the first time this has happened. Just last week, when Gordon won at Phoenix to tie Earnhardt and he paraded around the track with a flag bearing the Intimidator's famous No. 3, fans pelted him and the track with beer cans. Three years ago, Gordon found himself the target for wasted beer at Talladega after NASCAR declared he beat Dale Earnhardt, Jr. to the lead before a race-ending caution.

So we have three instances of fans chucking things onto the track, and they all come after Gordon wins a race. Is this going to happen every time Gordon wins a race from now on? If he keeps winning, he'll pass the likes of Cale Yarborough, Darrell Waltrip and Bobby Allison. Those three aren't quite the legends Earnhardt is, but a lot of fans still hold those drivers dear.

If clownish acts such as this continue, NASCAR could be looking at a huge problem, especially if Gordon keeps running the way he has so far this season. What's more ... what if Gordon wins the championship this year? Does that mean he gets pelted after the last race at Homestead?

When will NASCAR do something about this? Granted, Talladega warned before the race Sunday that anyone who threw something onto the track would be arrested. And with beefed-up security, I know some of the offenders were. But how do you pick out so many guilty parties out of a crowd of 180,000 or more?

You don't. But here's a novel thought -- one that will probably never be put in place. Stop selling beer after the halfway point of the race. And on top of that, stop letting fans bring their own beer in. The NFL did that a couple years ago after a couple incidents of fans throwing objects and snow onto the field, most notably at a Cleveland Browns game. If the NFL can enact such a measure and survive, so can NASCAR.

And if any fan refuses to come to a NASCAR race because they can't truck in a huge cooler full of whatever beer their favorite driver sponsors, then they're not a real NASCAR fan and have no business being at a Nextel Cup race in first place.

Gordon should be congratulated for his accomplishment; Earnhardt is one of the sport's all-time greats and Gordon has surpassed him in terms of the numbers. I realize in the eyes of many fans, Gordon will never truly urpass Earnhardt, and I respect that. I get what Earnhardt meant and still means to NASCAR, and I realize the rivalry these two had meant Gordon fans hated Earnhardt and vice versa. I'm not telling NASCAR fans to stop hating Gordon; I'm telling them to stop acting like fools and recognize the accomplishment of a legend.

I won't argue who's better: Gordon or Earnhardt. That's an argument I'll never make, because it's near impossible and I realize looking at it analytically would be lost on most NASCAR fans. Because according to most of them, Earnhardt is God and Gordon is Satan.

Nothing will ever change that.

But enough with the beer-throwing. It makes you look stupid and immature and it's potentially dangerous. You're not happy with Gordon winning the race and surpassing Earnhardt at his track on what would've been his 56th birthday? Fine; boo the guy. Refuse to clap or acknowledge it. But the minute you get a brain freeze and you decide to chuck a piece of metal onto the race track, you put people in danger and you give the sport you claim to love a bad name.

To the fans: Stop it.

To NASCAR: Do something about it.

To Jeff Gordon: Congratulations on a career milestone. It's not your fault some NASCAR fans are morons.

And lastly, to Dale Earnhardt: You're still missed, Big E. And I wanna apologize for some of your fans. I wish you were still around to set them straight.