In an era of sagging attendance and falling television ratings, NASCAR should extend open arms to fans of all kinds. Instead, Saturday night’s NASCAR Sprint All-Star Fan Vote has been greeted with a disappointing mix of disdain, snobbery and mean-spiritedness.





Underdog Josh Wise won the annual Fan Vote, prevailing over presumed favorite Danica Patrick to earn the final spot in the 2014 NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race. The reaction from NASCAR Nation was both swift and ugly.





real NASCAR fans,” sneered some observers, labeling Wise’s backers “internet geeks” and worse. The online reddit.com community – largely responsible for Wise’s selection – faced accusations of online election fraud, accusations that quickly proved to be baseless. “They’re notNASCAR fans,” sneered some observers, labeling Wise’s backers “internet geeks” and worse. The online reddit.com community – largely responsible for Wise’s selection – faced accusations of online election fraud, accusations that quickly proved to be baseless.





Others dismissed the vote on the grounds that Wise had little chance to actually win the All-Star Race, conveniently ignoring the fact that in the 30-year history of the event, only one Fan Vote winner has ever gone on to win the million-dollar top prize. Patrick herself finished a distant seventh in the preliminary Sprint Showdown, and would certainly have failed to contend for All-Star Victory Lane, as well.





One member of the NASCAR media corps even went so far as to label Wise’s selection “a farce," claiming that Patrick was “ bumped from the all-star race by a little-known driver who was barely noticed until his small fan base stuffed the ballot box.”





Wise, he wrote, “had no business being in Saturday night’s race,” claiming he was voted in by “a savvy online community that figured out how to manipulate the fan vote.”





That assertion is both insulting to Wise’s fans and totally devoid of fact.





Reddit.com is the largest online community on the planet, and h ardly qualifies as a “small fan base." Reddit and Dogecoin members did not engage in “manipulation,” they simply worked harder – and smarter – than any other group. They mobilized their fan base in a way that was both impressive and 100-percent legal. No rules were broken – in spirit or otherwise -- any more than they were broken when Bill Elliott was voted NASCAR’s Most Popular Driver 16 times (10 times consecutively) in the 1980s and `90s.





Elliott’s secret back then was a massive, well-organized and wildly efficient Fan Club that succeeded in getting out the vote for their driver. Wise’s fans did exactly the same thing this year, albeit in a more technologically advanced way.





While most fans were content to cast an online vote or two for their favorite driver, Wise’s backers went the extra mile, devoting hours of personal time to the vo ting process and prevailing in a contest where the odds were heavily stacked against them.





Many of them also backed that effort with their own paychecks, contributing to Dogecoin’s dollars-and-cents sponsorship of Wise and the No. 98 Phil Parsons Racing entry. Most NASCAR fans have never opened their wallets to sponsor their favorite driver, short of buying a new Dale Junior T-shirt. Based on that fact alone, Wise’s fans deserve your respect.





The reaction to Saturday night’s fan vote can best be described in two simple words.





Sour grapes.





After three decades of All-Star competition, we should understand by now that the annual All-Star Fan Vote is a popularity contest. Popularity can be measured in many ways; through race day applause, souvenir sales, sponsor endorsements and NASCAR’s annual All-Star and Most Popular Driver fan votes. None of those yardsticks are more (or less) valid than the others.









In 2005, Martin Truex, Jr. won the All-Star Fan Vote, despite having competed in only two Sprint Cup Series races that season. His popularity had as much to do with his team owner – Dale Earnhardt, Jr. – than it did Truex himself, but there was no public outcry over the decision. The fans had spoken, and Truex competed in the All Star Race.





why Truex was popular. All that mattered is that he was . It didn’t matterTruex was popular. All that mattered is that he





It’s the same today.



