By the end of the sixth paragraph of this SceneDaily.com story, I turned to see if anyone else had read what I just read. By the eighth paragraph, I thought Damn, this Lou LaRosa dude (above) is pissed! Down near the bottom of the story, I had to reach for the smelling salts I felt so battered.

At this stage of my advancing life, I honestly don't know what to make of LaRosa's nasty assessment of the current state of NASCAR, a sport he helped make great by building engines for Dale Earnhardt Sr. Obviously, he knows what he's talking about, so it's impossible to dismiss his complaints, so many of which have been voiced by others ... though perhaps a bit less stridently.

And a tip of the cap to the old guy, 'cause there's some pure gold amid all the vitriol -- I especially like the bit about NASCAR being populated by punks who haven't paid their dues. There's some other venom as well, though perhaps LaRosa's scathing critique of the Car of the Tomorrow is most relevant, as that's a component of the sport most people seem to despise and which NASCAR could modify without too much difficulty. 

But at the same time, these assertions that life was better back in the day don't really get us too far. I mean, life goes on, things change, and African Americans are now allowed to play major league baseball.