A staple of the ever-present patriotism at NASCAR races is the pre-race flyover. Yeah, it isn't always timed perfectly (but, in a rare moment of Warped Wednesday clarity, it takes a ton of precision to time it correctly) and some are better than others.
But it's the flyover. America. Military. Power. Don't touch it. Hell, there was even a statement issued at the Daytona 500 after low clouds prevented the flyover from happening.
The sequester has touched it though. As part of the budget cuts, you won't be seeing fighter jets buzz the track at the next race you attend. (Unless it's Texas, which is bringing in private jets for a flyover.)
Is that really a bad thing? It's not exactly the most efficient use of our tax dollars.
Be honest, if the reason you like flyovers wasn't listed in the second paragraph? What is it? You can't possible come up with a constructive reason. And where would you rank the flyover on the race day experience scale? You don't leave an uninteresting race raving about the flyover.
Think of the money the U.S. government will save without the costs of flyovers coming out of its military training budgets. Or think of the good those tax dollars could do instead of making sure some 80,000 NASCAR fans can feel good about their country for 15 seconds. It's not like the national anthem, giant flag covering the infield and the honoring of troops can't do that.
No, this isn't a NASCAR specific provision; all sporting events won't have flyovers as part of the sequester. But this isn't like cutting funding for education, something that you'll notice years down the road. If sporting flyovers never returned, a few years from now would people even remember how important they thought they were?
Kurt Adolff Fred Agabashian Kurt Ahrens Jr Christijan Albers
