The always boisterous Tony Stewart led a loud parade of outrage aimed at Goodyear’s engineers after Sunday’s Kobalt Tools 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. If Stewart had thought about it long enough, he might have realized that there is much more that he and his fellow drivers can do. This is the perfect time for the drivers in the Sprint Cup Series to form a union. Then they can have real leverage on matters such as tires, safety and races. NASCAR has always said the drivers are “private contractors,” so there has never been a need for a union. Plus, in the old days, any talk of forming a union could have seriously jeopardized a driver’s career. See full story at the Delaware News Journal.(3-13-2008) UPDATE: Major League Baseball has a union. The NFL has a union. The NHL has a union. Is it time for NASCAR to have one? Would a union help settle issues such as the Goodyear tire controversy at Atlanta last weekend? Jeff Gordon isn’t sure. “I’ve seen the unions run things in the ground,” Gordon said during a rainy Friday at Bristol Motor Speedway. “It bugs the heck out of me when I think of the strikes that have happened in baseball. Look at the strike that just happened with the writer’s strike in Hollywood. While there are positives for the people they’re representing, sometimes if you look at the sport as a whole or an industry I’ve seen where it’s done a lot of damage. I see it happening right now with General Motors.” Gordon said a union is a good thing only if the right people are managing it and the proper intent is there. The problem, he said, is nobody can guarantee that. We all have so many different agendas and ideas, to see them all come together as one could be tough,” he said. Gordon said NASCAR would be better suited to have a quarterly meeting in which all drivers are brought together to discuss hot topics. NASCAR spokesman Kerry Tharp said the current system remains effective. “NASCAR always has had an open-door policy and always will,” Tharp said. “Drivers, owners, and crew chiefs are regularly in communication with our sport’s leadership. It is a system that has worked and continues to work well.” Dale Earnhardt Jr. said the drivers need a spokesperson to represent them as his father once did. Dale Jarrett would like to see a panel of three to five drivers, and not necessarily the same every year, become the voice of the garage. “We won’t use that word union,” said Jarrett, who is driving in his final points race this weekend. “That gets people stirred up. Does there need to be a panel? Yes, it could be really helpful.”(ESPN.com)(3-15-2008)
