The Secret of NASCAR's Popularity Revealed

It started out as an extended family reunion -- not mine. It turned into an invaluable tale of the habits of the Nextel Cup groupie.

In four days, I saw first-hand rural America's loyalty to NASCAR.

Imagine, if you will, a summer vacation based on a celebration of family event: the baptism of my nephew, Blaise. The 5-month-old is the son of my wife's sister, Amanda, and her husband, Joe.

Joe hails from rural Nebraska, son of a farmer. He's the sixth of seven children -- five boys and two girls. Joe and Amanda were hosts to a family gathering at their four-bedroom home (with a basement). Four of  siblings and their families, as well as my family all communed there -- a head count of 20.

I knew I was about to partake in a weekend to which I'm not accustomed almost immediately. When all the guests arrived, the second task to be determined after sorting out sleeping arrangements was setting up stakes in Joe's backyard for horse shoes.

Even though Joe and Amanda enjoyed a backyard full of luscious grass.

The third task? Finding out the local time of Sunday's NASCAR's Sprint Cup Series race at Sonoma, Calif.

During the course of the weekend, I found some Matt Kenseth paraphernalia around Joe's house -- a Kenseth hat, a Kenseth model car as well as a Hot Wheels size Kenseth car.

I asked Joe about them and he said Kenseth was his driver. Fair enough. I've always been more of a team sports guy, but I have had favorite tennis players -- I'd wake up at all hours to watch Jimmy Connors and later Andre Agassi when they played in majors at the Australian, French or Wimbledon tournaments.

Being around an extended family also taught me about the allegiance to Nebraska football. 

But staying with a family that grew up on a farm taught me that family shares a lot of the same interests, besides the Huskers. The men's free time consisted mostly of playing horseshoes by day and cards -- the game, "Pitch," by night -- accompanied by the requisite chewing tobacco and beer.

Wake up, rinse, repeat.

Then, Sunday morning came, and my education into NASCAR's fandom rapidly advanced.

As Joe and his three brothers dressed for the day, all four sported NASCAR hats and T-Shirts. Joe had his Kenseth gear on. Oldest brother Matt had Carl Edwards gear. Tad, just ahead of Joe, had generic NASCAR stuff, explaining he hadn't yet got the gear of his driver, rookie Joey Logano.

Brother Eric, second to Matt, also had unspecified NASCAR apparel, saying his favorite driver, Ricky Rudd, didn't have a sponsor and Eric hadn't yet decided to jump ship.

Shortly thereafter, I learned that the three wives of the brothers (Eric still is single) had to choose drivers as well. I only remember Jen, Tad's wife, liked Denny Hamlin. I don't remember Amanda's "driver" because she mentioned a different name the couple of times I asked.

In the hours leading up to the race, the clang-clang of horse shoes filled the household.

While I tried gamely not to embarrass myself when I was asked to enter the transformed horse shoe pit, I got to conversing with the men about manly things. Being somewhat learned in college football, I tried to endear myself to the family by talking about Nebraska football.

That's when I noticed something strange. Except for Matt, I actually knew more about Nebraska football than the brothers did, and I'm a lifelong New Mexico Lobo fan. The BCS conference I follow most is the Pac-10.

Things became more strange when the race came on. I'm not one to watch a four-hour NASCAR race, so I would enter the den and ask for updates. Matt and Eric seemed NASCAR knowledgeable, but sometimes I'd ask Joe -- because obviously I'm more familiar with him than his siblings -- and oftentimes he didn't know who was winning.

In fact, right after the race, I asked Joe who won, and he didn't know. I only found out a couple of days ago, when I came home to my computer and read that Kasey Kahne outran Tony Stewart for the road race win on the Infineon Raceway.

Turns out Joe's NASCAR interest was born out of his brothers' interest. Just like horse shoes, Pitch and Nebraska football. NASCAR is an entity that bonds families like Joe's. If one likes it, they all like it.

That, too makes sense. My own worship of the rock band, Van Halen, was born out of my older brother's interest in the band during its early years. Although there aren't too many televised concerts that reinforces the bond between my brother and me.

NASCAR has that appeal among the rural population. And the Sprint Series has a race weekly to attract all the Matts, Erics, Tads and Joes of the world.

I still don't get what exactly that appeal is -- I never asked them about the attraction for fear that I'd insult them. I'm still kicking myself that I didn't ask why they didn't like Jimmie Johnson or why NOBODY who's a fan of the sport likes Jeff Gordon.

But at least now I understand the popularity of the series in a manner I never had before.