Driver Spotlight: Josh Wise

Josh Wise's Greatest NASCAR Weekend: All-Star Race

By Richard Tix

Last Friday it was announced that Josh Wise, not to be confused with Danica Patrick, won the Sprint All Star Race Fan Vote. Early last week I started to become a believer in the movement that Dogecoin and the Reddit community was making. I even stated on Twitter that I thought he had a great shot at winning the vote. 

Now as I mentioned in my last driver spotlight which was on Danica, she is great for the sport. In that same sense so is Josh Wise and this huge win for that team. Heck this fan vote win was almost David v Goliath. 

Some fans have been critical of this fan vote win. They all think it's just a bunch of computer generated votes. Even if there was a possibility of that, the Reddit community actually released a statement of how they won. I was on Reddit and there were a ton of real fans on those boards before this race.

This community has to be looked at as legit, heck they helped this small team get a sponsor on the car. Danica's fan following is awesome but she was given her sponsor because of her marketability, Josh got his through fans! That's huge for a little team and it has brought him more publicity. 

How is this not good for NASCAR? Fans helped bring in a sponsor that would never be in the sport. They helped a small team in a sport that is taking a hit in the sport, sponsorship. Maybe NASCAR can take this and learn from it. 

When NASCAR was starting it wasn't huge sponsors and at some point huge corporate sponsors came in. Now, NASCAR is all about money and it's even harder on the small teams. Times change and if we are not willing to at least accept the idea that a community like his could help NASCAR in general then we will be just as responsible for the decline of NASCAR as. Mr France will be.  

But enough of why I think we need to be open to the idea a moment like this could bring good things, let's get back to one of Josh Wises best weekends in NASCAR. The real story was Jose Wise, Reddit, and the Doge Community winning the fan vote. But Josh Wise also got to race because of wining that vote. Now, his results were not amazing, and I think some fans took offense to where he was during the race after he won the fan vote.

I will remind everyone of this, he is still running a small team car. Jose Wise got the chance to go out there and run with past winners and learn how Charlotte would handle the next two weeks. Was he ever going to win on Saturday? Most likely no. Will everything he learned on Saturday help him out this weekend? Most likely yes. It isn't likely he will win the 600 but for a little team some extra track time can be nothing but a good thing.

Also, Wise kept his car out of trouble when there was tons around. Now, I do think it would have been more exciting to see him mix it up with the others, but fact is this small team can not afford to tear up car after car. Wise does not have a SHR or Hendrick backing that can just give him another car if he gets in trouble. Time and time again we see teams that have to cut back or even shut down because of money, some of that coming from all the wrecked cars.

In any sense, it is still a great story at the end of a great weekend for Josh Wise. Him and his community helped raise awareness that there are new and different ways NASCAR can bring in fans and maybe even sponsorship. We as NASCAR fans may never see another vote like this either (I am just making an assumption here, but I feel like some voting rules may change. I know Reddit users and Josh Wise fans did everything under the rules, but that doesn't mean NASCAR will keep the same rules). As we all know, NASCAR is the king of making changes, so Josh Wise fans, don't be surprised if some changes happen.

My last line will go like this: Congrats to Josh Wise, Dogecoin, and the Reddit Community. It was a huge win and will be a part of NASCAR history.