Overexposure

No, the site isn’t down and I’m not on hiatus or sabbatical or anything. The truth is there just hasn’t been too much news over the past week. OK, Sammy Hagar announced he will be part-owner of an Indy Pro team, but that team currently has no driver. Cahill Racing postponed their announcement to introduce a new team, but that is now until some future unknown point in time.

NASCAR driver/commentator Benny Parsons died after a battle with lung cancer, and although he had nothing to do with Indy Racing he was always a solid guy to have talking while attempting to endure the six-hour races. BP is a racing legend and respect is due for his loss.

At any rate, with so little news I decided to troll around the message boards to see what people were talking about. It turns out there is some big fuss going on because former Indy Pro champion Wade Cunningham decided to get silly by posting pictures of himself on his MySpace site that included his, umm, unmentionables. No, I don’t have a link.

Now I understand young men are apt to do foolish things and I personally don’t care what the heck he wants to do with his web page. If this is his idea of entertainment, or communication or whatever then, well, whatever. But it should be noted that Wade does not live in a vacuum, and if you want to play the game then you have to play by the rules. And the rules are if you don’t have a boatload of cash then you need to make yourself appealing to potential sponsors who DO have boatloads of cash to help pay for your shiny weekend rides.

Everyone knows how Danica! polarized fans with her FHM photos, but note that she was still keeping the tone at PG-13. Say what you want about how people react to certain parts of the anatomy, but public acceptance of these things is what it is. By not “Crossing the Line” of what is socially unacceptable, Mrs. Hospenthal has kept herself appealing as a spokesperson and has garnered quite the cache of sponsorships.

On the other hand, Wade is risking the appearance of some sort of 21st century flasher. If he ever wants to drive a single lap of an IndyCar race then he’s going about this the wrong way, because aside from Viagra or Cialis I really don’t see any sponsors that would approve of this kind of behavior. I’m sure he’s bored during the winter, but he should take a moment, put down the camera (and the adult beverage) and ask himself what he really wants to do with his life.

Clearly Cunningham has as much driving talent as any other driver attempting break into the IndyCar series, and from what I’ve seen he may be more talented then half the folks currently in the series. Having a personality is one thing, but if he gains a reputation for being some sort of self-indulgent pervert then sponsors will go with someone else. It’s just the way the game is played.